Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

[Guest 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

--

Eats, roots and leaves.

[Guest Mick Murphy]

RE: Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

 

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.

--

Mad Mike

 

 

"Wally Wombat" wrote:

> 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

> --

> Eats, roots and leaves.

[Guest Ron Badour]

Re: Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

 

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

 

 

"Wally Wombat" <WallyWombat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:99B2D096-FB09-4A81-96C0-57A4D9FEEAE4@microsoft.com...

> 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

> --

> Eats, roots and leaves.

[Guest Larry(LJL269)]

Re: Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

 

I heard MS is letting vendors substitute XP 4 Vista on new PC's

 

Hope that helps. Larry

 

On Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:32:35 -0700, Wally Wombat

<WallyWombat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>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

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

A working unsecure OS is infinitely better than non-working secure OS.

Just spent 1 week cleaning up the mess WUpdate made preventing

hypothetical security problems. http://microscum.com/comsense/

[Guest Clark...]

Re: Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

 

Wally Wombat wrote:

> 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

 

Another option is to make Vista look and feel like XP

http://www.ehow.com/how_2134805_windows-vista-look-like-xp.html

 

Video:

http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-25854.html

 

Clark...

 

 

--

Don't you have Google in your part of the world?

[Guest Tim Slattery]

Re: Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

 

Wally Wombat <WallyWombat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>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.

 

--

Tim Slattery

MS MVP(Shell/User)

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

 

 

"Wally Wombat" <WallyWombat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:99B2D096-FB09-4A81-96C0-57A4D9FEEAE4@microsoft.com...

> 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

> --

> Eats, roots and leaves.

 

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

[Guest Wally Wombat]

Re: Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

 

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

 

--

Eats, roots and leaves.

 

 

"Patrick Keenan" wrote:

>

> "Wally Wombat" <WallyWombat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:99B2D096-FB09-4A81-96C0-57A4D9FEEAE4@microsoft.com...

> > 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

> > --

> > Eats, roots and leaves.

>

> 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

>

>

>

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Downgrading from Vista to XP Pro

 

 

"Wally Wombat" <WallyWombat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:5E877FF0-A096-4C78-A218-1B9F2BB1C306@microsoft.com...

> 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

 

>

> --

> Eats, roots and leaves.

>

>

> "Patrick Keenan" wrote:

>

>>

>> "Wally Wombat" <WallyWombat@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

>> news:99B2D096-FB09-4A81-96C0-57A4D9FEEAE4@microsoft.com...

>> > 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

>> > --

>> > Eats, roots and leaves.

>>

>> 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

>>

>>

>>