Microsoft has been making noises about stopping its active-support phase for Windows XP for some time now. another good reason to go with a more-recent version of Windows is that you'll enjoy more support from Microsoft over a longer period of time (looking forward).
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The virtual environments really come in handy when emulating older versions of Windows (like Win95 or Win98), for which native hardware drivers just don't exist for todays components.
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So you might not have to fuss with a virtual environment if your programs install and run in "Compatibility Mode". Once I uninstalled the Assistant feature, Office ran without any problems at all. the only feature I had to live without was the Office Assistant (no loss there). I was even able to run an Office 2000 installation on a few Vista computers.
The low price does make the decision easier! -Also, if your 560 shipped with Vista within the six months or so, see if you qualify for the free upgrade to Windows 7 that some of the systems offered.Īnd I've found that most of the XP programs that I tried on Vista and on Windows 7 ran OK if they were installed using the "Compatibility Mode" feature (you right-click on the installer, and select the version of Windows that the program was designed for). Matt - if you are a college student (or have a college student in your family), you might qualify for Microsoft's $30 student-price for Windows 7. I'll move your thread to the drivers support section.Ī big thanks to justpassingby for providing a bounty of good answers and lots of research materials! Here's a link to your thread on Dell's support forum so we can follow your progress there as well : There are several different configurations for the Inspiron 560, give us your exact model ID, service tag or complete system specs if you need help. Make sure you create the Windows 7 recovery CD with the preinstalled software if you didn't get a recovery CD with the computer. Note that if your hard drive is SATA you'll need either to enter the BIOS and revert it to IDE/ATA mode (or to disable AHCI), either to slipstream the SATA drivers on the XP install CD or it won't detect your hard drive during the installation of Windows XP. click on the "Manuals" link on the left-hand side menus).Ĭlick to expand.You'll find the chipset and video drivers easily (always install the chipset drivers first), but depending on the manufacturer you may have a hard time finding the wireless, sound and media card reader drivers.
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Then again, if you want to find native-XP drivers for your hardware:ġ) Go to the support website - and enter the Service Tag for your system.Ģ) Click on "System Configuration" (on the left-hand side menus)ģ) Copy down, or print, the important specs - especially motherboard, chipset, audio, video, and network components.Ĥ) Search at the manufacturer's websites (the component manufacturers, not Dell) for XP drivers.Īnother alternative for finding the specs: if you have the manual for your model, it will likely list detailed specifications in the Appendix (and you can download the manual from a menu on that same webpage linked above. Microsoft provides VirtualPC at no cost, and has a special version for Windows 7 (rather oddly named "XP Mode"). If you have a program that doesn't run on Windows 7, you can install Windows XP into a virtual environment and run it in that manner.
If your 560 shipped with Windows 7, it's a good operating system: I wouldn't recommend trying to downgrade to XP as the main operating system. Dell doesn't provide any XP drivers for your model.