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OS Swap

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by stephen.king

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We are in the process of installing GE Radworks stations. This requires Windows 2000 or NT and I purchased all of our systems from Dell who said they would send the pc's with Win2000 but when they arrived had XP Pro. Dell is unwilling to swap OS's they would rather me sent the PC's back. My question is since I already have the XP Pro's Licenses can we install the 2000 and be covered or do I have to purchase Win2000 Licenses?

7 replies

by shadowofthefallen

You would need to purchase the windows 2000 licenses. Why does your network require win2k or winNT? On a side note, XP and 2K are remarkably similar.

by pschuvie

I think the legal point would be without having specific authorization paperwork from Dell you currently own x XP licenses and have to buy the proper amount of W2Ks. Maybe your legal advisor, the lawyer, could place a motivational letter to Dell and get the paperwork accomplished.

You might also see if you couldn't get Dell to do a drive with w2k swap for each unit. Impress upon them the mutual cost savings involved. But I sure wouldn't let them just push XP on you because they messed up. Might be time to start climbing that ladder of Customer Service looking for a more positive decision maker then you have already been talking to.

Hope that helps.

by timwalsh

Unfortunately, to be legal, you will need to own Win2K licenses in order to install Win2K.

A couple of possible options:
1. Verify that your initial order with Dell specified Win2K vs. WinXP. If Dell loaded the wrong software, they should pay any costs incurred (like shipping) to correct the problem. I realize it's a tough decision to send computers back to the factory once you have received them, but to get support from Dell (as good as it usually is), you have to play their game.
2. If Dell refuses to either send you the correct software, or pay for the shipping:
a. If you bought the computers with a credit card, talk to the credit card company about withholding payment because you didn't get the product you ordered.
b. If you used a purchase order, threaten to withhold payment of the invoice because you didn't get the product you ordered.
3. Try loading GE Radworks on one of the XP machines. If it will run on Win2K, there is a very good chance it will run on WinXP. This may save you the time lost by sending the computers back to Dell for software reload.

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