# Suggestions for OS software for old Acer Travelmate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-os-software-for-old-acer-travelmate/571738>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 17, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-os-software-for-old-acer-travelmate/571738 "2011-02-17T19:45:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-os-software-for-old-acer-travelmate/571738/1 "2011-02-17T19:45:41Z")

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I picked up 2 old Acer Travelmate c110 tablet/laptop systems at one of those computer shows a few weeks ago. They didn’t come with an OS loaded and I didn’t feel like getting ripped off by the guy just for installing XP on the thing, so I figured I could just load it myself, no biggie, right? Except that after a bit of research I found out that none of the tablet stuff workes unless you have XP tablet edition…which I don’t have. These are mainly just to give to the kids to play with, and I only paid like $150 for them, but I’d really like to get them working. So does anyone have suggestions for an open source OS that I could put on these that will let the kids use the tablet portions of the hardware? While I’m fairly tech savy, I’d prefer a simple options. Would just buying a copy of Windows 7 work? Note that these don’t have CD drives, so I basically have to make a bootable USB stick to load the OS. Which I can do, I just need to know what OS to use.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-os-software-for-old-acer-travelmate/571738/2 "2011-02-17T20:19:53Z")

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I’m like 90% sure the Tablet version got rolled in XP Pro and is a not-by-default install option.

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**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-os-software-for-old-acer-travelmate/571738/3 "2011-02-17T20:27:41Z")

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So by doing a custom install of XP Pro you think I could somehow select those options for install?

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**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-os-software-for-old-acer-travelmate/571738/4 "2011-02-17T20:56:15Z")

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Yeah or just go under add/remove Windows components afterwards. I might be wrong about that though. I’m confident that it’s in XP Pro somewhere though.

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**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-os-software-for-old-acer-travelmate/571738/5 "2011-02-18T16:00:23Z")

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I’ll play around with it Monday. Thanks for the suggestion **Palooka**!