New Laptop With Vista.....can I Take It Off And Use Xp?

Hey Guys (and Ladies, of course), This is a pretty general question. I am going to buy a new laptop for my Dad. I know there are places on line to buy them with XP as the OS but they seemed to have jumped the price or they are only refurbished laptops. Anyway, assuming I buy it retail, it will come with Vista. My Dad is 80, very good but I do not want him to have to learn the ins and outs of Vista at his age especially when he is really comfortable with XP. Getting XP is no problem for me. My question is this: I have heard (maybe incorrectly) that you do not want to buy a laptop with Vista on it and then load XP. I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but what I've read is that Vista is "built-in" more than any other OS and that you could end up with a ruined laptop. Also, say it is possible to slip an XP disc in (obviously with a key) what will happen to the built in wireless internet connections? Will the XP drivers pick it up or is it dependant upon Vista drivers. Same thing with the Sound, USB ports etc…. I know Microsoft has a tendency to be propietary with their software but that include their new OS vs their older one? Also one more thing. If this is not possible to do, do you know (or does anyone know) of any sites I may have missed where I can still buy an XP laptop for less than 600.00 - preferably around the 450.00 mark which includes built in wireless, 60 or 80 gb hard drive, 512 ram, and preferably a pentium but would take a celeron or whatever. As you can see, I'm not that knowledgable about the whole thing, just trying to get my dad a new laptop!

Maybe.

I think you're asking for a lot of possible trouble if you try to refit a Vista laptop machine with XP.

Manufacturer's are building the laptop to run with the pre-installed operating system and drivers for the specific hardware designed to give best performance with Vista.

I've "heard" horror stories of folks not being able to get a compatible audio driver or network interface driver for onboard NIC, when trying to move from Vista to XP.

Google would be your friend to find a Laptop with XP as the operating system.

I'll also take a look at some of the sources that I'm familiar with and get back to you.

Best Regards

Dell Small business is offering either Vista or XP, as an option at the time of purchase.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/categ…;l=en&s=bsd
HP Small Business seems to be doing the same.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF…cs/notebook_pcs

Here's a thread where the folks are gnashing their teeth over problems obtaining drivers for new machines that were built specifically for Vista operating system.
http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.php?showtopic=144905

An alternate view of your situation, is that Vista isn't really that much different from XP in the actual operation of the machine. Your Dad may take to it quite easily.
But if you do decide to go with Vista, get additional RAM (at least a full 1 gb and more if affordable)
Vista is a hungry resource sucker.