Decided to do the unthinkable...

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Surely you don't use Win Server as your desktop ?

Yes, everybody says that. But I can't justify an extra box (mostly because there's nowhere to put it).

[Saab Dastard]

But this can only be done with Vista Business and not Home, Ultimate,

Actually, Vista Ultimate does give you downgrade rights - but it's the only home version that does.

See here.

SD

[mixture]

Vista Ultimate

Well, for the amount you pay for Ultimate I would certainly hope so !

In my defense, I don't think this was a day one policy .... believe it's revised policy following a bit of pressure.

[green granite]

There is now talk of Microsoft bringing Windows 7 release forward to next year. Which means it will probably mean another semi broken system.

[P.Pilcher]

To quote the students I used to teach at a famous aviation academy in Riyadh in the early 80'S: "Wot de benefit?"

I can visualise Microsoft bringing out a new incompatible operating system every year, expecting us to learn how to use it and of course to swell their coffers - I don't think!

P.P.

[Albert Square]

Well I have built a few PC's and just buy a OEM copy of Windows along with the other components. No problem installing at all. The thing is, as I understand, the supplier will not sell OEM by itself, only along with major system coponents to show you are building a PC. But, I have read that if you buy a floppy drive (£5) along with a OEM disc, this can be enough to qualify!

[antic81]

Albert,

Well the online site I purchased from did not ask any questions!
Still have not actually done the install yet, I have saved my graphics drivers and sound drivers to the external hard drive, is there anything else?
Do I have to find motherboard drivers as well, just that I have never downloaded them before?

Ant

[antic81]

Actually I am now a little stuck, heres what I have done, I stuck the new cd in and all seemed to be going well, entered the product key, no problems, only problem is it does not seem to want to let me overwrite the old version of XP, instead in the set up in is only giving me the option to load the new xp on a partition...anyone know how to make it completely overwrite the old version?
Or if not how can I just re-format the disk so that the old version is wiped off?

Thanks for any help, sorry about the continual pestering!

Anthony

[antic81]

Aaaaaand I broke it!

Windows didn't seem to be installing fresh, it was just doing a repair on the older version, I didn't want this, so I kept trying, that turned out to be rather costly, as I have now broken the hard drive!
It just freezes on the motherboard splash screen at the start up, this has forced me into purchasing yet more hardware for the PC,a new Seagate HD, internal one this time.
I hate computers!!