Vista Blog

According to Paul Thurrott’s Windows SuperSite, Dellintends to ship XP Pro preloaded on their machines at least until 2012. This comes via an unconfirmed source through an email tip to the editor.

Recently I have been receiving a lot of emails regarding Windows XP end of life.  Please be aware that Dell will continue to offer XP Pro preloaded through 2012.  We will ship XP Professional on Dell Optiplex, Latitude and Precision machines with a free upgrade path to Windows Vista.

If Dell plans on including XP Pro up until this date, we expect Microsoft to continue to offer support for the product for some time to come.

James writes: I have Vista on my computer and some of my older XP programs won’t even install on Vista, my question is, I heard XP can be run on Vista, so can I have both OSes? Can I like click to run XP and then click back to run Vista?

I’m sorry for not knowing too much about this kind of stuff but it would be helpful if you can teach me anything. I am completely lost as to how to get my older programs to work on Windows Vista.

Thanks, J

No problem James, we are glad to help. As far as I can see you really have a couple options here 1) you can Dual Boot, you would have to select which OS you want to use when you boot up your computer. There is a wonderful step-by-step guide for doing this over at apcmag.com. Here’s a snippet:

We’re going to use the DISKPART on the Vista DVD to shrink the Vista partition on the hard disk and create enough space for an installation of Vista. We’ll then install XP, repair the Vista bootloader which will be overwritten during the XP installation, and then use the EasyBCD utility to configure Vista’s bootloader to boot the XP partition.

2) You can setup your PC to run as a Virtual PC, you can read more about this from Microsoft here or go directly to their download site here.

We hope this answers your question James and please don’t be afraid to ask any questions of us in the future. We have just gotten started and would like to be a favorite amongst those in need of help.

There simply is no such thing as a dumb question as long as someone has the courage to ask it!

Here’s a very useful Helpful Hints guides from Microsoft. It’s for Windows Vista Ultimate and covers the following topics:

1 Getting Started…

• Starting your computer
• Using your keyboard and mouse
• Launching programs
• Opening, saving, and closing documents
• Getting help

2 More Productive…

• Keeping on task
• Finding what you need
• Sending and receiving faxes
• Connecting to your network
• Optimizing your performance

3 More Protection…

• Protecting your computer
• Online protection

4 More Connected…

• Communicating with e-mail
• Organizing contacts
• Accessing the Internet
• Enhancing mobility

5 More Fun…

• Playing games
• Enjoy your entertainment library
• Managing pictures
• Publish movies

[More after the jump]

Among other things , it can help novices to set up an appointment using Windows Calendar with insightful tips and illustrations. It works quite nicely even for advanced users as a quick reference guide. At 17 pages long and just over 8MB in size, this is not too bulky or cumbersome for even portable devices for those looking to brush up on their Windows Ultimate basics.

More advanced users will probably only benefit from this as a reference guide but for anyone looking to become more apt within the Ultimate environment this might be a must have. You can download it here.

Here’s an easy “how to guide” for creating a Vista SP1 recovery disc. As we all probably know Vista, and for that matter all Windows OSes allow us to make recovery discs. These are not to be confused with system restore discs which allow users to fall-back to the stage that they purchased their computer at, otherwise known as a factory-state.

These are more like repair discs which allow the user to save valuable data and move files between multiple drives, such as, CD, DVD or USB drives. Of course this was also possible in XP but a little more time consuming. Here it will only take a couple clicks. [more after the jump]

Simply go to “START”, then ‘All Programs, Maintenance, Create Recovery Disc”.

Now all you need is a blank CD or DVD and your Windows Vista installation disc and you’re all set. When you boot your CD it will look like a fresh install but it’s not, you will need to click the “Repair your computer” tab to select the partition would like to repair. After this you will be prompted with three options, startup repair, system restore and command prompt. You can even use a USB drive to copy files to, if you so choose.

Hope this helps!

This guy is another who thinks he’s found the fastest and easiest way to install Windows Vista. [More after the jump]

I love this line.

I think I’m going to try to load this into another machine that I think will be a little more compatible than my computer.

What’s even funnier is that he actually appears (to us anyway) that he’s really destroying an installation disc. I think he might want to do a little more research next time before making such a hasty decision. What do you think?

We all know about Microsoft’s service packs, and, there’s simply no doubt they they continue to be a necessity. Vista is no different!

On March 18th of this year those boys from Redmond released the much anticipated SP1. This release is vital for those who have experience \d compatibility issues, because it will likely address many if not the vast majority of these issues. Subscriber can download the it here

Non-subscribers can use the Windows Update or their Standalone options for x64 and X86.

This isn’t actually a hack in the sense most people might think of, because this has absolutely nothing to do with the working of the software itself. But, rather the purchase of it. Our friends over at computerworld.com posted an article on how it would appear as though Microsoft has purposely allowed for a loophole in the way people use their upgrade software for Windows Vista with SP1.

This loophole allows people to purchase Vista with SP1 and install it on their computer without the “supposed” need to have a valid license for either Windows 2000, Windows XP or even Windows Vista itself. This workaround is not new, it was also a loophole in the upgrade for the initial release of Vista.

Last year Microsoft suggested this violated the terms of its license agreement, however, they have yet to act in any manor to stop this from occurring, thus suggesting to many that this is an intentional loophole (making it virtually guilt free in my opinion).

Currently Amazon is offering Vista Home Premium SP1 for just $89.99 compared to 204.99 for the full version.