Legit XP professional

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Can anyone tell me how much is a legit copy of XP professional going for nowadays? finally had it with Vista . I've seen it for as little as £40 now on ebay but I don't know if these are a copy or some kind of licencing loop hole. I'm getting all sorts of conflicting prices. I do acually have a valid key at home, but no installation disk

 

Try and stick it out with Vista, It is actually rather refined and reliable now I found (if you have the hardware to support it).

I bought it whilst it was still being lynched by the masses because frankly the majority hate change and it was still early days and I never looked back.

why exactly is the problem with Vista ?

Amazon is selling Home Edition with SP 2 for £163

 

Blue Solutions Sell Windows XP Pro Retail for £161.40 + VAT

 

I assume its a retail version. When I say assume, when I bought the laptop off a friend he pre installed windows XP onto it. He is a tester for Microsoft and I know the Key is genuine its got the hologram and all the other security features. He didn't unfortunately give me a cd to go with it. I have tried some install CDs in the past and they didn't recognize it, I think its because the CDs were older versions

I know it all sounds a bit vague but it is all legit.

I wanna run a virtual environment westernkings and from what I have read I'm pretty sure the Vista home would definately not run this. I might be wrong though.

 

How long have you got?

Seriously - I'm with you when you say that there are a significant number of people who are opposed to change in general when it comes to IT. Personally I've always sat on the fence - if there are any compelling reasons to upgrade I'm usually first in the queue, but if what I'm using does what I need and does it well, then I won't bother.

Vista was foisted upon me at work and I hated it from the get-go. It crippled network speeds, introduced a whole new raft of stupid nonsense that slowed my productivity down in the way of UAC, the ****ty new Explorer interface, the absolute joke of a 'backup' program etc etc. I have slowly got used to it - the network speeds were restored to something approaching acceptable in SP1, and I've found kludges & workarounds for all the other stuff (aside from learning a new UI which is a pain in the arse anyway)

However, XP is cheaper, seven years mature, the best supported OS in the history device-wise, doesn't require new hardware, is as secure, more robust and faster. What's not to love?

If someone can give me a compelling reason to switch to Vista at home I'll consider it. Until then it remains an expensive, unnecessary upgrade - the closest thing to Windows ME that Microsoft has released.

 

If the CoA with the key is actually on the laptop, then a 'normal' XP CD is unlikely to work. You will need a CD that also includes a new key.

See my previous comments about 'System Locked Preinstall'.

Harry.

 

Price wise Vista vs XP is pretty even balanced too be honest.

All right, there is a lot to get used too, the UAC is annoying but when joining a domain and disabling it, it no longer prompts the message like it does on the home editions.

As for using the backup program, I found it pretty similar to the one in XP, does the job with no thrills however I use a Symantec product for full disk imaging.

It looks good, glossy interface, get rid of the widget sidebar and all is good.

I haven't experienced any network speed issues so couldn't comment and I'm one of these that updates for the hell of it or because I want the newest flashiest gadget (very much a trend whore).

I suppose for the average user, Vista is tip top because they rarely ever delve deep enough into the System to discover bits and bobs that have changed.

For the most part, Vista changed the stuff that the average joe would never use nor experience. and even then, not much has changed.

But it sure does look good, and the box is super sweet too.

Apart from that, it's just another Operating System in short, there is not much difference feature wise between XP and vista, you will find your self using the same damn features you always did.

I did find that Vista supporting Quad cores alot better than XP which helps me an awful lot, especially when using 64bit.

 

It is on the laptop, I'll probably just get a new copy. I can presume that the versions on ebay going for about £40-£80 are not legit?

 

Spot on there, if something aint broke why try and fix it.

In my opinion when doing anything like gaming using VMs or data transfer XP seems to be about 20% faster, you don't get that crappy UAC jobby all the time (which I know you can switch off). A pointless piece of money grabbing upgrade if you ask me and what do you get? a flashy gui and that about it.

Windows 7 though is looking quite good, I just hope MS don't say you need Vista to upgrade to it or buy a £500 retail version and have to wipe all your data.

 

I really like vista, as I only use it for home use. Using it at work would be a different story though, glad we dont.

Vista search bar does rock

 

Yep !!!
Great ....

 

hi buddy

maybe im reading it wrong but i dont think that is correct. i have 2 oem xp cds, home and pro which ive used on countless machines and just enter the product key from the users sticker. as long as the versions are the same ie home, pro, oem etc then it should work.

well it does for me

 

This will depend on the unit. More recent machines from a few big manufacturers use SLP, so it won't work. With small manufs and older machines then the key will work.

SLP was introduced because so many 'kids' were going into shops and writing down the key from the sticker to use with a pirated version of XP. With SLP the key on the CoA is not in fact valid. This doesn't (in theory) matter to the owner, as his restore disk won't ask for a key anyway.

Harry.

 

your not supposed to run one copy of xp on multiple machines anyway this is what the keys are for and if ms actually checked they could do you.

 

hi there

i think u misunderstand buddy. im NOT using a single copy of xp on multiple machines. im using my xp oem disk to repair / reinstall xp on machines and use the customers key.

tell me, if u go to a customers machine and want to do a repair install but the customer has lost their cd. what do u do. anyone i know brings their cds with them and uses the customers product key. otherwise your gonna look pretty daft.

if you have a look at some mcdst training stuff you will see ms recommend this as well

regards

 

Harry's right. This is true with systems from Dell and HP, among others.