Laptops with XP

Wondering if anyone has some advice...

Looking for a good but cheapish Laptop with XP or XP Pro. My wife has Vista on hers and I have looked at a few times and I hate it.

I was looking at a Dell Inspiron 15. It has good specs but they seem to only offer it with Vista. I am sort of thinking of getting one and putting my XP on it. I am not too concerned if it is Dell or not).

The machine will only be used for charting program software as used by stock brokers (not sure which package I will install but leaning towards eSignal TU Powerplay Scanner) so no games, music, pics etc. The eSignal sw requires 2G RAM and supposedly it is very compatible with all Windows o/s, not so with MAC)

Would it be straight forward to wipe the drive and install my own XP on one of these? Or do you think there would be any compatibility issues?

I am fairly conversant with desktops/towers PCs but haven't too much experience with laptops other than using them. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

If you're not going to run much on it, why not get a netbook? They come with XP because Vista is too bulky for them, plus they're cheaper than normal laptops, smaller and lighter. Only disadvantage is they don't come with built in CD drives, but you can buy external ones that plug in for not a huge amount.

I have an Inspiron 15 series laptop and it's fab except for Vista. Only reason I bought it was because it was on a fantastic offer and will get a free Windows 7 upgrade when that comes out.

If you're not going to run much on it, why not get a netbook? They come with XP because Vista is too bulky for them, plus they're cheaper than normal laptops, smaller and lighter. Only disadvantage is they don't come with built in CD drives, but you can buy external ones that plug in for not a huge amount.

I have an Inspiron 15 series laptop and it's fab except for Vista. Only reason I bought it was because it was on a fantastic offer and will get a free Windows 7 upgrade when that comes out.

Hey thanks for the info.  Hadn't thought about Netbooks. But Dell has a good offer on the I 15 and, like you, I think it looks great except for Vista. Maybe I should go with that and upgrade to Windows7 later. I think I would rather try 7 than Vista (just seems a waste to get used to Vista).

But the Upgrade is free? Sounds even better.

Just make sure it's the right version of Vista to include the upgrade. The site should tell you if it's free. I think it's for Vista Home Premium version and above, so watch out for ones that only include Home Basic.

Yes the basic version doesn't come with ''Windows 7 Upgrade Eligible'' option.

Does that mean free or did yours state 7 was free?

Basic Inspiron 15 with 'free' upgrade to 500G HD is £348 which seems not too bad.

Mine stated that there was a free upgrade to 7, so I would clarify with whoever is selling it whether the upgrade will be free. Upgrade eligible only means that you will be able to install 7 without wiping the hard drive, not that you won't have to pay for it.

That's what I thought too.

You could either wait until machines start coming with Windows 7 or if you buy a vista machine all you need to do is put your XP disk in, restart the machine, wait for the prompt in the loading DOS to say "press ESC (could be a dif keystroke) to boot from disk."

Once the disk boots (before the computer fully loads to desktop) you will have the option to either create a new partition, repair the partition, or delete the partition.  You want to delete it (as this is your OS) and then follow the rest of the process to install XP from the disk.  It's easy.

Like DrSuperL99, I just bought a Dell Inspiron 1545 which came with XP installed, but also with a free upgrade to Windows 7. The perfect solution! 

BTW, I've been running 7 for the past three months or so. Before that I had Vista Ultimate for a year, and before that XP Pro.

Windows 7 is probably my favorite consumer operating system of all three.

Thanks Jedi. Yea I've installed o/s's since the DOS days but haven't really kept up with things since XP came out and wasn't sure if Vista did some weid stuff like keeping a kernal somewhere that didn't get wiped and .... well that sounds like a plan but I may just wait and give 7 a try, less than a week now for the new o/s. Then again...XP is still good.

Like DrSuperL99, I just bought a Dell Inspiron 1545 which came with XP installed, but also with a free upgrade to Windows 7. The perfect solution! 

XP? Jedi said it was great except for Vista. But if it is XP where did you get it? Because Dell (I called them) said I would have to get a Latitude that they do not offer XP on the Inspiron 15. Why not? Guess they don't believe in giving the customer what they want.
The upgrade now says Windows 7 eligible...they say you have to buy the CD but the o/s is free. OK cost of disks, fair dinkims.

Thanks for all the help. Glad others like the Inspiron cuz I think it looks like a good machine.

BTW, I've been running 7 for the past three months or so. Before that I had Vista Ultimate for a year, and before that XP Pro.

Windows 7 is probably my favorite consumer operating system of all three.

Well that is really good to hear someone with XP experience likes 7. Think you may have just swayed me. 6 days....    Thanks MMiYN

Personally I like Vista, but if it doesn't suit your needs I can understand that as well.  You could always buy a vista machine and reinstall the xp OS as I explained. ^_^

Personally I like Vista, but if it doesn't suit your needs I can understand that as well.  You could always buy a vista machine and reinstall the xp OS as I explained. ^_^

I just don't like the feel of Vista but that's really cuz I haven't used enough to get familiar with it and it seems like a waste to learn it now when 7 is gonna be out soon.

It took me ages to move from DOS to 3.1, and then another few blue moons before I took the leap to 95 and same again for the jump to XP so maybe I should break from tradition and start on an O/S that is new rather than wait for everyone else to get the kinks and bugs worked out. My turn at 'being everyone else'.

BTW, I've been running 7 for the past three months or so. Before that I had Vista Ultimate for a year, and before that XP Pro.

Windows 7 is probably my favorite consumer operating system of all three.

I meant to ask if 7 is more like Vista or XP or neither, regarding the layout? Ta

The layout is very customizable, but out of the box it's def more Vista. Actually, it's even more Vista-ish than Vista was.