Should I remove Vista and install XP?

gebbel

I purchased a used laptop on Adverts and received it today. Very happy with the machine, but the vendor had stated in the ad that it has Windows 7.
It actually has Vista. Now I'm not an expert, but I have heard that Vista can be problematic. Is this true?

I have an XP disc and could install it....would you if you were me?

The machine is a Dell Latitude D630, Intel Core Duo CPU, T7250 @ 2.00GHz, 3582MB of RAM and a 32 bit OS........if any of those specs would have an influence on the choice between the 2.

My usage does not extend beyond internet browsing, iTunes, Photo management, downloads etc.

Many thanks for any advice.

woolymammoth

With Vista, what you hear and what you experience are usually two completely different things.

Many people, myself included, have had disagreements with Vista. But you hear of a lot of people who have never had a single problem with it. I don't like it. But since your usage doesn't extend past browsing, etc., and if you don't find any bother with it, I'd say keep it. If you have problems, then revert to XP. Personal choice at the end of the day.

whynotdo

Just to add that XP Service pack 1&2 are no longer supported by Microsoft update,only SP3 which i installed on a desktop with only 512MB of ram is.
Your amount of ram far exceeds that,but SP3 slowed the desktop down to a crawl,so now XP with SP3 only gets updates,1&2 do not.

I am using Vista on Laptop and i do not like it at all.

I was using the free test version of W7 and loved it,but i would not pay the price for retail W7,rather i will wait until the Laptop finally gives up the ghost and buy one with 7 preinstalled.

Then again many people have illegal copies of windows in which case the validation tool refuses updates anyway!:)

Capt'n Midnight

make you have installed all the vista updates, the first service pack sped up a lot of stuff, also there was a guide on the stickies with tweaking tips to speed up vista

bonkeyfonkey

No keep vista on it. You computer can run it. The reason people had problems with vista originally was because their machines couldn't handle it! But your computer can more than run it.

JonathanAnon

gebbel wrote: »

I purchased a used laptop on Adverts and received it today. Very happy with the machine, but the vendor had stated in the ad that it has Windows 7. It actually has Vista.

Have you addressed this issue with the seller??

TheUsual

Vista is fine once you get it up to date with updates from Windows .... check the 'Control Panel' and then the 'Security' settings when you are connected to the internet and click 'check for updates'.

Once it is up to date it is fine and I have been using it for over 2 years now with no problems.

As said, your laptop is fast enough for it so don't worry about XP being faster.

JonathanAnon

sorry I mean to give an opinion as well..

My problems with Vista were... i) it was a completely unnecessary upgrade forced on the industry (when XP was actually better) and ii) there were issues with AV, Sage and other software when it was introduced... It should never have been released to market because it did not give enough benefits to the average user to be consider a viable upgrade..

However, I do agree with the above... most of the teething problems with Vista are sorted at this stage, so with patches it's stable enough... If you dont have any problems with it, then dont go looking for problems...

I have a golden rule.. NEVER change something that is working well... unless absolutely necessary...

PogMoThoin

Xp is dead, its time to move along. A fully patched Vista is as good as Windows 7, in fact all Microsoft did was repackage Vista, make a few superficial changes and tout it as a completely new OS. If the dog doesn't eat his dinner, it goes back in the tin and gets served again tomorrow. Hardware has now caught up, laptops and pc's ship with multi-core cpu's and 4GB's of ram.

Lots of hardware and software makers used Vista as an excuse to kill support for older hardware and software. Many devices, printers, soundcards, graphics cards etc were deemed unsuitable for Vista as the makers refused to create official drivers for them. Many software makers refused to upgrade their software to run on it, creating new paid for versions instead.

cantthinkof1

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Xp is dead, its time to move along. A fully patched Vista is as good as Windows 7, in fact all Microsoft did was repackage Vista, make a few superficial changes and tout it as a completely new OS. If the dog doesn't eat his dinner, it goes back in the tin and gets served again tomorrow. Hardware has now caught up, laptops and pc's ship with multi-core cpu's and 4GB's of ram.

Lots of hardware and software makers used Vista as an excuse to kill support for older hardware and software. Many devices, printers, soundcards, graphics cards etc were deemed unsuitable for Vista as the makers refused to create official drivers for them. Many software makers refused to upgrade their software to run on it, creating new paid for versions instead.

I agree with that....

XP is on its way out. Vista fully patched on a machine of your spec will be fine.
Also check that there is hardware support for XP on your laptop. If the laptop was built during the Vista time there may not be drivers available for nic/wifi/audio etc. I had that experience with a Sony Viao laptop.

Kristopherus

Just to Hi-jack the thread:)

A family member has passed on a HP EasyNote lappy to me from the UK. Bought in PC World in Liverpool at end of 2007/early 2008. It has Windows Vista Home Basic, Service Pack 2, on it. Lappy specs are:Intel Celeron M, 1.47GHz,512mb RAM. 40gb HDD.32-bit OS. It is woefully slow. Takes 15-20 mins to open up when turned on & logged in.. Any prog on it also takes 10-12 mins to open. What is causing this behaviour? Funnily enough when it is up & running for about 30 mins, IE8 will open up pretty quickly and the internet is the fastest thing on it. Any help greatly appreciated.

argosy2006

Kristopherus wrote: »

Just to Hi-jack the thread:)

A family member has passed on a HP EasyNote lappy to me from the UK. Bought in PC World in Liverpool at end of 2007/early 2008. It has Windows Vista Home Basic, Service Pack 2, on it. Lappy specs are:Intel Celeron M, 1.47GHz,512mb RAM. 40gb HDD.32-bit OS. It is woefully slow. Takes 15-20 mins to open up when turned on & logged in.. Any prog on it also takes 10-12 mins to open. What is causing this behaviour? Funnily enough when it is up & running for about 30 mins, IE8 will open up pretty quickly and the internet is the fastest thing on it. Any help greatly appreciated.

my sister had one like that, so dam slow lol, she put xp on it, and it was 100 times better!!!!!

Kristopherus

argosy2006 wrote: »

my sister had one like that, so dam slow lol, she put xp on it, and it was 100 times better!!!!!

Thanks for that, Argosy. Was thinking the same myself, but having read the posts above, was wondering if I was on the right path:o

PogMoThoin

Kristopherus wrote: »

Just to Hi-jack the thread:)

A family member has passed on a HP EasyNote lappy to me from the UK. Bought in PC World in Liverpool at end of 2007/early 2008. It has Windows Vista Home Basic, Service Pack 2, on it. Lappy specs are:Intel Celeron M, 1.47GHz,512mb RAM. 40gb HDD.32-bit OS. It is woefully slow. Takes 15-20 mins to open up when turned on & logged in.. Any prog on it also takes 10-12 mins to open. What is causing this behaviour? Funnily enough when it is up & running for about 30 mins, IE8 will open up pretty quickly and the internet is the fastest thing on it. Any help greatly appreciated.

As I said, a single core Celeron with half gig of ram is well below the real minimum specs for Vista. Whenever I see a Vista Basic pc I cringe, this means it isn't really fit for Vista at all. All operating systems need a minimum of 1Gb these days, even Xp with service pack 3 needs 1Gb. Adding more ram and it will get better with Vista with the latest updates, but there's no getting round the fact that its got an utterly crap single core Celeron which will struggle with any OS, even Xp.

Fysh

Kristopherus wrote: »

Just to Hi-jack the thread:)

A family member has passed on a HP EasyNote lappy to me from the UK. Bought in PC World in Liverpool at end of 2007/early 2008. It has Windows Vista Home Basic, Service Pack 2, on it. Lappy specs are:Intel Celeron M, 1.47GHz,512mb RAM. 40gb HDD.32-bit OS. It is woefully slow. Takes 15-20 mins to open up when turned on & logged in.. Any prog on it also takes 10-12 mins to open. What is causing this behaviour? Funnily enough when it is up & running for about 30 mins, IE8 will open up pretty quickly and the internet is the fastest thing on it. Any help greatly appreciated.

In terms of RAM and CPU, the machine you've got isn't really up to scratch for Vista. You could try mukki's tips for squeezing better performance out of Vista, but tbh I reckon you'd be better off with XP.

I'd also suggest bumping the RAM to at least 1GB, preferably 2GB. With either OS that'll give you an improvement.

Capt'n Midnight

Fysh wrote: »

In terms of RAM and CPU, the machine you've got isn't really up to scratch for Vista. You could try mukki's tips for squeezing better performance out of Vista, but tbh I reckon you'd be better off with XP.

I'd also suggest bumping the RAM to at least 1GB, preferably 2GB. With either OS that'll give you an improvement.

Thing to remember of course is that Visa Home doesn't have downgrade rights to XP so you would have to buy a non-oem , XP license that isn't in use on another PC (and not the upgrade license either) or a Vista Business or some such that has down grade rights to XP


RAM is cheaper


Also do a check for malware

woolymammoth

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Xp is dead, its time to move along.

I'd have to disagree, if only partially. XP is almost dead. As said here already, it's on the way out. That's not the same as dead. Even MS acknowledge this with XP mode in Win7. FFS, we still see NT & win2k systems about, XP will be here for a few years yet in some shape or form.

A fully patched Vista is as good as Windows 7

maybe, but not in my experience.

in fact all Microsoft did was repackage Vista, make a few superficial changes and tout it as a completely new OS. If the dog doesn't eat his dinner, it goes back in the tin and gets served again tomorrow

technically true, but there were underlying changes, weren't there? Having used both, I can say that 7 beta (with its own problems) was better in many ways than patched vista.

Hardware has now caught up, laptops and pc's ship with multi-core cpu's and 4GB's of ram.

hardware didn't 'catch up'. It's continued on along the same path it always has. What software has done has make it necessary to purchase more advanced hardware. Fancy interfaces require fancy graphics cards, etc..

Lots of hardware and software makers used Vista as an excuse to kill support for older hardware and software. Many devices, printers, soundcards, graphics cards etc were deemed unsuitable for Vista as the makers refused to create official drivers for them. Many software makers refused to upgrade their software to run on it, creating new paid for versions instead.

which proves my last point, and we agree! sorry PogMoThoin, not having a dig at you personally, you just made some points i could argue against

I do agree it's time to move on from XP. I think windows 7 is the platform to move to. I believe (on no evidence what so ever) the next version of Windows will be a non-beneficial moneylooser feature tester for the eventual release of a 'version 9' in about 2015/2016, at which time people will be ready to invest in an upgrade from Windows 7.

Sorry OP, we have kind of hijacked your thread. It's worth noting that your laptop is more than capable of running Windows 7. But the license isn't too cheap, and for what you want, Vista is perfect (unless you have problems like i said already) which there's a good chance you won't have.

@Kristopherus; my god man, where do i begin!? PC speed is a perception. Think of it as.. wait for it.. a brand new pizza shop, with an awesome kitchen. (i know nothing of pizza shop kitchens!) Then put in untrained staff. They're gonna take forever to use it to it's full potential. Some software just doesn't know how to use what it has to it's full potential. Take the same example, but put a really overweight chief, like really obese, in there. He might know what he's at, but he's gonna ave a hard time doing it very quickly. Some software is bloated with so much unnecessary code it weighs everything down, taking up a lot of resources. Think of another example; put a good chef in a really sh*te kitchen. he'll do a good job, but he'll only do as good as what's available to him (or her!). some software can be really good, but it needs good hardware to run on. I would not be surprised if your inherited laptop had all three symptoms: too much crapware trying to startup when the laptop starts. Vista running on underpowered hardware. and, well, vista running on underpowered hardware! The penultimate being that vista is.. not he best! The latter being that vista isn't the worst (as much as i hate it), it's just the hardware that's letting you down. By installing Windows XP, you're installing software that requires less hardware resources, and as a result will, as you perceive it, run much faster.

turn off all the fancy graphics for an immediate boost!!! also, ccleaner to eliminate unnecessary startup items. +1 for RAM upgrade.

Jagera

Just another angle - I had a laptop with Windows Vista, and that was the final straw in the Windows OS for me. I installed Linux Mint, and have never looked back. I have moved to Ubuntu now, but Mint is the best choice for a first time Windows escapee.

As you state your usage is fairly basic, then it is a very good choice, with all of your options catered for - FREE forever.

bryaner

Seriously would you not have a word with the seller and get the right machine of him, with the newest operating system that he advertised.

Kristopherus

bw wrote: »

Just another angle - I had a laptop with Windows Vista, and that was the final straw in the Windows OS for me. I installed Linux Mint, and have never looked back. I have moved to Ubuntu now, but Mint is the best choice for a first time Windows escapee.

As you state your usage is fairly basic, then it is a very good choice, with all of your options catered for - FREE forever.

Will Linux or even Xp uninstall Vista?

Jagera

Yes. During installation, you can redefine the partitions on the hard drive, and be installing onto newly formatted partitions (thus whatever OS was there will be wiped). This is the case for both XP and Linux. (if that's what you're asking.... ?)

Linux can be installed onto one partition (2 including SWAP partition), but a bit of Googling will give you the optimal ways to split your disk up.

But I do agree the OP should give the seller a shout, if he really wants to stick with Windows.

evolutionqy7

ditch both and get windows 7...a license is 150E for 3 pc's use one and try sell the other two to some one you know or im sure some one here would be interested

I had vista on my laptop and desktop and after i changed to Win7 and it made the whole thing fast as a lightning. By using XP your missing out on the experience you could get and ease of use.

---

Though having said that a well maintained Vista Laptop can do the right job too very well

My Gf and her sister has the exact same laptops.
And i put W7 on my gf's and look after the other one on vista. Ok the W7 laptop starts faster and runs a far bit snappier but both run very nicely and smoothly for 2+ year old acer laptops. They dont have great specs either. Just the minimum requirements

gebbel

bryaner wrote: »

Seriously would you not have a word with the seller and get the right machine of him, with the newest operating system that he advertised.

I was going to, but after 3 days of using Vista I'm happy with it. The main reason I upgraded my laptop was my old one was too slow. I only really surf the net etc. so all I ask is that I can be online asap after switching on, and whatever processes that may be running in the background don't murder the CPU completely. Thankfully I'm not getting any of that now.

What I have gathered from this thread is that Vista is fine if the machine can handle it, and that is exactly what I am seeing myself.

evolutionqy7

Just a word of advice if it does get slow

Ive been using this for years to maintain the pc and it does wonders

Advance System Care

Its a one click program basically that cleans up your PC and makes it quick

You can also find start up manager to stop some programs starting up that aren't necessary to speed up start up times

Naikon

XP is unsupported. If you really need to remove Vista, I would just go with Linux provided you aren't tied down to some windows only software.

Kristopherus

gebbel wrote: »

I was going to, but after 3 days of using Vista I'm happy with it. The main reason I upgraded my laptop was my old one was too slow. I only really surf the net etc. so all I ask is that I can be online asap after switching on, and whatever processes that may be running in the background don't murder the CPU completely. Thankfully I'm not getting any of that now.

What I have gathered from this thread is that Vista is fine if the machine can handle it, and that is exactly what I am seeing myself.

Gebbel, I'm glad you have been sorted out & apologies for having hijacked your thread. A big THANK YOU to all the posters who helped out. I have got Vista running a bit faster now, 1 min. 15 secs from turn-on to log-in screen & 3mins. 40 secs to full desktop screen,but over the next week-end will trial XP PRO & Linux Mint. Will let all know how it goes.

Capt'n Midnight

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

ditch both and get windows 7...a license is 150E for 3 pc's use one and try sell the other two to some one you know or im sure some one here would be interested

Please read the charter especially the bit about software you own,

to resell to a third party is a violation of the license :mad:

Capt'n Midnight

Naikon wrote: »

XP is unsupported. If you really need to remove Vista, I would just go with Linux provided you aren't tied down to some windows only software.

But what does not supported mean ?
It's not like you are going to be able to ring up microsoft if you have a problem even if it was supported. And third parties have released patches for it , and there are any number of security programs you can get you reduce the impact of holes in the OS.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp
this survey shows that XP is still on more machines than all other OS's put together , since May 2004 - it will be around for a while yet


You may also be tied down to some windows hardware like all in one printer/scanners

Games would be one of the main types of programs that you need windows for , for example

Fysh

It's well and good to say XP's not supported, but as you can see from Microsoft's Support Lifecycle listing, XP SP3 (in any flavour) is in Extended Support (ie only receiving security fixes/patches) until early April 2014. The consumer versions of Vista go out of support before then (see here for details - Vista Home goes out of support sometime in 2012, with Business, Ultimate & Enterprise editions getting extended support until sometime in 2017).

whynotdo

Kristopherus wrote: »

Will Linux or even Xp uninstall Vista?

There is a nice little programme called WUBI which is an installer of UBUNTU which gives a taste of the Linux OS without having to partition a drive or overwrite an existing windows OS.
I have far more enthusism than knowledge about'messing with computers':)

It causes no problems at all despite all the warnings that are given about multiple OS's and can easily be uninstalled via windows uninstall.I have never managed to get it to work for Internet access wirelessly but fine by ethernet.It includes all the best open source FREEware including open office which is at least as good as Microsoft office and is now fully compatible.Its UI is plain at first but many ways to make it more friendly to the eye.

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu? Trying them out has never been easier! You keep Windows as it is, Wubi only adds an extra option to boot into Ubuntu. Wubi does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader, and does not install special drivers. It works just like any other application. Wubi is spyware and malware free, and being open source, anyone can verify that.

above from download.com. almost 100% guaranteed to be free from Malware:

http://download.cnet.com/Wubi/3000-2094_4-10701841.html

but the latest version with the best Ubuntu version for whatever type of Computer is available on WUBI's homepage:

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/windows-installer

more info about Wubi/Ubuntu here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_(Ubuntu_installer)

and sourceforge.net(the home of open source software) also have the latest version with a very simple guide:
http://wubi.sourceforge.net/

evolutionqy7

whynotdo wrote: »

open office which is at least as good as Microsoft office

except for crashing and failing all the time

sorry had to say it

whynotdo

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

except for crashing and failing all the time

sorry had to say it

Ha no problem,it seems it really is down to the foibles of people's own computers and experiance.
a bit like the saying "If You buy a MAC,You don't turn back"
Lots of people swear by a Linux based OS,Horse's for course's!:)

BostonB

If someone sold me a laptop with W7 and it came with Vista thats a bit of a con IMO.

No matter what PC or laptop you have. XP and W7 runs faster than Vista.

I use W7 all the time on a few machines, along side a few XP ones. Personally I haven't found anything in W7 that I miss when on the XP machine. other than you can use more RAM in W7.

Vista or W7 really use the HD a lot. People tell me a SSD makes a big difference to it. Especially on a older PC. On every W7 machine I've used, its always seem to use the HD randomly even when idle, regardless of the amount of RAM.

evolutionqy7

whynotdo wrote: »

Ha no problem,it seems it really is down to the foibles of people's own computers and experiance.
a bit like the saying "If You buy a MAC,You don't turn back"
Lots of people swear by a Linux based OS,Horse's for course's!:)

Well personally i never had any issues. Though i never really used office.org alot. Though i have been in many college presentations and speeches presented on Office.org and damn does it crash alot lol

And i had a Mac and damn it gave me the shivers :S I like Linux and Mac interfaces. But alot of incompatibility issues annoy me. Remember back in the day when i was doing my theory couldn't even run the CD for driving theory on it...

Anyway this is off topic

Overheal

This thread is a wonder. You're all skipping over the part where a vendor falsely advertised a product of having the wrong operating system? It's a computer, and that is a big no no. Illegal territory there. Bait and Switch.

barochoc

I'd defo chase up the seller on the windows 7 issue. Not fair :mad:

Imagine a Diesel car for sale & then you realise it's a petrol when you go to fill up. You might still like the car but it's not a diesel anymore. You've been had

A lot of advice in here but you should try sort out the Vista issue 1st. Without doubt the worst OS released since Windows Millenium. Everyone I know had nothing but problems with their PC's/Laptops while on Vista.

Most of them had Hard Drive failures too. Most of them just out of 12 month warranty. This might have something to do with Vista's love for playing with the hard drive.

I installed XP from an OEM disc on all these machines & they've never looked back. Never any problems & serious speed difference for every task. I installed Ubuntu on one of them along with one of my machines & it's simply amazing. The newest Ubuntu 10 is brilliant. It's fast, boots up in a fraction of the time, has loads of free (Open Source) software, looks great & is less prone to problems with viruses etc

I'd go for XP 1st if you have a disc. Just find out what chipset is in your machine & download all your drivers 1st. Saves a lot of time & hassle after installing XP. If you don't fancy that just download Ubuntu. It fits on a CD & works like a dream. It'll install most if not all the drivers straight away & you can go online immediately with the latest Firefox & start browsing. It's really that easy

whynotdo

BostonB wrote: »

If someone sold me a laptop with W7 and it came with Vista thats a bit of a con IMO.

Yes that is the Crux of the matter 100%

No matter what PC or laptop you have. XP and W7 runs faster than Vista.

that is My experiance also

I use W7 all the time on a few machines, along side a few XP ones. Personally I haven't found anything in W7 that I miss when on the XP machine. other than you can use more RAM in W7.

I just loved W7's perfect split screen to watch two streaming sources at once.
Some people i know use the Media centre in W7 to control all their media it is very neat and simple,on top of that playing say a DVD on one Computer is a breeze to stream to another W7 on Your LAN.
Over 10.000 major software creators worked alongside MS to create drivers(i think i only had to find two after installing the test version)
when the test version was no longer working i reinstalled Vista,i had the drivers&Utilitie's DVD so that was no problem.
one thing though a folder was created called Windows.old,i found it through Windows explorer,when i went to delete it twas using about 12 Gigs on HD,too big for recycle bin so was offered to remove it all together,speeded up defrag big time!

gebbel

To be honest folks I got the laptop at a good price so chose to overlook the issue with the OS. The vendor did tell me when I met him to collect the machine....it's not like he tried to hoodwink me. With hindsight, I should have used this to bargain him down even more but it's too late now. My goal from the outset was to get a faster laptop with a much bigger hard drive.

I have a copy of XP that I can install if I need to but, based on my initial experiences with Vista....I don't believe I need to. My requirements will never push the OS to it's limits. I just want to turn the thing on, and be online fast...with my last laptop it was often at least 5 minutes. I want the ability to open multiple web pages at once and switch between them...without the whole thing freezing on me. I want whatever automatic updates that may be required to download and not murder the CPU like it had been doing.

I don't have that now and, so far, I am finding the Vista GUI to be user-friendly and a nice change from XP. Hopefully this will continue.

BostonB

Personally I hated Vista, though I was using it mainly before all the service patches came out. Since I had W7 there was no reason to go back to Vista. I use XP all the time, especially at work, and tbh its been a very stable OS for me, no real problems with it at all. Never had virus problems either. Its less fussy than Vista/W7 and I like that about it.

colinod0806

whynotdo wrote: »

Then again many people have illegal copies of windows in which case the validation tool refuses updates anyway!:)

needs more research;)

Fysh

colinod0806 wrote: »

needs more research;)

If you're referring to ways of circumventing Windows activation, you should go and read the charter, specifically the bit about no warez or hacks.

If not, I'm intrigued as to what you were referring to. Do tell

whynotdo

colinod0806 wrote: »

needs more research;)

Yes Shoddy the way some people got a bad Keygen erm license:)

Kristopherus

Kristopherus wrote: »

Gebbel, I'm glad you have been sorted out & apologies for having hijacked your thread. A big THANK YOU to all the posters who helped out. I have got Vista running a bit faster now, 1 min. 15 secs from turn-on to log-in screen & 3mins. 40 secs to full desktop screen,but over the next week-end will trial XP PRO & Linux Mint. Will let all know how it goes.

Well folks, I installed XP from a Dell back-up cd. Got it working to my full satisfaction. Last night I downloaded Linux Mint 9. When I tried to install it up popped a window telling me "Windows wants to know which program do you want to use to install this program", or words to that effect.I hovered over the list of programs on the list & to my horror when I scrolled over that list of programs, up popped Internet Explorer (the 1st program listed). Of course Explorer opened & then asked me to OPEN, SAVE or CANCEL the file in the usual "Dowload" window. I could'nt undo Explorer opening the Linux file. So I deleted it and downloaded it again. When I clicked on "Open" up popped Explorer again. I deleted again & downloaded again to a different location.It Downloaded with the Explorer symbol on it and yet again Explorer popped up to open it.:eek::eek::eek:

I downloaded again this morning and of course the same thing happened again.

How do I solve this problem. I thought Linux would have its own installer. When I looked at the file in "My Downloads" initially, it had the appearance of a file that was no recognised by Windows and I'm thinking thats why it asked the question when I double-clicked on the Linux file.



Any help greatly appreciated.

evolutionqy7

why did you install xp so you could run Linux? lol

Kristopherus

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

why did you install xp so you could run Linux? lol

How could I dowload it without an OS????

Fysh

Kristopherus wrote: »

Well folks, I installed XP from a Dell back-up cd. Got it working to my full satisfaction. Last night I downloaded Linux Mint 9. When I tried to install it up popped a window telling me "Windows wants to know which program do you want to use to install this program", or words to that effect.I hovered over the list of programs on the list & to my horror when I scrolled over that list of programs, up popped Internet Explorer (the 1st program listed). Of course Explorer opened & then asked me to OPEN, SAVE or CANCEL the file in the usual "Dowload" window. I could'nt undo Explorer opening the Linux file. So I deleted it and downloaded it again. When I clicked on "Open" up popped Explorer again. I deleted again & downloaded again to a different location.It Downloaded with the Explorer symbol on it and yet again Explorer popped up to open it.:eek::eek::eek:

I downloaded again this morning and of course the same thing happened again.

How do I solve this problem. I thought Linux would have its own installer. When I looked at the file in "My Downloads" initially, it had the appearance of a file that was no recognised by Windows and I'm thinking thats why it asked the question when I double-clicked on the Linux file.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Download an ISO image of the Live CD from the Linux Mint webpage. Then burn it to a CD (if you don't have a tool that can burn ISO images, download and install CDBurnerXP - it's free and bloody brilliant).Boot from the CD, and you should then have an option to install it to the hard drive.

If you're still stuck, go have a look at the user guide here (PDF).

woolymammoth

Kristopherus wrote: »

I thought Linux would have its own installer

it does. But it's worth knowing that Linux is an operating system in itself, not a windows application. You install it, from a CD, just like you do with Windows. Of course linux being linux, it is possible to install in Windows

evolutionqy7

Kristopherus wrote: »

How could I dowload it without an OS????

nvm was too lazy to read the whole post

Ghost Train

I've been using various type of linux for the last few months, debien mostly, mint too. Its grand but did miss certain windows features... network sharing not so seemless, video acceleration not as good, touchpad drivers not as good and a few other little things

Vista and xp both fine to use with a lot less comprimises and better all round experience. Vista fine if the hardware is up to it and set up well

whynotdo

woolymammoth wrote: »

it does. But it's worth knowing that it is possible to install in Windows

Ahem,I can understand this on a thread that runs to say above twelve pages,but Four,Do people just write or do they listen:p(We got two ears but only one mouth:P)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68722653&postcount=30

woolymammoth

whynotdo wrote: »

Ahem,I can understand this on a thread that runs to say above twelve pages,but Four,Do people just write or do they listen:p(We got two ears but only one mouth:P)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68722653&postcount=30

alas, i tend to just read the email notification. and i don't always get them