The XP alternative for Vista PCs

I wonder if this is why when I look at the Sunday Newspaper advertisements there are not you any computers with Vista Uultimate loaded on them?  

I'm looking for a laptop, and my requirements include an XP build. In searching for what I want at the price I can afford, there is only one laptop that fills the bill. Dell no longer builds Inspirons with XP, and I had to do a lot of searching to find a NEW laptop with 2GB RAM, XP Professional, Bluetooth, and a dual core proc for under a grand.

For anyone else in the market, it's a Dell Vostro 1500.

I have noticed one of two things happen when I mention Vista to other people. I either get a blank stare or they say they have heard vista has too many problems and they will stay with XP. I switch back and forth between vista and xp. For the most part I like vista and I would use just Vista if I could find drivers for some of my equipment. such as my scanner and digital camera. also a lot of my older programs won't work with Vista. I have had to find a few drivers to make Vista work and I think that is a problem for a lot of PC users they just don't know how to find the required drivers or they don't won't to take the time to search for the right drivers (And the shouldn't have to).

The main reason for me to keep XP is the fact that My Cabinet Design Cad won't work with Vista. So until it will work on Vista I will Use XP for work and Vista to play with.

What I'm planning on with the laptop is to run Vista in a virtual environment. That's the primary reason my system requirements are so stringent (as for price requirements, well, I'm sure I don't need to explain THAT!) I need to become more familiar with its inner workings for support purposes, but I don't want to move to it.

The problem with running vista in a VM is you cannot use Aero glass or the DWM as none of the VM apps support 3d acceleration.

I realize that. However, there's little about Vista that I consider a "must have". The virtual machine will give me what I need (filepaths, practice in that environment) without requiring that I change up everything.

The laptop will go everywhere I go. Thus, flexibility is important. I'll be using XP FAR more often than Vista, so it's in my best interests to run Vista in a virtual environment so that when I run other high end apps (Office 2007, etc), I don't have the operating system eating up all of the system resources.

I plan to do a lot of other things with the virtual machine. Fun things. Things too wondrous to tell .

In my previous post I said my cabinet design program won't work with Vista. When I went to support and told them I was having problems this is what they wrote back to me. I found their comment funny. Not helpful but funny

Category: Help Offered
From: Adeluc
Date: 04 Mar 2007
Time: 19:29:52


Your Message
Microsoft Vista is having issues with alot of software, even Microsoft own software and hardware! (Try Google with keywords: vista issues)

So before wasting our time trying to find something wrong inside DecoTech source code that is perfectly stable since MANY years, we are waiting for Microsoft to first fix their fresh new bugged OS.

If in a few months DecoTech is still not working on Vista, then we will investigate on our side. For now we are investigating on Vista itself to find fixes.

Tip: Make a right click over DecoTech 1- Scene Editor program shortcut in you Start Menu and select Properties. Then check if there is still a Compatibility tablet. If so check your options and make some tests.



I can't really see any advantage for the average user to switch to Vista especially at the current cost of Vista. I have Vista ultimate and as far as the eye candy goes such as dreams it was fun for about 10 minutes then I shut it off. I belive a person should just take the money they would have spent on Vista and buy ObjectDesktop and they can make XP look just as good as Vista and have a good looking screen and a good working OS. At a much cheaper price

On another note why should Americans have to pay such a high price when Microsoft sells Vista in China for half the cost.
WWW Link

My laptop had Vista Home Basic, then I purged everything and installed Windows Home SP2.

It was too slow, and it gave me BLUE SCREENS OF DEATH!!!!! (Plural included!)

As with other new O/S releases, OEMs are shipping budget machines with the minimum system requirements, which is a virtual guarantee of poor performance!

Interesting that there are not people here doing the gloom and doom dance.

I kind of thought this would have a bigger impact here especially with the current Stardock/MS relationship.

I wonder with this announcement if it will effect developers/programmers priorities here? Granted Vista is still out there, but it would appear that the ultimate Expierence is stuck on the side of the road.   

I would like to be stuck on that side of the road.WWW Link

Yeah, he's a very rich man, but I wasn't writing about him. Could we talk aout the software.