A Windows technical question

[RadioNate]

ok - before I get flamed. I know the LEGAL answer to my question is NO. I also know that the moral and ethical answer is also NO. I, however, am asking for the technical answer only. Thank you.

I am buying a copy of Windows XP for my Mac. DH has a laptop with Vista that gives him nothing but problems. Would it be technically possible for him to wipe his laptop and install the copy of Windows XP that I got for my Mac.

 

[jsmith]

No it will not-for a couple of reasons-the hardware configurations on MACs are different than on PCs and the Windows for MAC that you are installing is not a bootable system-its designed to run with the boot loaders from MAC-it will not have drivers for many of the periferals and even probably the graphics on your husbands PC. Further more-if his laptop is configured to run Vista-it wont like XP very much either-the best solution for him-is to up the memory in his laptop to 4 gigabytes-Vista runs like a champ on that-most of the issues with it come from lack of memory-and down load the most recent service pac which will have the drivers and what not the earlier versions were missing. If its an older laptop that was configured for XP he could back up-if you can find a copy-but the Windows fro Mac you purchased will more than likely just exascerbate his issues.

 

[RadioNate]

thanks - that is what I needed to know.

I'm not sure that is the route he wanted to try anyway.

His laptop problem is more that his work software (VPN and web based email) doesn't work with Vista. It was actually fine with Vista until the work software was installed. He'd wipe the whole thing but it didn't come with restore disks. It was a cheap-o laptop.

 

[tedhowe]

If it's a cheap-o laptop, this probably wouldn't apply, but if the version of Vista is Vista Ultimate or Vista Business, and it came pre-installed on the laptop, he might be entitled to a free "downgrade" to Windows XP.

If either of those versions is installed, then he should check with the manufacturer of the laptop and see if he can get Windows XP.

This is a Microsoft supported program specifically for situations like this (either home power users or business users who were forced to buy Vista, but have legacy hardware peripherals and/or softwre apps that are not Vista compatible that they still need to use).