Ditching Vista: How To Downgrade To Windows XP

[OhioChick]

If sluggish performance and numerous bugs in your shiny new PC running Windows Vista have got you down, you can downgrade -- at no additional cost -- to Windows XP. It's not hard. Here's how.

By Rick Broida
InformationWeek
January 22, 2008 04:00 AM


Software incompatibilities. Sluggish operation. That darn User Account Control screen. Is it any wonder Windows Vista has being greeted in some quarters with a lack of enthusiasm? But your PC came with Vista, and that means you’re stuck with it, right?
Wrong. You can replace stiff, awkward Vista with the comfy, compatible old slipper that is Windows XP. It takes a couple of hours, but it won’t cost you any money that you haven’t already spent. Here’s how.

Start by backing up your system. At the very least, offload the data to CDs or, better yet, a USB flash drive or external hard drive. Even better: Take an image of the entire hard drive using a utility like Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost, for a complete system restoration. If the XP installation goes badly, having a backup or disk image allows you to restore your system to its previous state. You’ll still be running Vista, but at least you’ll still be running.

Next, gather up all the drivers you'll need. Remember that your PC was built to Vista specifications and equipped with Vista-compatible software and drivers. Your PC doesn’t have XP drivers, and Windows XP might not have all the drivers built into it that your PC needs. Unless you collect all the right drivers before you do your upgrade, you run the risk of ending up with a crippled PC.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205101355

[villager]

1. hell -- or maybe go to open source Linux?

n/t

[iconoclastic cat]

7. Just not Ubuntu 7.10, until they iron out the bugs.

That was a baaaaad distro. It was custom built for Dell laptops, but everyone else got the shaft. The next release (in 3 months!) will be fantastic, though.

[LakeSamish706]

14. I found it pretty bad as well, had not used it before the 7.10 release...

So it wasn't just me, it actually was a bad release huh? Damn, I blew it away wondering what kind of fool would use that shit... Will try the new release when it comes out.

[iconoclastic cat]

15. It was a total fiasco. About half the community revolted.

A lot of people rolled back to 7.04 or switched to PCLinuxOS. You can still try 7.04, which I highly recommend -- I have literally not had a problem with 7.04 that I couldn't fix within an hour, thanks to their docs and chat rooms. 7.10, however, pretty much nuked the hard drive on my laptop, and it had all kinds of graphics issues on my desktop PC.

The next one, 8.04, will be much better, since it is a "Long Term Support" release. LTS releases focus on bug fixing from the previous release, not new features the way that 7.10 did. 8.04 will be a great one; I've already tried out the alpha release, and it works great (as long as you don't mind compiling everything from source until the final release).

[LakeSamish706]

17. Thanks, will try 7.04... n/t

[Barrett808]

19. So far 7.10 is working fine for me

But I haven't been exercising it much.

[iconoclastic cat]

20. It's truly bizarre. Some people had no problems at all.

It just would not play nice with some hardware, I guess.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

2. USING IT AND LOVING IT

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Cronus Protagonist]

9. Yeah, it's nice

I'm happy with it. Much better than XP and Windows 2000.

[onehandle]

3. Or just upgrade to a Mac.

:)

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Or just switch to Linux. Or download Leopard for $9.

There is no reason to use Microsloth anymore. They are on the decline, and will go extinct.

I switched to Ubuntu Linux a year ago, and I've had a great time with it. Now that the Mac's OS is ported to Intel and AMD chipsets, I will probably dual boot between the two.

[LakeSamish706]

5. If anyone is contemplating doing something like this, I would recommend...

getting a copy of Partition Magic or a piece of software that you can repartition your hard drive with and reducing the current size of your hard drive followed by an installation of Windows XP...

[iconoclastic cat]

6. "Parted" is a great open-source (aka "free") app, too. nt

[LakeSamish706]

8. Thanks for the tip, am not familar with Parted, but will have a look. n/t

[iconoclastic cat]

11. Link:

http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/faq.shtml

By the way, it works on a standalone CD, so you can use it for any OS.

[villager]

10. THat's what I need! Was contemplating the dual boot install later this week...

But have to partition things first...

[iconoclastic cat]

12. I posted a link above:

http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/faq.shtml

[LakeSamish706]

13. If you are thinking of Partition Magic... Just found a pretty good deal...

at this link.... Sells for $69.95 at Symantec...

http://ibmdownload.com/product_info.php?products_id=418

[iconoclastic cat]

16. There are so many fantastic freeware partition editors, why would you pay? nt

[LakeSamish706]

18. I bought Partition Magic a few years back when I had my own company in operation. n/t

[EV_Ares]

21. I have had Vista Ultimate for quite a while now and have had no problems.

I like it, speed with Cable high speed is good and the security is good. Yeah, the User Account may be a pain for some but everyone talks about security and it works. I also like the Bit-locker Encryption and the fax and scan. With Bit-locker, if your laptop gets stolen or your computer out of your home, it won't do anyone any good because everything is encrypted.

You might want to think about what was in a tech magazine the other day. Microsoft has announced the date that support will no longer be available for XP sometime in the future so if that matters to you, might want to check that out. As far as XP, I thought it was ok as well, no problems. The upgrade for Vista comes later this year on some stuff.