bob said:
can anyone help i have a dell! laptop 1520 with vista as standard
i have a talking prog. i need to use on this machine but it will not
work on vista
it is to expensive to update to the new prog. as recommended by the
manufacturer
i have tried to put my old xp on it but his machine has a sata drive and
xp cannot find it i need a third party driver but cannot seem to find
one please help
General information about replacing Vista with XP:
A. On an OEM (Dell, HP, Sony, etc.) computer:
1. Go to the OEM's website and look for XP drivers for your specific
model computer. If there are no XP drivers, then you can't install XP.
End of story. If there are drivers, download them and store on a CD-R or
USB thumbdrive; you'll need them after you install XP.
2. Check with the OEM - either from their tech support website or by
calling them - to see if you will void your warranty if you do this. If
you will void the warranty, you make the decision.
3. If the OEM does support XP on the machine, call them and see if you
can have downgrade rights and have them send you an XP restore disk.
This will be far the easiest and best way of getting XP on the machine.
4. If XP is supported on the machine but the OEM doesn't have an XP
restore disk for you, understand that you'll need to purchase a retail
copy of XP from your favorite online or brick/mortar store.
5. Also understand that you will need to do a clean install of XP so if
you have any data you want, back it up first.
6. If none of the above is applicable to you because you can't run XP on
that machine (see Item #1 above), return the computer and purchase one
running XP instead.
B. Alternative - use virtual computing and install XP as a virtual
machine on your Vista host. You will need a full retail version of XP to
do this. Virtual PC 2007 is free, although I prefer VMWare (not free).
Since you are doing this to support one particular program, it would be
prudent to check with the program's tech support to see if it will run
in a virtual machine.
Malke
