I want to change from Vista to XP Home or XP Pro

[Guest]

When my laptop had to be replaced, it was replaced with Vista. I hate it!
It is incompatible with too many of the programs I use. It wouldn't even
accept my paid for anti spyware, etc. I have the CD discs for both XP Home
and XP Pro. HOW CAN I CHANGE BACK TO EITHER ONE OF THOSE?? I don't have a
clue what "reformat" means. Please help me. Nothing works right. I've had
enough of Vista. Help.

 

[Alias]

When my laptop had to be replaced, it was replaced with Vista. I hate it!
It is incompatible with too many of the programs I use. It wouldn't even
accept my paid for anti spyware, etc. I have the CD discs for both XP Home
and XP Pro. HOW CAN I CHANGE BACK TO EITHER ONE OF THOSE?? I don't have a
clue what "reformat" means. Please help me. Nothing works right. I've had
enough of Vista. Help.

Take the laptop to a professional along with the XP CDs and have him or
her install it for you.

Alias

 

[xfile]

I don't have a clue what "reformat" means.

Hi,

I second what Alias suggested based on the above and don't forget to backup
data, files, doucments, etc.

But if it's a new one, try contact the vendor for a possible exchange?

Good luck!

 

[John Barnes]

Make sure you can find drivers for XP for all the items on your laptop, if
you can find them, then you just do a clean install with your XP disks IF
they are full versions, if not you will need a qualifying version of
Windows. You will be best off deleting the Vista partition and
reformatting, and I suggest you Google any terms you don't understand.
Wikipedia is a good source for explaining most technical terms you don't
understand. Also use NTFS when you do reformat.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

When my laptop had to be replaced, it was replaced with Vista. I hate it!
It is incompatible with too many of the programs I use. It wouldn't even
accept my paid for anti spyware, etc.

Like anything new, it's unfamiliar and feels strange to most of us at
first. My guess is that if you would take the time and trouble to find
out how to use it and how to make your programs work, most, if not
all, of your problems would go away in not too long a time.

I have the CD discs for both XP Home
and XP Pro. HOW CAN I CHANGE BACK TO EITHER ONE OF THOSE??

But that's your prerogative, of course. I won't try to persuade you
otherwise.

I don't have a
clue what "reformat" means. Please help me. Nothing works right. I've had
enough of Vista. Help.

Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

However, if you "don't have a clue what 'reformat' means," my guess is
that you will have trouble following any of these simple instructions.
Your best bet is probably to take your computer and CD to a
professional, and have him do the installation for you.

 

[Mac]

Hi Alias - you've been challenged...

Take the laptop to a professional along with the XP CDs and have him or
her install it for you.

Alias

 

[huwyngr]

With a laptop especially it is important first to establish that you
can get the specialized files that laptops use for things like video,
keyboard functions and so on.

Go to the Toshiba laptop model page for your model ( you can get there
by using:

http://www.ts.toshiba.com/

and finding your model. Go to its page and see it there are files for
XP for that model.

In many cases PC makers are not supplying files for XP for use on
models launched with VISTA. You might be lucky and find a sufficently
similar model that came with XP and that its files would work.

You can get good help on Toshiba laptops in the Compuserve Laptop
Computing Forum that used to be run by Toshiba and which is still
referred to by them. Plenty of people are asking your question! But if
you post there (or anywhere for that matter) give the exact full model
number and say whether it is a US model or from elsewhere.

If you decide to pay someone to do the job for you choose one of the
Premiere Authorized Service Partners that you can locate, hopefully
near you, using this URL:

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_gaspLocator.jsp?subs=tais

Forget about the UPS Stores since they are just for forwarding to the
central repair depot and won't touch this. If you can't find a Premiere
ASP near you choose at least a 4 star one and one that handles
notebooks. Get a quotation from them.

You say you have media for XP Home & XP Pro -- have these and their
Keys been used already? If they have it may be worth checking with
Toshiba about the Downgrade VISTA program where you can legally install
a copy of XP that you own the license for a second time on a VISTA
machine and when it tells you "Already in Use" you can phone and get a
new KEY for XP. But since your VISTA will be OEM/System Builder you
have to get the inforamtion from Toshiba and it may not be available
for all versions of VISTA to all versions of XP.

Hope that helps!