Just got a Dell that came with XP home..

[AdamLewis]

First off, lemme say that if this is in the wrong place, Im sorry. I didnt really know where to put it but it has to do with speeding up my computer so I thought here would be good.


So anyways, I just got a Dell with XP Home on it and I was curious if I should format to wipe it clean of all the Dell crap and put XP Pro on it? Or should I just upgrade to XP Pro from Home?

The systems killer, but Ive been running into weird problems that Im attributing to the way Dell puts their computers together. For instance, just a few minutes ago, I got a little baloon that said the virtual memory was getting low and windows was going to increase it. My last computer was a 1700XP and I never had that problem. Even when Im running an ton of stuff.

Sorry if this post is confusing. If theres something else you all need to know, just tell me and Ill post it up. Im just frustrated right now.
The bottom line is should I format and wipe out all the dell installed crap and install XP Pro from my own disc? Or just leave it...


Thanks

[Carnival Forces]

i say reformat that sucker.

then put XP Pro on it.

then tweak it out to your heart's content :D

[Asian Fury]

I just reformatted my friends brand new Dell Latitude D600 with WinXP Home to a copy of WinXP Pro Corp and I found that the crap I was trying to get rid of just came back once I had to install all the drivers and accompanying programs for all the laptop parts. It was worth it just to get WinXP Pro on it, but I doubt you'll end up getting rid of too much of Dell's preinstalled stuff. That laptop didn't seem to have too many frivolous programs.

[s3rial]

I'd reformat just to get xp pro...but that's just me. and as for dells drivers, i wouldn' know much about that. I built my computer. the getway i had a long time ago was like that though. that gateway crap just kept coming back.....it was eerie....

[TekieB]

Just find out what chipset and stuff the computer is and go and download the drivers from intel, ati, etc...

[BillLeeLee]

Let me ask you this: do you need the features of XP Pro?

I know that it seems 'cool' to have a Professional version of Windows, but it does have a bunch of frivolous things enabled by default (NetMeeting? please).

If you need to join a domain, disk quotas, file encryption, then XP Pro.

Otherwise, stick with the XP Home, Dell installs Works and some other stuff, but it's not really a lot, and you can just uninstall it anyway.

[jpmkm]

If you don't have a specific need for windows xp professional then it won't be any better than the home edition. It probably would be nice, though, to get rid of all the dell crap that you don't need.

[ChingChang]

Like the above posters, XP Pro won't be any better than Home unless you need to use the things Pro has that Home doesn't. A reformat should help a lot. How much RAM and processes do you have on that computer atm?

[SuperSubZero]

I'm on my third Dell laptop. Great hardware (usually), really lame preloads. I only used the first one for about a day before I nuked it and reloaded it clean. I just got an i9100 and it was hardly out of the box before I had my XP Pro disc out and ready.

I really wish Dell and others had a "just gimme the laptop with a blank hard drive, the original install CD for the OS, network drivers, and I'll take care of the rest" option.

[[H]alcyon441]

Just find out what chipset and stuff the computer is and go and download the drivers from intel, ati, etc...

It's easier to use the driver cd that came with the dell. They think of everything.

[jpmkm]

alcyon441']It's easier to use the driver cd that came with the dell. They think of everything.
I think he was trying to get away from using dell stuff and that other poster suggested getting the drivers straight from the hardware manufacturers rather than from dell.

[[H]alcyon441]

There's nothing wrong with using the Dell drivers that came with his system.

[Matt Welke]

Computers are so more efficient when you give am a clean wipe and only install the things you need. :)

I run Windows 98/SE so the intervals between my reformats are usually between 2-3 months, unless I get a new important piece(s) of hardware (like my recent MoBo, CPU, and RAM upgrade...). Time to get XP, I know, but my wallet says hold on a bit. I need to get a sound card first, lol! To make a long story short, my mom won't let me put my old sound card back in because I was over-confident in the new mobo's onboard sound chip! :rolleyes: