Computer advice needed partII

[DeeZee]

Purchase my oldest boy a Ipod Nano for xmas and it does not support Windows 2000. I am being forced to upgrade the OS to XP or Vista.

This is for a Dell Laptop that I am happy with (3.5 years old). Any thoughts or suggestions on the upgrade I should buy? Who has good prices on OS upgrades that I can pick up today. As you can imagine I need to get that Nano up and running tonight

Thanks!

[JoeTruth]

Originally Posted by DeeZee

Purchase my oldest boy a Ipod Nano for xmas and it does not support Windows 2000. I am being forced to upgrade the OS to XP or Vista.

This is for a Dell Laptop that I am happy with (3.5 years old). Any thoughts or suggestions on the upgrade I should buy? Who has good prices on OS upgrades that I can pick up today. As you can imagine I need to get that Nano up and running tonight

Thanks!

If it's a 3-4 year old laptop, please DON'T buy Vista. Vista is very resource hungry and it will crawl.
If your laptop has at least 512 mb ram and fair enough disk space, XP should fit the bill much better. Don't buy an OEM license as it won't install as an upgrade. If you're willing to wipe it out and start over, OEM is fine. Otherwise, you'll need a retail copy of XP (Pro or home) upgrade.

[Red Hot Sloth]

I'm no computer guy, so i'm sure there are better places to get the OS for cheap or cheaper, but, I have seen some decent deals at Fry's lately.

[OMR]

[quote=DeeZee;167814] I am being forced to upgrade the OS to XP or Vista.quote]

Word to the wise, grasshopper. I'd stay away from Vista right now... too many problems posted on user group boards. Give it another 6 - 9 months to "break in" and it will be OK. Dell has had to start offering XP again as too many people have had problems with Vista. XP had plenty of problems until service pac 1 and now 2 were released. IT really works well right now.... Vista does not.

[DeeZee]

Originally Posted by JoeTruth

If it's a 3-4 year old laptop, please DON'T buy Vista. Vista is very resource hungry and it will crawl.
If your laptop has at least 512 mb ram and fair enough disk space, XP should fit the bill much better. Don't buy an OEM license as it won't install as an upgrade. If you're willing to wipe it out and start over, OEM is fine. Otherwise, you'll need a retail copy of XP (Pro or home) upgrade.

Know a good place to get an XP upgrade cheap?

[foofighter]

your local neighborhood IT professional with a universal key code?

[DeeZee]

Originally Posted by foofighter

your local neighborhood IT professional with a universal key code?

want to be legit

[JoeTruth]

Originally Posted by foofighter

your local neighborhood IT professional with a universal key code?

...which will be black listed in the next major MS update and disable your OS of future upgrades with annoying pop-up warning of your OS being counterfeit. Yes, great advise!

Dee-Zee, don't bother with the major retail chains. Call PC Club kind of places. Most will happily dump pink elephants and usually for less then a $100.00. I'm assuming you're in the OC.

[DeeZee]

Originally Posted by JoeTruth

...which will be black listed in the next major MS update and disable your OS of future upgrades with annoying pop-up warning of your OS being counterfeit. Yes, great advise!

Dee-Zee, don't bother with the major retail chains. Call PC Club kind of places. Most will happily dump pink elephants and usually for less then a $100.00. I'm assuming you're in the OC.

Fry's and they sell the upgrade for $99

[JoeTruth]

Originally Posted by DeeZee

Fry's and they sell the upgrade for $99

Is that for home or Pro? If Pro, that's great. If home, not as great of a deal but not terrible. and I'm assuming that's the retail product you're referring to and not OEM. Fry's is shady and very sly. Make sure it in fact is an upgrade.

[Neccros]

Originally Posted by DeeZee

Know a good place to get an XP upgrade cheap?

Keep an eye out for computer shows.... lacomputerfair.com.... Last one I went to right after Vista came out, I saw OEM copies of XP Pro for like $25

Or try craigslist.... just make sure what your buying is legit... unless ya dont care about that!!!

[nappyt]

Cheap would be an OEM version of XP Home which should cost you about $99 or a student version of XP Pro which should cost anything from $1 to $49 depending on the school.

Stay away from Vista with that computer.

[JoeTruth]

[quote=OMR;167826]

Originally Posted by DeeZee

I am being forced to upgrade the OS to XP or Vista.quote]

Word to the wise, grasshopper. I'd stay away from Vista right now... too many problems posted on user group boards. Give it another 6 - 9 months to "break in" and it will be OK. Dell has had to start offering XP again as too many people have had problems with Vista. XP had plenty of problems until service pac 1 and now 2 were released. IT really works well right now.... Vista does not.

Dell, Gateway, Compaq, etc has never stopped offering XP in the business divisions. Microsoft forced all retailers and the home division of Dell and the likes to not offer XP and to ram Vista down with every new system sold. From a marketing perspective, it was brilliant and nothing short of a bully tactic by big bro MS. From a consumers perspective, a horrible decision that's pissed off many people and rightfully so. I personally use Vista and like it. The 2 big catches are: 1. New and powerful hardware is a must. 2. Old applications and old hardware don't always work so be sure to be current. 2b. Not good with Active Directory networks and Exchange servers just yet so don't use for work.

[OMR]

[quote=JoeTruth;167865]

Originally Posted by OMR

Dell, Gateway, Compaq, etc has never stopped offering XP in the business divisions. Microsoft forced all retailers and the home division of Dell and the likes to not offer XP and to ram Vista down with every new system sold. From a marketing perspective, it was brilliant and nothing short of a bully tactic by big bro MS. From a consumers perspective, a horrible decision that's pissed off many people and rightfully so. I personally use Vista and like it. The 2 big catches are: 1. New and powerful hardware is a must. 2. Old applications and old hardware don't always work so be sure to be current. 2b. Not good with Active Directory networks and Exchange servers just yet so don't use for work.

Some really good points ... you must know what you're talking about... The Home Division of Dell is now offering XP Home or Pro again. We just recently bought a new desktop that has plenty of juice now... that and a 24" LCD (Nancy scrapbooks on it) and decided to stay with XP as so many of her scrapbooking applications didn't have the applicable drivers for the Vista yet... Glad to hear you're not having all the problems I keep reading about with people using Vista.

[JoeTruth]

[quote=OMR;167872]

Originally Posted by JoeTruth

... Glad to hear you're not having all the problems I keep reading about with people using Vista.

I didn't say I haven't had my share of bugs here and there because I have but I've expected that. Considering we'll be doing lots of integration and support for it in the near future, I have to be very familiar with it.

You and your wife made a good choice. So long as it fit the bill for you, that's all that really matters. Best of luck!

[houseofmusic]

Originally Posted by JoeTruth

...which will be black listed in the next major MS update and disable your OS of future upgrades with annoying pop-up warning of your OS being counterfeit. Yes, great advise!

Dee-Zee, don't bother with the major retail chains. Call PC Club kind of places. Most will happily dump pink elephants and usually for less then a $100.00. I'm assuming you're in the OC.

he said universal key code, not a hacked keycode, those won't be black listed by MS ever.

Originally Posted by DeeZee

Purchase my oldest boy a Ipod Nano for xmas and it does not support Windows 2000. I am being forced to upgrade the OS to XP or Vista.

This is for a Dell Laptop that I am happy with (3.5 years old). Any thoughts or suggestions on the upgrade I should buy? Who has good prices on OS upgrades that I can pick up today. As you can imagine I need to get that Nano up and running tonight

Thanks!

if itunes is not something that you care for, use third party apps to put song and remove song from it.

[stinkyrider]

Windows XP Home. OEM. $89.99
I buy from these guys all the time. They'll ship or you can do an in-store purchase at their offices in Torrance, Tustin, or Brea.

http://www.acnt.com/_e/Operating_Sys...P_Home_OEM.htm

[houseofmusic]

I didn't realize that foofighter posted that universal key code comment. I can't back him up since I'm FooFighter hater.

Yeah, what were you thinking Foo????

[DeeZee]

the upgrade.......... These were kind of hard to find. The store to had 1 left so I spend the $99 for it.

I would normaly shop for a better deal but this is a 10 year old boy...and he could not play with his xmas gift yesderday

Thanks all!