Can anyone help I currently have my huge itunes library on an external drive. My current laptop runs Windows XP but my new Dell laptop is Vista.

Do I have to install itunes on my new laptop and just change the path in settings and hopefully pick up everything off my external hard drive or can I just plug in my ipod into the new computer and it will pick up everything from my external hard drive.

Any help is much appreciated

All i have ever done is copy the library folder accross to the new PC from the old one, just check where the folders are on each install of iTunes, works fine

Change the path settings after installing iTunes on the new machine and you should be good to go. On the Mac it is possible to select the library when you start iTunes by holding down the option key. To keep all your play lists copy the library xml files to the external HD from the old machine if it's not all ready there.