Shall I go for Windows XP Home or Professional (for my laptop)?
I have Toshiba A205-S4777 laptop (core 2 duo processor, 2 GB RAM, finger print reader, in-built webcam, wi-fi).
It has Vista pre-installed. I am planning to switch to WIndows XP for various reasons. I use my laptop at home to surf internet and work on website/software development using various open source/free tools available. Basically I am working on a start-up of my own.
I am wondering if I shall go for XP Home or Pro. My main concerns, which I found from various posts on net, are –
1. Instability i.e. frequent crashes of Home edition.
2. Microsoft decision to not support Home edition after 2 years of release of Vista.
3. Can I create a recovery disc (CD/DVD) in XP home/pro, similar to what we can do in Vista?
4. XP Pro comes with spreadsheets and powerpoint, while Home edition doesn’t.
Don’t know if the above point are true. Which feature s of XP Pro I may miss presently or in future, considering the kind of work I am doing?
And lastly, what is your suggestion?
Thanks.
Pro does not come with Spreadsheets or powerpoint…that is Office suite, you’re talking about the operating system, two seperate things. I recommend using Windows Home for you, unless you are using it in a corporate environment and/or have a need to
Pro but keep your vista as you paid for it
Dual Boot Vista and XP
==============
Firstly, if you got a new laptop with Vista, check at the manufacturers website that you can get XP drivers for the new hardware. If no XP drivers exist then you stuck with Vista.
There are step by step instructions on the net with screen pics of what to do dependant on which OS you got installed first. There are links to software you may need.
.
google dual boot vista xp
You load the OS on its own partition. When you boot on vista, vista will automatically call its partition C: When you boot on XP, XP will automatically call its partition C: Make sure you name the partitions to stop confusion.
If you want to run a program on both (eg office 2003) then you have to install it on both partitions. Likewise IE7 or any other program. Including antivirus etc.
If you are tight for HDD space, you will get away with 18 gig on XP for a small HDD and probably 25 gig for vista,. It depends on what programs you install. Make a third partition to extend the rest of the HDD for your files
here is some general info:
Partition the Hard drive – reasons
========================
Firstly C drive is compulsory for the Operating System (XP) (Vista), and you install all your programs on C drive.
D drive is made for YOUR files.
What you do is MOVE my documents to D drive. ( if you do this then both OS can see all the documents etc)
When you download music, videos, pictures from your camera or make any MS Office documents or save emails, you save it on D drive. Both OS can access D drive
The reason for this is to do with
1. Hard drive failure – usually a failed hard drive will not boot, but can often be seen when hooked up as a slave.
So when you get your new hard drive up and running, you can copy D drive from your old to your new. You haven’t lost anything.
2. Virus. Normally virus are programmed to infect C drive. If you get a bad virus all that has to be done is format the C drive partition then re install you OS and programs from disks.
You haven’t lost your personal stuff because its on D drive.
3. Scanning your C drive for virus or spyware. These malware programs live on C drive. It is not necessary to scan D drive. It is a lot quicker to scan a small partition than a large hard drive.
Now you can see the above is compromised by the fact that programs get updates and lots of programs are installed from the net. Therefore if you had to wipe out C drive it be hard to get it back to how it was.
To remedy this we use Norton Ghost to image C drive and store the Image on D drive.
(Vista requires a version 10 or newer of Ghost).
If you get a bad virus you just use the Ghost disk to boot up on, then copy the image stored on D drive back over C drive.
It takes less than 30 mins to rebuild C drive.
Also you may have this running on say a 250 gig HDD, and it fails. You buy a new 400 gig HDD and install both into you computer, the failed one as a slave.
Using the ghost disk to boot up on, you partition the 400 C drive to 30 gig (XP)and the remaining to D drive. Then you repack C drive from the image. Then Copy your old D drive files to your new one. In a time of less than 1 hour and it’s all running. The image loads all the drivers, OS everything.
Then you update new images of C drive every few months so that the one stored on D drive is not to far out of date.
On XP and Vista you create C drive to a maximum of (XP 30 gig, Vista 40 Gig) It doesn’t need to be any bigger, so don’t make C drive to big as you will not use it.
The Ghost images will be about 12 gig each for Vista and XP C drives. You could store them on a USB external HDD if you are lacking space. You can buy a 120 gig external drive for $us60.
Now google dual boot vista xp, choose the result that suits your existing setup
Update Drivers
===========
The problem is, that your description is not accurate enough to get good results in Google.. To get around this we hi-light the proper description and numbers of the device and copy it. Then paste it into Google with the word driver.
:To find out what is in you computer do this
XP or Vista click run and type "msinfo32" will give a comprehensive listing of devices in your computer
Or you can do it this way, I find the google search are succesfull using the text and part numbers displayed in these results.
XP
===
click – start – help and support
type in the word "processor" in the search
in the results you can find out the hardware and what Microsoft software you have.
You can print it as well.
Vista
=====
Press win key > type in System and click System Information. It’s awkward but you can get a list of what’s on your computer, and able to print it.
use the above to find the proper name and numbers of the hardware device
Hi-light the card name and model etc and press control +c to copy it.
Go to Google and paste it in and add the word driver.
In the results choose one looks like the manufacturer, download the latest driver to your desktop
If its an exe file double click it to install it.
If its driver file extension
click empty desktop >hit F1 key >type in device manager
open device manager >expand the device >right click and update driver.
Point the wizard to your file.
If your budget could afford it then go for XP professional. Also try to check first if drivers for your laptop are available for download before shifting from Vista to XP… visit the toshiba website for this… I had a problem with my Acer Laptop since some hardware had no immediate driver when I downgraded to XP. (particularly the SATA Hard disk drive)
to answer your questions.
1. Not really, Home and Professional Ed are both stable to the Prof Ed has more functionalities.
2. Microsoft intends to release XP service pack 3 after tremendous failures of Vista
3. Autorecovery after reformat is an option available for built-in OS, if Vista was bundled with your laptop then chances are it is the one installed at the hidden partition
4. Spreadsheet (excel) and Powerpoint are separate software programs.. These are not included in the OS
if you are not going to use it on a domain name inside a company’s lan (local area network) for work reasons mostly then is better to get home (you save money as well)Regards,
G.
http://www.howtoguidehome.com
You should probably go with XP Pro, since there are a variety of network options available to you not in Home by default. There’s some extra security
1) False. Home is not unstable, at least not in SP2. I have Pro SP2 and Home SP2 on 2 machines, and neither of them really gives me the Blue Screen of Death. Crashes are more related to third party drivers.
2) MS doesn’t want to support any of XP after 2 years of Vista release. It only grudgingly supports Pro since when you buy Vista Ultimate your CD key will also activate XP Pro, so you can downgrade if you want.
3) Yes there’s a backup option on Pro. I don’t think it comes by default in Home. But if you’re using a 3rd party program it doesn’t much matter. If you’re talking a recover OS disc, since you’re going to buy XP, you can use the OS CD as the repair disc.
4) No, XP pro does not come with Excel or Powerpoint or any similar program. I’ve clean installed XP Pro several times, and it never comes with that.
Go pro for sure. Or media Centre!!!
I feel you have answered your own question, I don’t know a lot about the differences between the two OS’s but I can agree with you that XP Pro is the better option.
I think you should go with Pro because it comes with many services that home doesn’t.
Most people will not see a difference between them. WinXP Pro does NOT come with MS Office (for Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Powerpoint) normally so if you are expecting that out of the box you may be disappointed unless you have a bundled set of XP & Office.
I prefer XP Pro because you can tweak it easier at a more granular level but most people won’t need that. Also, XP Pro comes with Remote Desktop so you can connect to the laptop from another machine if needed. I use this alot but not everyone would.
Your questions:
1. A well maintained XP install of Home, Pro, or Media Center should not crash. I suspect Home has that reputation because more home users are not behind corporate firewalls and don’t have the skills and tools needed to keep their machine malware free.
2. I hadn’t heard that. I bet that will be extended if it hasn’t already been. XP Pro in the workplace alone will keep the support going and Home and Pro use most of the same Windows Updates.
3. You can create a Rescure disk in both Home and Pro. This will allow you to recover from some issues. Neither comes with a full Recovery disk creator out of the box. Those tools usually come from the manufacturer of the PC and not Microsoft.
4. XP Pro itself doesn’t include those applications. However, you may find the two (XP + MS Office) bundled together for sale. XP Home and XP Pro will both run the free Open Office Suite and allow you to do all that at no cost.
Before I start, for your info, drivers that meant for Vista bundled laptop don’t always the previous version for XP. So you may have difficulty to find the drivers since the laptop is designed for Vista
1. Stability for XP Pro or Home is the same, because actually they’re the same OS, only different in features
2. XP will not be supported in 2012 (Microsoft planning)
3. Recovery in hidden partition like in Vista is created by laptop manufacturer not Vista, so every different brand will have different way. You can use Acronis True Image Home to create backup and also recovery partition
4. The spreadsheet & powerpoint is under Microsoft Office & there’s nothing to do with the OS version. Normally included in bundled laptop as a "trial" for certain period, after that if you want to continue using it, you must pay for the license.
If you don’t use network capabilities like join domain, IIS, change basic disk to dynamic disk, remote desktop and so on, basically just for home user, go for XP Home