How to Downgrade Vista

BlueMonke

Hi there,

I have a new computer that has the dreaded Vista installed on it. Id like to downgrade to XP does the Vista licence cover this and if so where do I get the keycode for XP.

Thanks in advance.

Gonzovision

I'm not sure but I think the business license can be used for an xp downgrade. I don't know about the home versions.

Vista is very good imo. Definitley has benefits over xp. If you have sp1 installed and 2gb of ram I'd stick with vista.

Capt'n Midnight

Home does not come with downgrade rights.

Business and enterprise do , but you are looking at wiping the drive and starting again, assuming you can get XP drivers.

Best thing to do is change settings to classic, turn off aero and a FEW other teaks to get vista ticking along nicely

hjortmar

If its a laptop that youve just bought Im pretty certain that you wont be able to downgrade to XP, althought I can only speak for the laptops from HP Id check if theres any drivers available before you go for a reinstallation.

As Captn has already mentioned you can disable most of the annoying features that Vista offers, even the "Are you sure you want to do this?" mega-nag.

EKRIUQ

Why not give Vista a chance, it's a far superior operating system than XP, the only reason why I could think you want to downgrade is because you haven't enough memory but as it's a new computer that shouldn't be a problem. Vista and Windows 7 is the future.

dhaddock

is it still cool to hate vista? there is nothing wrong with it unless as EKRIUQ said you dont have a lot of memory. Vista Ultimate x64 in particular is excellent.

Myxomatosis

hjortmar wrote: »

If its a laptop that youve just bought Im pretty certain that you wont be able to downgrade to XP

All laptops / desktops can "downgrade" to XP. If offical drivers are not provided, there are generic alternatives.

EKRIUQ wrote: »

Why not give Vista a chance, it's a far superior operating system than XP .......... Vista and Windows 7 is the future.

Buhahahahaha!!!! far superior my arse.

Vista and Windows 7 the future? Vista has turned out to be nothing more the a beta test for Windows 7 which fundamentally brings nothing new or worthwhile to the table, compared to XP or even Win2k. It's all just aesthetic "improvements" and dumbing down.

dhaddock wrote: »

is it still cool to hate vista?.

Yes

I love when people say Vista is superior.

It is has to be the most inefficient OS out there.

I've had 5 OS's (5Boot if there is a term) on the same laptop and guess which one uses over a gig of mem when idle?

Like a previous poster mentioned, turn off Aero, maybe UAC as it is a headache, maybe google Vista tweeks or something.

If you have an XP disc, and want to a Dual Boot there is loads off guides on the net on how to do it, a couple off things that you will need for it will be,
1. XP Disc with key. ---- Take down list off alll your hardware devices or go to your PC's Support Drivers page to make a list.
2. Partition Drive to what ever size you wish, you can still swap files between Windows OS's.
3. Locate SATA driver from Device Manager in Vista or from Manufacture website.
4. Install A program called N-Lite to slipstream those drivers to the XP CD so that XP can load drivers for your SATA controller hardware.
5. A Vista DVD, for repairing the MBR.
6. Then in Vista, download a prog called easyBCD, where you can edit the MBR, which will then display the OS's on boot up, where you can choose whichever.
7. In Xp then load all necessary drivers, you can use the likes off Driver Agent which would scan your PC at least it will give an indication on whats needed.

And then find out why you bought a PC and realise that you are given all your time modifing, changing and wasting loads off your precious time in doing so.......

Welcome to Windows, Please Reboot...

Adam

go up to windows 7, i'm really pleased with it so far! it's impressively fast, and uses less resources than vista.

PogMoThoin

NoDrama wrote: »

I love when people say Vista is superior.

It is has to be the most inefficient OS out there.

I've had 5 OS's (5Boot if there is a term) on the same laptop and guess which one uses over a gig of mem when idle?

Thats Vista pre-fetch, Vista loads the programs it thinks You'll need into memory so they open quicker (try notepad or WMP and see how quick they open). You can disable it, IMO I'd say its pointless for other OS's having ram sitting there doing nothing, might as well use it. This is why Vista is superior.

Nothingbetter2d

as a vista x64 user is i have my reservations about it being "superior"...... as one other poster mentions it is really still a beta version.

numerous annoying faults i have come to find about vista

1. poor dvd drives driver control system - drives regularly disappear under a cloud of vista's bad coding

2. aero turns itself off alot - best just disable it as it slows down vista anyways

3. vista lockups easily - way more than xp does --- this results in u being locked out of your pc and a repair install or reinstall is the only way to repair it (a day lost while u battle to achieve this)

4. buggy windows update system often requires manual patching to resolve it

5. annoying uac keeps bugging u even when u turn it off it keep reminding u to turn it back on.

6. (64bit) drivers for old components are hard to find - if your motherboard has an nvidia chipset of 500 or older forget vista as the drivers provided by nvidia are terrible and will cause a multitude of problems for u.

Cork Skate

Trying to get rid of Vista

Bootable XP disk is in, BIOS boots to it first ... "press any key for CD" or what ever and it just hangs. I have created new ISOs and tried to boot from them and still to no avail

1. FD 1.44mb System Type-(06)

That is the message i get, and i have to reset the PC then. Can anyone help?

degsie

Possible bad iso/bad disc/faulty drive. Try the disc in another machine.

yoyo

as a vista x64 user is i have my reservations about it being "superior"...... as one other poster mentions it is really still a beta version.

numerous annoying faults i have come to find about vista

1. poor dvd drives driver control system - drives regularly disappear under a cloud of vista's bad coding
Never had this issiue before, update chipset drivers

2. aero turns itself off alot - best just disable it as it slows down vista anyways
Some programs do require Aero turned off, But I havn.t had that issiue in a couple of months, its no big deal anyways

3. vista lockups easily - way more than xp does --- this results in u being locked out of your pc and a repair install or reinstall is the only way to repair it (a day lost while u battle to achieve this)
Never locks up for me, also I havn't needed to repair or start up repair vista yet, and been using it a good while now

4. buggy windows update system often requires manual patching to resolve it
Windows update works fine for me, did have many issiues with Windows update on XP, I guess its just random

5. annoying uac keeps bugging u even when u turn it off it keep reminding u to turn it back on.
This alert can be disabled, but UAC believe it or not actually protects your pc, but yes can be annoying

6. (64bit) drivers for old components are hard to find - if your motherboard has an nvidia chipset of 500 or older forget vista as the drivers provided by nvidia are terrible and will cause a multitude of problems for u.
Well I have a 650i mobo and havn't had any driver issiues, I guess my hardware is modern enough though

To sum it up I'm very happy with Vista, Windows 7 is also good and worth trying out, but bear in mind its still beta software with a expiry date

Nick

yoyo

Cork Skate wrote: »

Trying to get rid of Vista

Bootable XP disk is in, BIOS boots to it first ... "press any key for CD" or what ever and it just hangs. I have created new ISOs and tried to boot from them and still to no avail

1. FD 1.44mb System Type-(06)

That is the message i get, and i have to reset the PC then. Can anyone help?

Try disabling the floppy drive in the bios and see what happens (Can be done usually even with no drive present), also ensure the the CD/DVD rom drive is working, and the windows discs can be read by it (can be done by simply copying all files off it in windows)

Nick