I understand.

Unless you’re computer savvy, then for God’s sake stay with Windows XP for as long as possible. Absolutely no reason to switch to Vista, unless you insist on stuffing more money into poor uncle Bill’s pockets.

But if you have a lot of money and you’re a little computer savvy (or have a ”nerd” friend!) then you can always build a PC from scratch: Buy an unformatted HDD, a retail version of Windows XP and a retail version of Windows Vista. Have your nerd friend configure a dual-boot system, that is split (partition) the HDD into two separate logical systems with Windows XP on one partition and Windows Vista on the other partition. When it’s ”booty time”, you simple select which OS you want to boot to. I did that during the previous OS-transition from Win 98 to XP before XP became stable. I installed all games etc. on the Win 98 parition and everything else on the XP partition. Not for the beginner, but may put an end to your grievings (or even ask Dell have to creat a dual-boot system, I’m sure they can help you).

http://www.windowstalk.org/dual_boot_vista.htm http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

OK, I’m out of the closet. I am a nerd. I love computers. I have a 2-year old Dell stationary PC with Win XP Pro running absolutely fine and without any trouble at all. 3 months ago, I bought an HP laptop with Windows Vista… on the FIRST Vista installation (when it runs the HP/Windows Vista thing), about half way thorugh, I received the dreaded Windows BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). Unfortunately, it was to turn out not to be the first time (I’ve had it twice since then) and have had to reinstall/reformat (factory reset) three times now because of various issues… Finally, take my advice, if you are running Vista, do NOT install the free ZoneAlarm firewall version… they claim it’s Vista compatible…. Trust me, it ain’t…