Modified Operating Systems

Dear Friends,

I bought a HP Pavilion dv4000 --my first laptop-- in August of 2005. I was somewhat surprised to find that the Windows XP Home edition, with SP 2, installed on the laptop was a modified version of Windows and that one could not use a standard Window XP Home Edition CD, along with <System File Checker>, to check the integrity of the operating system installed on it nor could one use any of the currently available registry cleaners on it.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a new laptop and would like to know from those knowledgeable on the matter if all laptops with Windows XP installed on them use modified versions of that operating system.

Does anyone know?

Regards to all from

Jack Owens

 

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, and I don't see any reason why a registry cleaner would not, as a general matter, work on the version of XP installed on your system.

How, precisely, is your version "modified?" Since you bought a system from _HP and, I assume, it came with XP preinstalled, what you have on there is what's called an OEM Royalty version of WinXP - which generally differs from the retail version you can buy stand-alone inasmuch as it is married to the particular hardware on which it's installed (i.e., cannot be transferred to a different computer), may have some OEM-specific customization such as a shortcut to _HP's help center in the start menu, and is supported by _HP, not by Microsoft.

Other than that, it's plain vanilla WinXP, or it should be, so a more detailed explanation/description of what you mean by "modified" would be helpful.

 

As Shyster said, by "modified" do you mean it was an HP OEM version? If so, then yes, every HP laptop I have seen comes with an OEM version of Windows. This is because 1) HP paid Microsoft less for the OS than the average consumer does and 2) HP attempted to make is easier for average users to reinstall their OS by making the copy of Windows tailored to that machine.

However, you are not tied to using the OEM version if you already have your own full retail version. It sounds like you do from your statement, "and that one could not use a standard Window XP Home Edition CD". If you already have a retail CD and with it a Windows registration key, just go ahead and wipe out the OEM version and install the retail version. Keep in mind that will entail installing all the drivers, which should be downloadable from HP's support site.

When you buy a new laptop it will likely also have an OEM version installed.

Is that what you meant by "modified" or am I off-base here?

 

I'm pretty sure there are multiple versions of the XP CD, some that work with OEM keys, and others that work with retail keys. That might be the source of the problem.

As for getting a new machine, you will most likely be getting Vista, so it's sort of moot. Vista does not have the issue of "OEM only" discs, as all discs are the same. However, OEMs do modify it by adding bloatware, drivers, etc... to the image, but that would not make it seem like a "modified" OS.

 

Dear Friends,

Trying to keep the question simple, Hewlett-Packard warns buyers of the Pavilion dv4000 not to use a standard Windows XP Home Edition CD to reinstall that operating system on their laptop because the version that they installed on it has been modified to make it compliant with the build of the laptop. Just how they modified it, I don't know.

What I received with the laptop is not a standard Windows XP Home Edition CD; it is a CD to reinstall, when necessary, their modified version of that operating system..

I suppose I could, if I wanted to experiment, use a standard Windows XP Home Edition CD to reinstall, if reinstallation seemed appropriate and I wanted to experiment, but I wouldn't want to get into possible complications.

In summary, I was just wondering if all laptop manufacturers install their own proprietary versions of Windows XP (or Vista), depending on the specific structure of their laptops.

Greg seems to think that they all do, so I'll take his word for it.

Regarding Vista, from the reception that it has gotten it's starting to look like the short-lived Millenium, and Microsoft, in recognizing it, is advancing the date for the release of the Vista replacement. Anyway, if I get another laptop I'll probaly request the installation of Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3, skip Vista and wait for the next version of Windows.

But that's another issue.

Regards and thanks to all from,

Jack Owens

 

I think for the most part, the only "modifications" that HP would have made to the version of XP that they give you with your laptop is that they will have included all of the laptop-specific drivers and things that you would need.

 

They gave a warning specific to this model? That's odd I've never heard of that. I wonder why...

In my experience that's been the case with companies like HP . However, I'm not sure if companies like Alienware includes OEM or retail (or any OS at all for that matter).

 

I think "warns" is a strong word, intended to scare off Nooby McNoob who 'found' an XP CD somewhere and has ideas.

HP's OEM XP disc has their preloaded software on it, and may have either integrated the drivers or otherwise has the drivers available with it. Like other OEMs, HP's XP disc likely has code to check the system BIOS and then activate Windows automatically without having to enter a key.

You are 100% more than welcome to wipe it and install a retail XP on it. You will have to get drivers for it (probably from HP's site) and you will be expected to enter your activation key from the retail package, and activate over the network like normal retail XP does.

 

No-one other than Microsoft owns a "proprietary" version of WinXP (or _Vista, for that matter); in point of fact, no-one other than MS owns WinXP or _Vista - everyone else, _HP, _Sony, you, me, and everyone else on the forum (who has a Win product installed on their system(s)) owns no more than a license to use a copy of WinXP or _Vista.

As I said previously, when MS licenses WinXP or WinVista to an OEM under their royalty program (basically, an arrangement pursuant to which MS provides the OEM with a master copy that can be duplicated x times and installed onto x different systems - x being any number from 1 to infinity - and, each time the OEM sells a system with a copy of that master installed, the OEM sends MS a payment; it's a "royalty" system because MS has given the OEM a license to copy WinXP/WinVista and distribute said copies to the public through sales of hardware systems with installed copies), MS gives the OEM the right to make and distribute copies of WinXP/Vista to the public, provided each copy is locked to the h/w it's installed on, in exchange for which the OEM, not MS, agrees to provide all support for the installed copies of XP/Vista, and is allowed to integrate certain of the OEM's own software into the overall system (i.e., not by modifying the OS, but by adding additional modules that will appear to be seamlessly integrated with the GUI, for example, the "Help Center" icon that automatically appears on the Start menu.

Finally, as indicated on this Microsoft Webpage about the Preinstallation Environment, the package licensed to the OEM, which more generally includes the preinstallation environment as well as the master copy of WinXP/Vista itself, allows the OEM to seamlessly integrate the drivers for the hardware with the installed version of the WinXP/Vista OS, in lieu of forcing the OEM to provide those drivers on a separate CD/DVD and require the end-user to separately install those drivers.

Basically, the only "proprietary" or "custom" part of WinXP/Vista that you may get with your _HP is the drivers and the help center; the help center functionality only comes from an OEM, and then only because the OEM has agreed to provide all support for the copy of WinXP/Vista in lieu of Microsoft providing such support. The drivers, which are really the only truly "proprietary" part of what you received are the same whether you purchase a notebook with a WinOS preinstalled, or you buy a naked notebook without an OS - if you read through the OS options on some of the Clevo/Sager reseller websites, you'll see an option such as "None Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only" (courtesy of the xoticpc.com configuration webpage for the NP9262). Now, given that the underlying hardware is a proprietary design, it necessarily follows that the drivers and utility software must itself necessarily be proprietary.

But, if that's the only truly "proprietary" part of what you got with your _HP, then you didn't get anything fundamentally different from what everyone else gets - a cookie cutter copy of WinXP/Vista, a help center application designed by your seller, and drivers and utilities designed to permit the OS to interface with the physical hardware, and therefore necessarily "proprietary" simply because the hardware is "proprietary."

In a nutshell, you're making the mistake of conflating the copy of the WinXP/Vista OS proper with the drivers necessary to allow that OS to interact with the physical hardware onto which the OS copy is installed. The former is nothing more than a cookie-cutter copy of the WinXP/Vista OS, but locked to the hardware itself if issued under an OEM royalty license, which is no different - other than the locking feature - from the OS you get on CD/DVD in a retail box with a shrink-wrap license. The latter, the drivers, are the only "proprietary" part of what you get from your OEM, but the fact of such proprietariness has absolutely no relevance to the WinXP/Vista OS itself.

 

OEM. There's a very simple way to tell whether you've got retail or OEM, e.g., in XP: click on Start->Control Panel->System->Support Information, if anything other than Microsoft is displayed in the dialogue box that pops up, then you've got OEM. If support is provided by Microsoft, then you've got retail.

 

The whole "Vista reception" is being made by a bunch of whiners who like to complain a lot, and most of them are repeating what they heard from someone else and have no direct experience with it. Almost all of the Vista issues are related to poor driver support, and this is only an issue if you try to install it on an older computer. All laptops that come with Vista have completely up-to-date drivers and will work flawlessly.

Vista is nothing like WinME, and the issues surrounding it are completely different.

 

There is no reason to worry about installing a real version of Windows (XP or Vista) rather than the OEM tweaked (read bloatwared) version the PC manufacturer provides. Either will work. You might have to track down the drivers yourself for hardware that is installed if you install the real version, but you won't have to remove all the bloatware, either.

 

_Vista is precisely analogous to WinME - a malformed frankenstein cobbled together out of the bits & pieces MS had working for the OS that is now going to be called Win7 in order to salvage some of Microsoft's face over their self-inflicted reputational injuries resulting from their inability to deliver the sucessor to XP on a timely basis - a form of hubris, to be sure.

 

Your interpretation and knowledge of the situation is so incorrect that it does not deserve a response, other than a complete rebuke.

 

I feel that Vista is the appropriate successor to XP. No one remembers the pain of upgrading to Win95 from 3.1 Or how many users hated XP at first. The biggest thing with Vista for me is the hardare. Vista requires ALOT more power to run than XP. If anyone told me when I upgraded to win95 that someday you will need 2+gigs of ram and hard drives would exceed a terabyte I wouldnt have beleived you. BTW, when win95 came out I was running a 586 system with 32 megs of ram and a 2.1g hard drive, And I was the big Fish on my block.

 

... still waiting on that rebuke

 

I will agree with this, although that is also not to say that there haven't been some individuals with issues. Some of those have been due to software incompatibilities or hardware/driver issues. Others from a lack of understanding or a personal mistake (I, myself, am guilty of one or 2 issues). I'd also estimate that more than half of the "OMG, Vista sucks!" crowd have never used the OS, and are basing their opinions off of the opinions of others or off of the obviously well-targeted Mac vs PC ads on TV.

That said, if you have access to a copy of Vista, or it comes on your new machine, give it a try for a while, and make up your OWN mind. At the very least try dual-booting to see what does and does not work for you.

 

I agree with you that Vista is not a successor to XP. However, I wouldn't call it ME. It doesn't have many significant improvements which would draw people to it, but it is at least a stable OS that has proven useful to many.

I'd say it is more so XP in its initial release. Before SP2, XP had similar faults to that of Vista. That's why I didn't upgrade from 2000 Pro until I played with an XP PRO SP2 machine.

Windows 7 will not be without fault either. It is a natural progression of OS's to improve (an become useable) well after their initial release.

Many smart computer-knowledgeable people love Vista, which proves that there is benefit to it.

However, I'm not likely to move to Vista anytime soon .

 

Vista is clearly the successor to XP. And Windows 7 is vaporware at this point.