Dell Vostro 1500 -stunning, gorgeous... but wait..its Vista & Party's Over!!!

My new Dell Vostro 1500 with Intel processor...hmm lemme be more precise (looking at the Packing slip) Dell Vostro 1500 Core 2Duo 1.6 Ghz 800 Mhz FSB 2ML2 Cache, 15.4'' screen WXGA (not the glossy one), 1GB RAM, 128 MB Nvidia card, 120 GB SATA, 8X DVD +/-RW optical drive and lo & behold the final act of treason/the "blackest sheep"/the last nail of a coffin??/the entire spoiler "Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic". All the excitement just evaporated.....

Vostro 1500 is simply gorgeous.. its the Black Panther!!! full of energy. I felt Vostro is quite fast, booted very quick the first time.. but takes a tiny wee bit longer than the first time... but works great. The screen is awesome..no reflections nothing glossy..plain basic XGA monitor.. no dead pixels.. everything's fine .. the keyboard is a bit okay...touch pad is fine... but not the OS. Vista, the spoiler is very graphical infact should say its nice if you not used to the Mac-kind graphical OS. But realized its not supported by all softwares. The only solution i see is dual booting my Vostro.

Has anyone been successful dual booting Vostro 1500 with Vista + XP Pro?? Please let me know the steps/pointer to a guide or something. Greatly appreciate all the help I can get.
Thanks

 

I think I would just go back to xp if I didn't like vista.

 

I would return it and just re-order with XP Home or Pro.

 

Yeah, if you don't like Vista then format and install XP. Personally I don't mind Vista for basic stuff, I only seem to come into problems when it comes to gaming.

That's why I have Vista on my laptop, and XP on my desktop.

 

To the OP I would say: swap to XP for now, call Dell and get money back for Vista Home Basic (see other thread floating around here about that), and then wait until sp1 comes out for Vista and change it back. As some have mentioned, XP also had a shaky start until various updates and then sp1... how quickly we forget, right? In time, I think Vista will end up being more efficient, reliable, and stable than XP (strong statement as we sit here now, I know).

 

I wouldn't especially if the OP is happy with the laptop. It's much easier to install Windows XP.

Advice to OP call Dell and tell them you hate Vista but love the laptop and you want them to exchange Vista for XP Home.

 

Good point. I did not know about the Dell Vista credit. I just read that thread.

 

i ordered it with vista and i'm planning to format and put xp on it. the only reason i did this is because i have xp and i know vista will become "okay" at one point, so i will be able to install it ~1 year when it doesn't suck as much.

 

^^^ That's the way to do it... and don't forget to call to snag some credit.

 

Thanks all for your suggestions. Called up Dell CS and told them the I am not happy with Vista and would like swap my OS with XP. The rep put me on hold for 2 min. then said she would have to transfer me to a technical rep who would be able to tell if that could be done on my Vostro 1500. The tech rep took my order number and said that "it could be possible in two ways: return the notebook and order a new one with XP or install an XP on my own and..........." the line got disconnected. I suppose he wanted to say that if I had a genuine Windows XP serial then he would probably refund some/part of the OS cost. Well, I will have to go and fetch my XP Home edition CD from my old XPS M140 and try again with another rep.

So, anywayz threw my hat in... didnt quiet worked as I thought.

Thanks again for your replies.

 

What programs aren't working for you in Vista?
The vendors should have patches available, I would think, unless the programs are really ancient.

 

Sounds like you are not going to do this, but here is good tutorial on installing XP (for dual boot) on a machine that already has Vista installed:
http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

You could then uninstall XP when (and some might say "if") Vista has better drivers available.

 

To Swarmer... Oracle doesn't care for Windows.. but have its product as I am oracle developer. I use some of their products which do not patches yet.

An update.. I got a $70.00 (exactly $73.5 w/ tax) refund when I told very a lady at the other end of Dell CS support that I am switching.. to XP Home. She asked me at what price.. did I buy the XP Home OS... but I (became blank for a second... since the serial i was holding was an OEM Dell serial from old Dimesion 300 desktop) then said that I got it for $99 and she told me (after consulting her manager) Dell could only offer me upto $70 refund or $75 worth coupon. Wow.. that was cool..& I immediately grabbed the $70 refund. So now my Dell Vostro 1500 comes to $599 - $70 = $529 (before tax) or ($628 - $73.5 = $554.5 after tax)....

Should have told her that XP Home is priced $199 at Bestbuy ??? Lame luck!!!!