Windows vista or xp?

Here the few Vista machines we have run till some update asks for a reboot. We have them in very stock form with AVG or Avast antivirus but since these are work machines they don't get the usual afflctions.

These are very boring machines. That is, nothing bad happens so while we made the restore media plus duplicated those for backup purposes we have not had to try that.

My answer is "It works until it's told not to."
Bob

The error you write about can have far too many causes for me to cover in this small space. The fix is to let HP take the machine back for repair and then it will likely come back in working shape.

As to Windows XP install, the single issue of XP and SATA hard disks (which I will not write about in this discussion) is enough to stop most that will attempt to install XP. And there are some other dozen roadblocks to stop XP from installing. The most common one I run into today is that the person doesn't have the right XP CD as well as does not want to research the XP and SATA issue. Sadly many owners just want it to work or need "step by step" instructions. The sad part is that while installing XP is documented, its never documented for your machine.
Bob

without any real problems. A couple of old programs had to be updated.
I had 1 BSOD a few months back which restarted the system and restored normally, no more trouble since.