Do you get the actual XP cd when you buy a laptop?

[BobTheSlob]

For instance, if I buy a Vostro 1500 with XP Professional, will I get an actual XP Pro CD? Or will I get some sort of Dell CD where I follow some convoluted process and then I end up with XP Pro on my laptop?

Simplified, is the XP CD pure or is it a Dell hybrid thing?

Thanks
Looking forward to getting a Vostro

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

Its a Dell OEM "Restore" CD for your laptop. Its basically an image of the factory settings for your computer which includes all software/bloatware that was originally loaded onto it.

What I usually do is find a genuine copy of WinXP Home/Pro cd and just install that using the OEM cd key. Never failed me once.

 

[Christopher]

Its a Dell OEM "Restore" CD for your laptop. Its basically an image of the factory settings for your computer which includes all software/bloatware that was originally loaded onto it.

Every Dell I've ever seen comes with a stock operating system installation CD, not an image restoration CD.

 

[Grentz]

Every Dell I've ever seen comes with a stock operating system installation CD, not an image restoration CD.

It just plain is random from what I have seen. Sometimes you get the restore disk, sometimes the OS disk.


With Vista you are supposed to get a Anytime Upgrade disc which is really just an OS disk.

 

[kenham40]

You get something like this (scanned it for ya).

 

[BobTheSlob]

So is that blue CD just a stock CD then? It installs nothing but XP SP2? Or what..I can't read it very well.

 

[MrMike]

The Dell CD installs just XP and only works with Dell OEM CD Keys to my knowledge. The COA sticker on the unit itself will probably have Dell's name next to the edition of Windows.

It also looks for a Dell Utility partition on the hard drive to pull the CD Key and activiation information from. I have not tried to install one of these on a non-Dell computer. However, when installing one on a Dell computer with a totally new hard drive, I have had to enter the key and activate. With the utility partition on the hard drive, you do not have to do either assuming there are no major hardware changes from OEM. Generally it was always three changes to reactivate iirc, and I have never tried more than two.

 

[tacosareveryyummy]

I've used a Dell restore cd to install xp on several computers. It worked just fine but you will still have to purchase a new cd key for whatever computer you are installing on.