Free windows xp?

Hi All- this may be an incredibly stupid question(i seem to ask them alot lately), but I was wondering if it is possible to get windows xp for free?
I am on a computer that desperately needs to be upgraded and I'm wondering if there is a free way to do so? Thanks in advance for helping out a slightly computer illiterate girl.

 

Nah, I don't believe you can get Windows XP free. Before you buy this be sure your computer is compatible with Windows XP.

See this site, Windows XP Home Edition System Requirements

$99.99 Windows XP Home Upgrade SP2

You can also buy this at Wal-Mart, BestBuy, CompUSA and similiar eletronics stores for around the same price.

 

If you buy a new pc, you will most likely get a free copy of xp & license. You can upgrade that new pc to your liking.

If you buy pc parts, you probably can't get xp for free. However, some stores will sell motherboards with OEM XP for cheap. OEM means no package & manual. Just the CD & license in a cd holder. Make sure it's a reputable store cuz some are selling illegal copies.

Here is a photo of the real thing:

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/32-116-169-03.JPG

Green for home. blue for pro. Grey for business.

 

hi,
why not try one of the linux based systems, they are mainly free and you can download them

have a look here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions

 

My 2cents about Linux: Its a good os and I prefere it to Windoz;A couple of years ago I booted windows out of my house and went exclusivly to Linux. I even took the Linux classes at the local community college. The big problem was the few things that I really needed, did not have Linux support - also they did not work with any of the Linux based windows emulators.

anyone notice - Vista desktop bears a striking resemblence to some of the Linux desktops.

 

Would be best to start with the Ubuntu version which doesnt rely on the command line.Handy for Linux newbies like me.

 

You can't find a free version of Windows anywhere. there used to be a pirating site called kazza or something like that, but i wouldn't use it anymore. you'll need to by windows or a chip set/mb that comes with an OEM version.

 

Kazaa is a P2P Sharing Application, and its better to buy a legal version of XP than obtain it through unknown sources, for many reasons.

 

I never used kazaa any how, i just heard of it. Limewire is the new kazaa aside from the limewire virus. as for why it's better, i know. I don't know what people have enbedded into pirated windows version. It would be hard to tell if they did anywhy, the way some Windows version have performed *cough*ME*cough*.

 

Agree entirely with bjgarrick. Make sure your hardware (RAM, hard drive space, etc.) is well and truely ABOVE minimum requirements before you consider installing XP.

Best to have around 512-768 megs of RAM, as a minimum, for example.

Upgrades to XP Pro (and XP Home) are also around AUD $100-$135 (= USD $100 approx) here in OZ.
Maybe prices will fall a bit further when VISTA is released publicly (Jan 2007)?

Both are around the same price, so I would recommend XP Pro over XP Home, as it has some features that XP Home does not have. (if the price is right, of course).

Bazza

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If you're in school and you're school is in the MSDN Academic Alliance, you can lots of Microsoft stuff for free from your IT department, including XP Pro and Visual Studio 2005 (and soon Vista, don't know which version but probably Business).

 

XP runs fine on my HP pavilion.
700 mhz Celeron
385 mb ram
40 Gigs X2 hdd
32 mb vid card shared (hate it)
65.6 mhz bus speed (slowwww)

it runs fairly seemless if you know how to optimize and use msconfig.
Also XP pro in stores cost $100 more than home, and as far as i can tell (have them both)
i can't tell much of a difference, save for a few power tools (can't think of them of the top of my mind).

 

Full versions of XP certainly have a difference in price between XP Home and XP Pro.

Here in OZ, for upgrades there is very little difference in price between the 2.

There is no need to buy a full version if you already have a previous version of Windows installed, or better still have an original CD of an earlier version (for a clean install).

If you have a 128meg graphic card, that will obviously use more RAM than a 32 meg card. Roughly an extra 100 megs of RAM is required, unless it is a dedicated graphic card.

XP Pro has backup installed as standard. For XP Home you have to seek it out on the CD and install it. Belarc Advisor makes better use of XP Pro than XP Home, as just one example.

If both upgrades cost roughly the same price I cannot see the point in settling for XP Home. IMHO, of course.

Bazza

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