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Whats the best FREE operating system to download?
5/1/2012 8:24:20 PM
I got an old dell laptop that was supposed to have a fried motherboard.. Turns out whoever took it apart for some reason didn't put the CPU/heatsink in right
Anyways.. It has a Windows XP Home COA sticker on the case, but no way to install it(I Have a XP home disc, but it won't work with the case coa). HDD is wiped clean so there's no way to re-store windows. So, what would be the best OS to install on it that's free?
Anyways.. It has a Windows XP Home COA sticker on the case, but no way to install it(I Have a XP home disc, but it won't work with the case coa). HDD is wiped clean so there's no way to re-store windows. So, what would be the best OS to install on it that's free?
5/1/2012 8:32:02 PM
There is only ONE choice in this matter... FreeBSD.
ETA,
5/1/2012 10:46:56 PM
The SLIC table is already loaded in the Bios for OEM XP home edition,
You have the Dell XP OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop,
So, all you need to do is install the retail version of XP home,
Download and manual insert the Dell OEM cert for XP home into the retail version you just installed,
then use the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop to activate the XP home addition as the OEM version.
Note, this is legal since the computer came preloaded with Dell OEM XP home to begin with, and has a legit OEM serial number to go with it.
Or,
If someone has a copy of Dell OEM XP home (or just down load a copy of XP Home OEM Dell ISO and make a install disco from the ISO), then you can use it to reload Dell OEM XP home (this will load the OEM cert by itself, and again, use the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop to activate it.
The down side, windows is not longer supporting XP, so no security updates are available to at least get it to the most secure version of it was before windows stop supporting it.
You have the Dell XP OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop,
So, all you need to do is install the retail version of XP home,
Download and manual insert the Dell OEM cert for XP home into the retail version you just installed,
then use the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop to activate the XP home addition as the OEM version.
Note, this is legal since the computer came preloaded with Dell OEM XP home to begin with, and has a legit OEM serial number to go with it.
Or,
If someone has a copy of Dell OEM XP home (or just down load a copy of XP Home OEM Dell ISO and make a install disco from the ISO), then you can use it to reload Dell OEM XP home (this will load the OEM cert by itself, and again, use the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop to activate it.
The down side, windows is not longer supporting XP, so no security updates are available to at least get it to the most secure version of it was before windows stop supporting it.
5/1/2012 10:47:27 PM
BeOS
5/1/2012 10:54:15 PM
Originally Posted By Dano523:
If someone has a copy of Dell OEM XP home, then you can use it to reload xp home (this will load the OEM cert by itself, and again, use the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop to activate it.
If someone has a copy of Dell OEM XP home, then you can use it to reload xp home (this will load the OEM cert by itself, and again, use the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop to activate it.
I have a XP home disc that someone burned for me. It worked on my other computer(As it already had it installed on the HDD just needed to "restore" it) but when I installed it on the one in question, and tried activating the key on the case it wouldn't let me?
5/1/2012 10:59:27 PM
Check it out.... do some searching @ Distrowatch
ETA: check out this list Top Ten
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ultimate
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint
ETA2: I'm posting this from an old Dell laptop I aquired from my sis-in-law when its HD failed. I offered to replace the HD / re-install Windows, etc for the price of a new HD, but she decided she wanted to upgrade to a newer laptop. Bottom line, I got a "new to me" laptop for the price of a HD and it's now rockin' and rolling with Ubuntu.
ETA: check out this list Top Ten
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ultimate
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint
ETA2: I'm posting this from an old Dell laptop I aquired from my sis-in-law when its HD failed. I offered to replace the HD / re-install Windows, etc for the price of a new HD, but she decided she wanted to upgrade to a newer laptop. Bottom line, I got a "new to me" laptop for the price of a HD and it's now rockin' and rolling with Ubuntu.
5/1/2012 11:10:50 PM
Originally Posted By JFCreally:
I have a XP home disc that someone burned for me. It worked on my other computer(As it already had it installed on the HDD just needed to "restore" it) but when I installed it on the one in question, and tried activating the key on the case it wouldn't let me?
Originally Posted By Dano523:
If someone has a copy of Dell OEM XP home, then you can use it to reload xp home (this will load the OEM cert by itself, and again, use the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop to activate it.
If someone has a copy of Dell OEM XP home, then you can use it to reload xp home (this will load the OEM cert by itself, and again, use the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop to activate it.
I have a XP home disc that someone burned for me. It worked on my other computer(As it already had it installed on the HDD just needed to "restore" it) but when I installed it on the one in question, and tried activating the key on the case it wouldn't let me?
Again, the difference between the retail version you have, and the Dell OEM version of XP home, is that the OEM version will self load the Dell OEM XP home cert that goes hand and hand with the OEM serial number that you have. So you will need to either get a Dell OEM version of XP home that will self install the needed cert, or you will need to manually find and install the OEM cert into the fresh loaded version of retail XP Home so the OEM serial number on the bottom of the laptop works to activate the OS.
Bottom line, there are three things that have to be in play for the OEM version of any windows OS to activate.
The first is the correct slic being loaded from the bio's for the OEM version you are loading at start up .
The cert for that OEM version loaded on the system,
The correct OEM SLP Key for the above, all which have to match for the same OEM version (Dell XP home in this case), to activate the OS.
You have the first two right, but without the correct XP home Dell OEM cert installed on the system (which the retail version of XP you have does not contain to load), the OS is not going to activate with the OEM SLP Key.
5/2/2012 3:01:13 PM
ThanksDano523 . I guess I can try to find a OEM install cd but it's been hard to find one for cheap.
5/2/2012 4:03:32 PM
Originally Posted By JFCreally:
ThanksDano523 . I guess I can try to find a OEM install cd but it's been hard to find one for cheap.
ThanksDano523 . I guess I can try to find a OEM install cd but it's been hard to find one for cheap.
You kidding right?????
A quick Google search brings up no less than a half dozen torrents of the Dell OEM XP home disc.
And better yet, you really don't even need the use the torrent disc OS to do a full reinstall. Just go into the Certs folder of the Dell OEM XP ISO (use Win zip to decompress the ISO so you can pull the needed cert without making a new disc), then either manually insert insert the cert into the retail version of XP home that you have already loaded on the laptop, or use Opatool to insert the cert for you.
To insert the cert manually, pull it out of the ISO of the Oem dell xp oem cert folder, and put it on the laptops C drive (read will be the cert ending with ".xrm-ms".
Type cmd in Start menu on the laptop.
Right-click on the first result (cmd.exe) and click on Run as administrator (confirm by clicking Yes if required).
Type (Important: Replace "NAME" with the name of your certificate)
Code:
slmgr -ilc C:\NAME.xrm-ms
Press ENTER and wait until a message confirms that the certificate has been correctly installed.
And again, your slp key on the bottom of the laptop and bios loading slic are for Dell XP home edition only, and will not work for anything else but the Dell XP Home edition and it cert.
5/2/2012 4:40:01 PM
I'm not computer smart like you, sorry. But I've attempted to download the torrents. Most of them were incomplete or wouldn't allow me to download the files. Or when I did get them downloaded they opened up to nothing.
