Vista business downgrade - xp still avaliable?

Diakatarnis

Diakatarnis

Diakatarnis

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Joined
30 Jul 2003
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442
Hi I have a client who has 5x vista business pc's (i've just taken over from another IT Support company) and they are running shockingly, rather than him shellout for win 7 pro (and so i can get some browney points off the mark) I want to suggest win xp.

the machines are dell optiplex's with 2gb ram and a core 2 1.8 processor so not really slow but not vista fast :\


Do microsoft still allow you to install XP then ring them up with the vista key and say "hai im downgrading" and they give you a new key over the phone?

Many thanks :)
 
What are they being used for? Office apps? I find it hard to believe they are running that badly. If it's brownie points you're after I'd get to the root cause of the problem rather than suggest downgrading to an old OS that will need replacing in a few years anyway.
 
office apps, video things, well I've reinslled vista on all of them, latest drivers from dell etc and they still run like poop, only other thought I had was to try the older OS.

Their gonna be used for private tuition so they really dont want to spend much money on them at all, hence why downgrading is a viable option.
 
Im going to agree with theheyes. Its a false economy to downgrade to XP. Its fair to say that Windows 7 is probably going to replace XP as that OS that wont go away so you might as well jump on board. I would never suggest to anyone to run an OS which is nearly 10 years old.

Can you still download a trial of 7 from MS? Maybe you should try installing that on one machine and say 'look here is a solution, and it has a longer shelf life'
 
I agree, im not disputing that windows 7 would be much more viable, but they have licenses for vista business already and one word "charity" the machines were only £125 each so its going to be a hard sell for me to say "oh windows 7 would be great please spend £150+ on each machine"

their budget is used up im afraid so all the windows 7 ideas (that were raised shotly after i got the machines) are no use :(
 
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Diakatarnis said:
hmm could do but i have none of them either :( i was just hoping to be able to install xp pro with one of my serials here then phone good old microsoft and say "Downgrade plix?"
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buy from the bay, torrent, borrow? if you PM me with your address you have a 50/50 chance i'll post you one over the weekend...
 
Vista should fly on that specification, something else is amiss.

Don't suggest they downgrade to an older OS with inferior security etc. in place (and no matter what people say, Vista allows far better security control than XP when properly setup, especially in a commercial environment)

Find the problem, don't create another.
 
Something must be wrong somewhere, perhaps the install or drivers?
Bloated installs?

Brother runs Win7 on pretty much the same PC and games on it fine.
 
manic_man said:
Vista should fly on that specification, something else is amiss.

Don't suggest they downgrade to an older OS with inferior security etc. in place (and no matter what people say, Vista allows far better security control than XP when properly setup, especially in a commercial environment)

Find the problem, don't create another.
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Quoted for truth!

It does sound like something is terribly wrong there. One thing I noticed in tech support with Vista, is that by default the Intel / Nvidia / SIS motherboard drivers are really ancient and use the one generic driver fits all approach.

It made every Vista machine I've come across run like crud. Once we got the latest chipset driver installed there was a massive speed boost. Especially in general number crunching performance.

Make sure the latest motherboard / chipset drivers are installed from the manufacturers website (not dell). :)
 
hmmmm ok, the machines came all preinstalled, didnt even think of upgrading the drivers tbh, i shal have a go at that first, might be able to squeese enough money out of him to get at least another 2gb ram per machine which should help a bit.

Will let you know the outcome dun dunn dunnnnnn
 
Diakatarnis said:
hmmmm ok, the machines came all preinstalled, didnt even think of upgrading the drivers tbh, i shal have a go at that first, might be able to squeese enough money out of him to get at least another 2gb ram per machine which should help a bit.

Will let you know the outcome dun dunn dunnnnnn
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That is your problem highlighted, Dell bloat their default installs with rubbish.
 
Mattey1 said:
That is your problem highlighted, Dell bloat their default installs with rubbish.
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Yes it came with vista. ;)

On a serious note see if you can find a Dell OEM Disk without the extra crud(Don't know which version of Vista your using, I am guessing Vista Business OEM). Don't use the dell default disks. You can find one if you know where to look.
 
jake108 said:
Yes it came with vista. ;)

On a serious note see if you can find a Dell OEM Disk without the extra crud(Don't know which version of Vista your using, I am guessing Vista Business OEM). Don't use the dell default disks. You can find one if you know where to look.
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I know you were being sarcastic, But Vista really isn't that bad..
 
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