Vista rollback to WinXP Media on Dell E1705 Inspiron

I've read some of the Pros/Cons for Vista on the forum but was wondering how to find information on the forums archived threads detailing Vista rollback on Dell E1705 Inspiron laptop?
Would certainly appreciate your explanation of course as well. The laptop is my son's, I've never had a laptop and only worked with them occasionally and several years ago. I remember mostly they were quite proprietary in the way they were built, in terms of what devices/software you could install or upgrade to; at least some of the early ones that I remember from work. And of course every things as far as repairs or parts seemed much more expensive.
The other thing is, I don't remember if the installation CDs were shipped with the laptop. It was 2 Christmases ago and son was back in college before I had much of chance to look at it.
Thanks for any advice or directions.
Greynold