Downgrade windows vista to xp pro

My laptop came pre-installed with Vista. Nothing seems to let me reinstall XP after requesting a HD wipe. Posted by: Johnny 31 Mar Press F3 to terminate Posted by: Bill 31 May I just put XP Pro on my Inspiron Went fairly easy. I went online and got the xp drivers for the devices listed in my device manager. Dell has them all available at their website. I did, however, use a new hard drive. I took out the original one and put it in a portable USB case.

That way I can transfer files as needed - IF needed. It also keeps my original in tact along with the recover partition and software. It was about 40 bucks for a faster and better WD drive at Dell. You need to turn off the Flash first than switch to ATA. It also helps if you download the Service pack 2 seperately for XP before you do it. Most programs and Virus protection will need SP2.

I run NIS and it works great. The reason I switch was the ever present "Blue Screen of Death". I got sick of it. I found out in all this that I pretty sure my original hard drive is bad. Now I have and gb Western Digital Drives in it. Than I have the original and another in cases I bought for a few bucks from Dell.

They work great for laptop drives. The are StarTech Info Safe 2. They are quick to install drive and work flawlessly. Comes with a double USB for power and info transfer. You need to plug both USB cables in. So, to set up your computer, just do some research on it. If you have a type in your search bar "XP Drivers for Inspiron " You should find some reputable sites to get them, regardless of the manufacturer.

The main ones to worry about are your LAN connection wired and your display. As long as you can get online afterwards, you can let xp search the net for the drivers. Chances are, it will find them. It did for me on the ones I was missing. Most computers should allow to choose in the BIOS.

Posted by: worldchamp 23 Oct I have downgraded from vista to xp professional successfully on a HP us machine. After installation I am having trouble booting the machine. It WILL boot after about 10 or so tries. Then it operates just fine with a lot of speed for hours. Any thoughts? Posted by: zahir 09 Apr There's more reader feedback See all comments for this article.

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If you want to ask a question click here. Need tech support? Problems with Windows Vista One of the common problems users are experiencing with Windows Vista is that the operating system may not be compatible with their existing hardware, especially printers, scanners, and certain video cards. Downgrade From Vista to XP If you remember back to when you installed Windows XP, Microsoft provided users with a fairly simple option to return to Windows 98 if something went wrong, or if you didn't like it.

Install Windows XP normally, providing either the product key that came with the disk, or the one you got from Microsoft customer support.

If the installer warns you that another copy of Windows is already installed, don't worry. Remember, this install will wipe out your existing Vista installation. Activate your copy of Windows XP when it prompts you to do so. Thank you for your understanding. Best regards,. Tim Quan. Office Office Exchange Server. Not an IT pro? Windows Client. Sign in. United States English. Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads.

They wouldn't for me. I spent literally 4 hours bouncing from one damn support person to another. Wasted a day on this stupid thing. Microsoft's customer support is the 10th level of hell. Even if the motherboard is replaced you will need to buy a seperate OEM pack unless the replacement is done under the warranty period. Hope the info helps. Wednesday, April 11, AM. If you've got a Vista license that lets me downgrade to a version of XP that you have another disk for it should make no difference where the disk came from.

MS uses convoluted license agreements to try and force people to pay for things they already have a right to. Fact is if we have a media that is legal, and we can prove its source we can downgrade. Hope it helps. Parijat wrote:. Wednesday, April 11, PM. I mean really fast compared to XP downgrade I have right now. In vista, you can multitask without affecting program operation A network protocol I need to run most of my business taks arent supported in Vista anymore. I tried downloading one, but no luck there.

Maybe i havent tried that hard. Anyway, here's my journey through the wilderness of downgrading from Vista to XP Pro. I downloaded the drivers of my laptop with an equivalent model.

After this, I reformatted my drive. All the drivers are already packed in the zip file provided. Other drivers such as for Intel wirelss lan and biometric sensors are manually downloaded from the manufacturer's site. So the downgrade is quite painful on my part. But I'm quite happy for the result. I am able to use the software I need and other matters that work flawlessly with XP.

Note: I wish Microsoft could somehow release patches or Service Packs that will make it as a software-friendly OS and backward compatibility support. If this will not happen, I might stick with XP for a very long time.

Don't be fooled by others that XP wont get any support anytime sooner now. I really loved Vista But it's not yet ready for all of us now. Let's wait for a couple of years for microsoft to fix our problems and theirs as well. Tuesday, May 1, AM. Tuesday, May 1, PM.

Just go to www. Thursday, May 3, AM. How do you reformat the Drive? What did you boot setup for XP from. Monday, May 7, PM. Tuesday, May 8, PM. Does the Vista key work with the XP pro?? Your help will be highly appreciated.

I have recently acquired a copy of Windows Vista from a neighbor. They told me that it could be used on two machines, but I soon came to realize that they had been mistaken. Sadly I had already upgraded my machine from XP to Vista and it is now telling me I need to validate it. As I cannot afford to purchase it, I need to find out how to downgrade my machine back to XP. I tried inserting the XP disk, but Vista has only granted my limited use of my machine.

Can anyone help me out or give me advise on how to solve this problem. It would be greatly appreciated. Monday, May 21, PM. Appreciate if you or anyone out there could advice on how to downgrade? Please advice. Thanks, sean. Friday, May 25, PM. What I am trying to respond to is: Anonymous wrote in response to Parijat: "You're contradicting yourself here. Cheers, Jono. Sunday, May 27, AM. Hi there Where do we get the drivers from to downgrade?

Thursday, May 31, PM. Tuesday, June 5, PM. Can you tell me where I can find it? Wednesday, June 6, PM. Vista drivers should do the work. Friday, June 22, PM. XP Pro Student License is available with me. Hard Drive may not be powered on. Thanks, Krishna.

Here is the problem no one at microsoft has a clue on how to deal with the downgrade. Friday, June 29, PM. After doing more diging on MS's website it seems that while the EULA allows said downgrade and does not specify that the user has to have an xp cd and license.

Which is not a downgrade it is moving a license from one pc to another so if you have a pc with XP Home for example and you purchase a new computer with Vista Business and wish to downgrade it as per your rights according to the EULA you can't and are screwed. To me this is an outrage I am going to send the EULA to my Attorney and I will post agian when I have an answer to this in a legal way as the EULA seems clear to me that you can downgrad it does not mention anything about haveing to transfer Licenses from one PC to another but that is how MS is making it look like.

If anyone else would like to work with me on suit against MS to either put in thier EULA that to downgrade you have to have the License of which OS you want to downgrade to or that they come up with a way to make it work so you can have your License downgraded I don't mind if they don't provide media that is easyily found they need to provide new keys for the downgraded software so you can use it.

I will reply when I can find a way to comunicate with thoes interested in working with me so that we don't have to put phone numbers down or e-mail addresses to reduce spam.

And I want to do that as soon as I can feel comfortable in doing so. Meaning that I won't get stuck in limbo without a working PC. All I need is some assurance that I can use either product key to install and that there won't be any activation hassles. Obviously I am not interested in "moving" the license from the other XP installation. Can anyone reassure me on this? There's a wealth of contradictory information being bandied about.

Can we have an official answer from someone at Microsoft? Anyone listening? Friday, July 6, PM. Wednesday, July 11, PM. Saturday, July 14, AM. After finishing the installation, there will be 2 options for you to pick for the Windows Activation. Activate online or activate through Phone Call. Pick activate through Phone Call. The system will show a series of Installation ID for activation. Microsoft will verify the information and respond within 24 hours.

Common case is about hours. Key in the activation key. I don't know how valid that email is since it's off the Malaysia partner page. But at least it's a starting point. Tuesday, July 17, PM. Friday, July 20, PM. Be glad its not Dell Tuesday, July 24, AM. Tuesday, July 24, PM. So untill proven otherwise Im sticking by this. Tuesday, July 31, AM. Vista Blue, I was able to preform the downgrade that day the issue that I had was it took hours of time and I had to tie up an exsisting XP Pro License to do the downgrade and by so doing 1 pc used 2 licenses the Vista Business and the XP Pro it was not a downgrade that is where I have an issue as per the EULA it states you can downgrade it does not state that you have to have a spare XP License other wise just get the XP License and screw Vista all together.

Thursday, August 16, PM. The will downgrae using an exsiting OEM Key but the key must not be used on another PC again only on the downgrade so if you have 2 hps 1 xp pro 1 vista if you use the key from your pro to downgrade your vista that will work but you can not use the orginal pro computer with that key so yes you will have to have 2 licenses to do the downgrade and yes microsoft is making you essentaly purchase 2 licenses as you will loose the Pro license to downgrade vista.

It does not state that you have to have a license for it. MS is screwing everyone whom chooses to downgrade. Or can I just overwrite the Vista system files with XP and everything will be peachy.

Friday, August 17, PM. I want to downgrade windows vista to windows xp pro thanks bob. Tuesday, September 18, PM. Thursday, September 27, PM. I have an Acer Aspire T with vista basic, and i absaloutley hate it. I would have bought the XP por version but this was the only one i could afford. I have XP pro on the other hard disc that i salvaged from my old computer but it's XP keeps rebooting halfway through starting up, does anyone have a way the can help me aswell?

Saturday, October 13, PM. Have to absolutely and respectfully disagree with this persons assertions as to Vista's performance. Vista is a hog compared to XP. Sunday, October 14, PM.

I work in IT support, and deal with multiple companies. Friday, October 19, PM. Friday, October 26, AM. Monday, October 29, AM. As per Russian Microsoft official representative: You should act as follows: 0. Actually thes should be from the same bundle.

Get your Vista product key ready and call your local activate-by-phone service when requested 4. Activate your XPProf. You can install Vista later instead of this XP anytime. The only point: only one activated OS at a moment per one product key.

Regarding the drivers and the downgrade disks: 1. If you can download drivers for your PC from vendor's site - feel lucky You can use, for example nLite google it to embed drivers into your installation disk.

Please note, that this technique is not officially supported by microsoft, hence all the operations that you perform using nLite are at your own risk. WBR, Cyrill. Wednesday, October 31, PM. Friday, November 2, PM. Wednesday, November 7, PM. Monday, November 12, PM. Monday, December 3, PM. Hi Krishna, I have a Sony laptop and have the same problem. How did you fix this problem.

Thanks, Don. Saturday, December 15, AM. Thursday, December 27, PM. I would sure like to know if this works as I hate Vista. I have a new XP Pro in the box and would love to just install it over Vista and have it work. Friday, December 28, PM. Hello, I am running vista home basic on my macbook, need for a few programs. I am using VMWare fusion which is a virtual machine. My macbook it self has MB of ram but vista needs all that to rune and I cant use all of that because i need some to be saved on mac os x.

I wish to downgrade to xp so that i need less ram. If i install vista on boot camp, a way to rune windows by booting up to different partition, then will i be able to downgrade to vista. I also have had many problems with vista and XP is much better. Where can i find a copy of windows xp?

Do i just call in microsoft with my vista product key and they give new one? Saturday, December 29, PM. Saturday, January 5, PM. They came preinstalled with XP Pro using Vista downgrade rights. I gather you can ring Microsoft to do the activation but do I have to do this for each and everyone one of my PCs??? That would take forever, plus I'd have to move desk to desk or have dozens of PCs lined up ready to sort the activation out of the phone.

Never gonna happen. My question is, can I bypass this rigmaroll by starting a new image using my Volume XP key and rolling this out to each PC? This would stop me needing to activate each and every one of them over the phone separatley.

Wednesday, January 9, PM. Like MS has printed everywhere: Q. What about product activation? When an end user is using their downgrade rights offered under the License Terms in Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions and they use both Windows XP media and a product key that was previously activated, they will be unable to activate on-line over the Internet, due to the hardware confi guration change when installing on the Vista system.

In these cases the end user will be prompted to call the Activation Support Line and explain their circumstances to the Customer Service Representative. Once it is determined that the end user has a valid Vista Business or Ultimate license, the Customer Service Representative will help them activate their software.

End users who downgrade may reinstall the original software when they are ready to migrate. How do end users reinstall the original software after downgrading to a previous allowed downgrade version? End users must use the original OEM media or recovery software on the hard disk that was included with the PC for reinstallation.

The downgrade software must be deleted from the hard drive before the original software is reinstalled. Where do customers get the CD to install the downgrade software? End users must use a legally licensed version of the specifi ed previous version of the Windows desktop operating system to install the downgrade software. So, in essence, this means to downgrade, you just have to have a legal copy of XP Pro, use its key Thursday, January 10, PM.

Asif 0. Hi I have hp pavilion entertinment pc laptop this lap top installed with vista home premium but i dont want winvista home premiume i need windows xp pro please tell me how to downgrade vista home premiume to windows xp pro I have original windows xp pro with cd key and agriments please help me as soon as posible Thanking you asif.

Saturday, January 12, PM. So now I'm holding off buying from Dell, looking for more answers. Thanks for any answers, Aww Shucks. Friday, February 1, PM. Monday, February 25, PM. Thursday, March 13, PM. I just want to know a few simple things Friday, March 21, AM. I thought i can downgrade to XP once im in Ultimate But when i inserted the XP pro CD..

Tuesday, April 22, PM. Thursday, April 24, PM. The 4th call I got an understanding soul who generated a product key for me.