TWC Today Forums

Other => General Discussion => Topic started by: Mike M on September 10, 2007, 03:03:39 PM

Title: Windows Question
Post by: Mike M on September 10, 2007, 03:03:39 PM
Can you install Windows XP on a Vista pre-installed computer? How do you do this? The reason I ask is because my school got new computers this year. It has the "Windows Vista" sticker on the computer casing, but I saw that Windows XP is actually on the computer.
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: beanboy89 on September 10, 2007, 03:51:03 PM
You can install practically any OS you want on any computer. Your school most likely bought that computer recently, and it came pre-installed with Vista, but the school probably reformatted the hard drive and installed XP. Really, it's quite a simple process.
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: Mike M on September 10, 2007, 05:02:41 PM
Oh okay. I didn't know computers were backwards compatible with OS's older than the OS that the machine came pre-installed with.
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: Al on September 10, 2007, 05:03:50 PM
same situation with my school...I saw the vista sticker and I was "oh sweet, it's vista!" to only turn it on and find out it's Windows XP Pro.  :o :P
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: lfmusiclover on September 10, 2007, 05:03:58 PM
Yup you can put any OS you want on a computer.  8)
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: furball on September 10, 2007, 05:15:01 PM
Yup you can put any OS you want on a computer.  8)
As long as it's compatible ;)
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: lfmusiclover on September 10, 2007, 05:35:06 PM
Yup you can put any OS you want on a computer.  8)
As long as it's compatible ;)

What do you mean? All OS's are compatible. Windows OS's of course. Obviously (I thought it was obvious anyway) you can't use a Mac or other computer OS.
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: furball on September 10, 2007, 05:44:13 PM
Well i mean, memory, hard drive, and processor requirements are all different.
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: beanboy89 on September 10, 2007, 05:46:16 PM
Yup you can put any OS you want on a computer.  8)
As long as it's compatible ;)

What do you mean? All OS's are compatible. Windows OS's of course. Obviously (I thought it was obvious anyway) you can't use a Mac or other computer OS.
Well, there is a variety situations you could run into. Aside from the Mac OS example, there are others. For example, you can't run an OS compiled for a 64-bit processor (Windows XP x64, Vista x64, or various x86-64 Linux distros) on a computer 32-bit processor (like a Pentium III, Pentium 4, Athlon XP).
Title: Re: Windows Question
Post by: Mike M on September 10, 2007, 05:57:46 PM
In addition to processor types, there are also certain processor speeds, amount of memory among other requirements you need to run an OS. For example, you need a 233 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM, and 1.8 GB of free harddrive space to run Windows XP SP2 (source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP#System_requirements)).