Ara, this is my situation also. Below is have provided a link to
a GOOGLE search which will give you a LOT of things to read about
Vista, vs XP.
http://www.google.
com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=SUNA,SUNA:2005-49,SUNA:en&q=microsoft+to+simplify+downgrades+from+vista+to+xp
Below here I have pasted a very small part of the first item in
the Google search.
Under the current rules,
OEMs must call about and file for each and
every machine the license keys required to downgrade from Vista to XP. But Microsoft is planning to
move to a new policy which will allow its top 170 OEM partners to
submit these keys online for groups of machines, which will save them
time and reduce complexity, Ball said.
Microsoft is working on ways to allow the rest of the channel to
take advantage of these simplified downgrade procedures, but is still
in the midst of hashing out the details, Ball said. He didn’t have a
timetable for when Microsoft will make its more liberal
downgrade-rights policies available to the rest of its PC partners
============================================================================
It was only yesterday that I did the google search, and last
night, at a local COMPUTER USERS GROUP, one of the members said that
she saw an ad by DELL offering you the choice of Windows XP, or Vista.
As of yesterday, Dell's website was offering only Vista.
Most likely, DELL and the others, have AGREED to keep this
DOWNGRADE arrangement in a very low profile.
I am hoping others on this board will chime in with additional
information on how to deal with DELL, HP, and others in order to
purchase a Vista computer with VISTA installed, and then do an
immediate DOWNGRADE. Also, later on , will you be able UPGRADE back to
VISTA, for no charge? I am Looking foreward to further comments on this.
BTW, I found out that electronics marketer SYSTEMAX owns Tiger
Direct, and SYSTEMAX will build A CUSTOM notebook for you LOADED with
XP and you can configure it on line.
Here is a link which will tell you a LOT about
the connections between SYSTEMAX, TIGERDIRECT, AND COMPUSA.
http://arstechnica.
com/news.ars/post/20080107-back-from-the-dead-compusa-assets-snapped-up-by-tigerdirect.html