Has anyone here downgraded from Vista down to XP?
 

I just got a laptop and it has Vista on it and it is ridiculous how bad it sucks. Its unworkable I cant work in it.
I want to reformat and use Windows XP again.
Has anyone here done that and how did it work out for you? I heard theres drivers and shit you might need if you reformat and install xp on a vista machine.

ps - no im not getting a mac.

I'd just install Windows 7.

I've never had a single issue with Vista myself, but Windows 7 is pretty nice at this point.

i built a computer specifically for vista. crashed alot, had driver issues. switched to 64 bit thinking that would help. wound up installing all my programs on my xp computer, i only have issues once in a blue moon. try and get windows 7, not that xp sucks but its the newer platform so you may as well get used to it. you can download it for free from microsoft and use if for a year.

I have a free upgrade to Windows 7 but I cant get it until after October.
Can I download windows7 now? and it installs right over Vista?

Yep. You can get it right from Microsoft and then just upgrade from within Vista.

It's simple and you can just use your free upgrade code when the time comes.

I've got it running on my little Netbooks at the moment and it runs perfectly.

Some Vista versions allow you to downgrade to XP without formatting. (Ithink)

Where is the option? When I look in microsoft all I see is here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy...s/upgrade.aspx

Do I have to download it and make a cd?

Download it here and burn a disc:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win.../download.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win.../download.aspx

download that
download IMG burn, and burn to a DVD, install and viola

If your laptop didn't come with re-installation discs, make sure you create them before you change the OS. :2 cents:

I had them do the factory downgrade to xp on my new laptop. Rules!

I don't understand all you people that cry about Vista.

I run it on 5 computers, that run 24/7 and do Mental Ray 3d rendering(around the clock this week) and never have problems with it.

I think many of you that have issues are trying to run it on computers from 1999. Really, what the hell is so bad about it?

Aside from a few minor annoyances with Explorer bugs, its been great for me --- and I'm a hardcore computer user. I have a thriving animation business that needs stable systems, and Vista is doing a good job.

I downgraded my laptop from Vista to XP a year ago. I'm not sure if anything has changed since that time, but even formatting didn't help to downgrate because XP coun't initialize SATA. I dowbloaded XP drivers pack from my laptops website and I had 2 options:

1. Buying an external floppy drive for my laptop to run the boot disquette from it
2. Having my friend programmer build in the XP sata driver in XP installation CD (boot version with formatting is needed in this case)

I went with option #2 and successfully downgraded.

It may vary from laptop to laptop (depending on the version of vista installed)

I bought a laptop about 4 months ago that came with vista loaded..i returned the laptop because of the no questions asked policy at costco. i ended up buying an old demo they had in the back of the warehouse with xp installed

What you need to do is acquire all the Windows XP drivers. If your laptop came with Vista it's very likely that your hardware provider is not making any windows xp drivers. This same thiing happened to me. I got all the drivers from 3rd parties, they all worked btw.

Once you get them all, insert the XP cd and boot, there will be a moment when the installation will ask you if you want to format the partition in which you're about to install the OS. My advice is that you format the partition.

PS: If you have any sensitive information, you should back it up in a pen drive or smthg like that. Downgrading the OS isn't really a big deal.

Good luck!

I am not a heavy user but I am on my 2 laptops 24/7 and I do not even notice a difference between vista and xp.

Aside from that, you really have to wonder how going backwards is for a success strategy. If you give up now and accept that you can't figure out a new OS what happens on windows 7 , 8, 9 etc..

correct, the business version includes downgrade rights to xp pro.

I have nothing to say against Vista as I haven't played with it enough. However it had one big issue for me - I have several computers connected through a network hub and I couldn't connect the vista laptop to the internet through that hub. Later on I found out that Vista can't identify some hubs. That was the reason for my downgrade.

Yes, the second i get a new PC I format it and put XP back. Vista is a piece of crap. Dell had a good license swap going where you could replace Vista with XP. Not sure if that's still the case but I took advantage of it a few months ago.
WG

oh shit windows 7 is 2.3 gigs and my cd's are all around 700mb
this is such a pain in the ass

You know you can burn to a DVD, right? :winkwink:

I do now ;) this is all new to me, I just have to go to a store and get them.
Im really thrown off game by this vista, i cant understand anything! The way everything is organized, anytime I make a move or even open a program like photoshop it asks me if I grant permission to open photoshop. So I feel like I'm in the twilight zone

I cant believe people at microsoft sat in meetings and approved this fucking terrible OS

A laptop, unless it's top-of-the-line, generally won't have the processing speed required for Vista (never mind what the official requirements are). XP is the way to go

you should have worded the title "upgraded" from Vista to XP :2 cents:

yeah, when im not on linux im on xp. vista is a piece of shit for many reasons

i would try installing service pack 2 (which was just released) prior to switching to xp or 7.

As a lifelong "fix your PC for you" guy, I decided to skip Vista and migrate to Mac. I have become VERY comfortable with XP over the years since it was released but find myself wanting some more eye candy then I am getting during my daily grind.

I am using a macbook pro now which I cannot stand to put down for more than 5 minutes at a time and have XP running in a virtual machine on it for the odd program that just doesn't have an equivalent in MacOS (Internet Explorer for one thing for some secure websites that dont like anything else, and Quickbooks)

I upgraded from vista / xp to OSx

vista is ok i get that blue screen shit after a update

xp is mama!