Modified Windows XP OS

Dear Friends,

I bought an HP dv4000 notebook in August and found out after buying it that the Windows XP Home Edition OS installed on it was "modified," supposedly to enhance the performance of the unit. Now I find that the Windows XP Home Edition that one buys at a computer store is not useable for reinstallation or using System File Checker on the unit because of that enhancement; one must use the CD that comes with the laptop and that has the modified version of the Windows XP Home Edition OS.

The big problem with that modification is that third-party software that is compatible with the unmodified OS may not be compatible with the HP-modified OS. Is anyone familiar with coping with that complication? Is there a way of telling if a software program will be compatible with the HP-modified OS before actually installing it and possibly running into problems of incompatibility?

Regards to all from
Jack Owens

 

Do you have compatibility issues or you are just afraid you may have? I think that the modificaitons of the OS that comes with the laptop concern mainly the way XP looks - logos, welcome screen, such stuff. This should not cause problems /my point is that there is no Windows HP-XP with irreversible changes/
Yet, as most people here claim, HP does put a lot of crap on you computer before it gets to you. If I were you I would simply upgrade/reinstall the OS with the new one, preferably XP Professional, and get rid of all the unnecessary programs that come with the notebook

 

No sense in worrying about untill you find out it won't work. If you can get a copy of a Windows of the Windows CD, Microsoft should validate it for you as long as you have a valid license which you do.

 

You are right in the sense that the XP that that is on your HP is modified along with the CD. They are OEM distributions that is modified by HP so they could outfit the CD with the right drivers for that particular computer or it can be modified to not even look like a regular XP install.

It was a "full" XP CD, meaning that it had all the windows components but may have been cut down, so that it could install less of the unneccessary windows components so as to enhance performance.

However, the install should be fully compatible with any programs that you may want to install, unless it was modified to keep large components out, which I doubt that it has.

But XP Home is still a dumbed down version of XP Pro, so if you have an XP Pro CD lying around somewhere that would be better for you to install, if you do decide to wipe your system and continue with a full windows install.

 

Dear Friends,

Thanks for the replies.

The actual problem that I experienced was in using a third-party program called "Registry Repair". I've use it successfully on my desktop, which has the standard XP/SP2 installed, but when I tried to use it on my HP dv4000 it damaged the modified OS and I had to do a restore. On the other hand, I have ZoneAlarm, AVG antivirus and Spybot installed but they seem to be compatible.

Regards,
Jack Owens

 

To be honest I hate using registry repair programs. All the ones I have used in the passed have just messed up Windows, so much so that I had to reformat. But some programs are not compatible with XP home, so that may be a problem, although this is rare or the OEM version of XP home on your HP may just not have some windows components installed so that you can use the program, which is also rare, but both are possibilities.