[BritCanuck]

Originally Posted by Superkid11

My mom got a new job recently, pays a lot more than her old one. So she decided to go ahead and buy a new computer...

It's a Vista PC.

Darwin help her.

Chances are very good that she wasn't given a choice - Microsoft has some kind of arrangement with all major retailers, so as soon as Windows Vista was released, they all took Windows XP off the shelves and now refuse to sell it or any earlier Microsoft operating system. All new computers also now come with Vista pre-installed - the customer doesn't have any say in the matter. Only force-feeding is more ruthless than that.

I still have Windows XP, and it works fine with all the older programs I have. One of the major problems with Vista is its lack of backwards compatibility - many older programs designed for the XP system or earlier simply will not run on Vista, because Vista blocks them for one reason or another. More marketing by Microsoft, I think - but the new editions or go without. I'm not impressed by their tactics at all.

Anyway, keep checking in with your mother, and if anything goes wrong, try taking the computer into a specialist dealer and have the thing reversed to XP.

Hope that helps.