Just got my TZ170, What to do, What to do?

Hi guys, Just got my new TZ170 the other day and knew from day one I was going to reformat and do a clean install.

I'd been researching for quite sometime and was actually leaning towards a Apple product and then the day after the Macbook Air came out, it was an easy decision to go with the Sony.

So far I am very impressed with the product. I've not really used it yet as i've been setting up a new desktop the last two days, but now i'm ready for the TZ.

I run XP Pro on my desktop and have always liked it, but i've been real tempted by the Vista that came on the TZ. It's really a much nicer interface. My only problem with Vista is that I use a particular cabinet design software that will not run on Vista, I tried already and it won't even install.

I'll use the TZ around the house and for travel, but I do occasionally need the cabinet software when i'm at a customers location, but I don't do any intensive design work on it. So that is kind of leading me to do a clean install of XP.

On to the Questions:

If I do a clean install of XP, can I buy a upgrade version ($100) of XP even though I am actually downgrading, or do I have to buy a full new install version ($200)? Just guessing prices.

Has anyone ever run both operating systems on a machine? Don't know if I'd want to, but might be interesting.

Are there any other solutions for a software app that won't run on Vista? The newer version of our software i'm sure will run on Vista, but our company can't upgrade just yet due to some proprietary modifications that have been made to our existing version.

Thanks for any help with these questions. I'll be heading out tomorrow to buy a couple DVD's for burning my recovery disc.

 

there was a thread on here about sony giving away XP downgrade discs for $10 (or free if you can find the coupon code).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=187492&highlight=downgrade

not sure if they're still doing it though. i think that would be the best way because the drivers you need are already on the disc (i think). someone may also have posted an iso of those discs on rapidshare. just make sure it's the image for your system.

you can have a dual boot system with vista and XP on a deaktop. don't see why it wouldn't work on a laptop as well.

i'm looking at getting sony's newer tz model when they come out in march. i'll definitely be installing XP. i work with vista all day at my job, and it gives me nothing but hassles.

edit: the latest code in the thread above does not work anymore. but it's still only $10 vs. $100-200 for an actual XP disc.

 

Check out Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 - it is free and will allow you to run XP inside Vista as a separate program. Search on vmware and virtual pc 2007.

 

Its too bad Sony disables Intel VT on all their computers so virtualization will be slower since it will be done all in software. I hope you can change this in the future Sony!