Topic: Vista Downgrade to XP

[WeatherHost]

Quite a few PCs and notebooks are still available with XP Downgrade options or media.  If you downgrade and change your mind later for some reason, can you restore Vista?

What about if the computer has a restore partition instead of separate media?

[NDSWeather]

Quite a few PCs and notebooks are still available with XP Downgrade options or media.  If you downgrade and change your mind later for some reason, can you restore Vista?

What about if the computer has a restore partition instead of separate media?

Create our own Media from your system, most systems have a tool to write a DVD or CD to create as system, driver and restore to factory. If you do not have a way to create the Media ask the Vendor. You can still buy an XP Pro CD from Tiger.  Pro $150.00 I would get this one and it has SP3 as part of the install. OEM
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2571830&CatId=672
$167.00 Pro FULL w/Sp3
http://www.buy.com/prod/microsoft-windows-xp-professional-with-service-pack-3-license-and/q/loc/105/208018286.html
Home $95.00 w/Sp2
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2552182&CatId=672
Home @111.00 w/Sp3
http://www.buy.com/prod/microsoft-windows-xp-home-edition-with-service-pack-3-license-and/q/loc/105/208018289.html

Before you start go to the vendors site, not Best Buy but Dell or HP and so on. Down load all the Drivers for your system. Intel Inf, Video, Hard Drive IDE/SATA, Sound, Network, and any others that they may have.

NDS Weather

PS... Want Brand, Model, Memory Amount, Hard Disk type and Video Card. Some ATI Video cards are for Vista ONLY and and are not stable under Windows XP, laptops are known for this.

[Bushman]

Check your local discount/refurb PC store.  PLace local to me is selling full PC with XP Pro for under $150!

[ironton]

Check your local discount/refurb PC store.  PLace local to me is selling full PC with XP Pro for under $150!

That is good advice.  I have seen on-line offers for refurb barebones systems (small HDs and minimal memory) for as low as $79 with XP installed.  For an extra $20 you can get a restore XP disc.

Another option to look into is creating a slipstream disc of your XP installation.  I did this a year or two back and it worked pretty slick when I needed to restore the system.  You can create a bootable disc with your XP license and whatever service pack you have installed.  Saves you from having to D/L all the service packs and givers you a backup CD too. Google slipstream winxp. 

[tinplate]

If you have a version of Vista that comes with the downgrade rights (the home versions don't), then you can switch from Vista to XP and could later switch back from XP to Vista. My understanding of the license is that only one can be on your system at one time; you must uninstall Vista before installing XP, and vice versa.

Refurbished PC's  are a good way to get XP with a computer thrown in. You can also buy OEM copies of XP for $80-$90 last time I checked (try newegg.com). The difference between an OEM license and a full retail license is that the OEM license is such that once you've installed and activated your copy of XP on a machine, the license is married to that machine. With a full retail license, you can uninstall XP from the machine you have it on, and then install it on a different pc, i.e. you can move it from one machine to another.

Steve