Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

[Wally Wombat]

Hi All

I know this might sound odd, but a computer club to which I belong have been
offered new laptops with vista. This is great, unfortunately most members
have systems with XP.
As they are all beginners and in their mature years this can be very
confusing.
They can obtain a very cheap XP Pro upgrade through Donortec. Can they use
this on Vista?

Wombat

 

[Mick Murphy]

XP Pro is not an upgrade path from Vista; it is in fact a downgrade, and not
possible..
Are you offered Upgrade disks, or full XP Pro disks?

The only way you could install XP Pro is to wipe Vista from the laptops, and
do a clean install of XP Pro.

Also, if you are looking at new computers, there are probably no XP drivers
written for the computer's hardware; making it impossible to run XP on them,
especially with laptops' proprietry hardware.

 

[Ron Badour]

No, since Vista is a newer system, it cannot be used as the requisite system
used by the XP upgrade CD. You might be able to use a full retail version
of XP; however, laptops can require especially tailored systems in order to
function properly. You also might run into an issue with drivers--make sure
XP drivers exist for the laptops' hardware before purchasing XP systems.

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Tim Slattery]

Hi All

I know this might sound odd, but a computer club to which I belong have been
offered new laptops with vista. This is great, unfortunately most members
have systems with XP.
As they are all beginners and in their mature years this can be very
confusing.
They can obtain a very cheap XP Pro upgrade through Donortec. Can they use
this on Vista?

No. Vista to XP would be a downgrade. You'd have to start with a full
(not upgrade) version of XP, boot from the CD, reformat the disk
(getting rid of Vista and everything else) and install XP from
scratch.

The big problem would be finding XP drivers for the built-in bits and
pieces of the laptop. IMHO, this is far more trouble than it's worth.
Again IMHO, anybody who has been using XP should not have that much
trouble with Vista.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi All

I know this might sound odd, but a computer club to which I belong have
been
offered new laptops with vista. This is great, unfortunately most members
have systems with XP.
As they are all beginners and in their mature years this can be very
confusing.
They can obtain a very cheap XP Pro upgrade through Donortec. Can they use
this on Vista?

Wombat

No, won't work. You need a version that supports clean installs with no
qualifying media, and Upgrade CDs won't work for this.

Downgrade rights exist only for Vista Business and Ultimate versions - if
hte laptops come with those, you don't need to *buy* an XP license, you just
have to have legitimate XP install media, then contact MS for an activation
code.

Finally, if the laptops come with Vista, you absolutely have to be sure that
the maker supplies XP drivers as well - and get them in advance. If they
don't, you won't be able to get them anywhere else, and portions of the
system won't work.

HTH
-pk

 

[Wally Wombat]

Thanks for all your advice, I wasn't totally sure but you have made it clear
we will just have to move with the times.

Thanks again
Wombat

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thanks for all your advice, I wasn't totally sure but you have made it
clear
we will just have to move with the times.

Thanks again
Wombat

With just a little bit of tweaking, you'll find that Vista is a whole lot
less scary than you think. Yes, I disabled UAC as soon as I could, and
it's working out very well for me.

HTH
-pk