> Nobody forced you to buy that HP

Earle, if you read me carefully you will see that I do not complain about
HP.
My complaint is about MS who forced HP to sell computers with VISTA only.
[color=blue]
> Neither HP nor Microsoft is under any obligation to provide you with[/color]
another[color=blue]
> computer that can run XP[/color]

Absurd! MS, as far as I know, does not sell hardware - why do you think I
might consider MS under obligation to provide me with a computer? HP are
happy to supply computers with XP, but MS does not sell them relevant
license.
[color=blue]
>Changing the user interface has been a huge pain
> in the neck to some but it violates no comsumer laws that I am aware of.[/color]

Earle, by your comments lawyer is not your trade or even hobby - you have
difficulties to understand what exactly I am unhappy about.
I am not an idiot to complain about MS changing user interface of their new
product. I am complaining that MS withheld licences for the previous
versions of OS thus forcing consumers to buy they new OS. And the Web is
full of people unhappy with VISTA and wanting to go back to XP or w2k. Of my
contacts I know only two, happy with VISTA. Both are young people, both
using computers for entertainment purposes only - music, video, Internet
browsing. For those using computer for business swear when are reminded of
VISTA.
[color=blue]
> If there is a system recovery partition or system install disks that[/color]
came with[color=blue]
> it that should do nicely.[/color]

You probably are aware that they do not supply system install disks. From my
experience with XP system recovery partition, recovering OS from that
partition does not necessarily goes nicely. I know several cases when people
had to format the whole disk and install OS anew, using installation XP and
even w2k disks from thrown away old computers. This might be illegal but
getting help from MS is hopeless - they always say this is a hardware
fault - if you somehow manage to talk to them which is a challenge per ce.