Read on for more about the trip to Windows yesteryear. What is a downgrade? To Microsoft, "downgrade" describes the licensing rights it grants to older operating systems. Downgrade doesn't mean the process for rolling back Windows from Vista to XP, since there isn't such a procedure, not in the generally accepted use of "upgrade.
Not so in a downgrade. Specifically, these downgrade rights lets owners of some versions of Vista replace it with Windows XP without having to pay for another license. In effect, the license for Vista is transferred to XP. Think of it as a swap, Vista for XP, not as an extra license.
By Microsoft's end-user licensing agreement EULA , you can't have both Vista and its downgraded XP installed at the same time on the same or different machines. You have to pick: It's one or the other. To the vast bulk of users, though, "downgrade" is a synonym for reverting to an older version. In that case, it simply means dumping Vista and returning to XP. So what downgrades does Microsoft allow?
You are, as they say, SOL. How do I downgrade? Install a copy of Windows XP Professional with the product key that came with the copy, and when you hit the activation screen -- which is near the end of the installation process -- select the Activate by Phone option rather than the online method.
You'll likely end up talking with a live rep; tell him that you're downgrading from Vista to XP, and give him the Vista product key. The rep is supposed to walk you through the rest. Where do I get the XP install disc? Until this summer, Microsoft put the responsibility on the end-users' shoulders. For example, in this Vista downgrade rights document targeting resellers, the company said "media is provided by the customer.
In some cases, discs are shipped with the PCs; in others, users must request them. Don't bother calling Microsoft; it won't provide installation media and will instead direct you to your reseller. If the computer maker won't send a Windows XP Pro disc, you're on your own. While perhaps not easy, getting your hands on the install media isn't impossible.
Install it see "How do I downgrade? As a last resort, buy a copy. This isn't a downgrade, not as Microsoft defines it, but it's what most users think of when they use the term.
What can I do if I don't have downgrade rights? Nothing is stopping you from punting to XP other than the money invested in the Vista license already on the PC and what it will cost to replace it. The total may be inconsequential to some, a deal-breaker for others. But there are options. Because you're paying for the swap, you can switch to any flavor of XP.
Windows XP Media Center is usually priced between the two. Once you pick an edition, you can choose from OEM, upgrade, and full product versions, which are priced in that order, lowest first. OEM, often called "system builder," omits support and can be installed on only one machine, ever. You don't need to install that predecessor, only insert its CD at some point during the XP installation.
No earlier Windows version is necessary to install this, and like the upgrade, it can be transferred later to another PC. Because the easiest solution is to partition beforehand. It will ask to you 'Which partition? Windows 7 will be deleted, and your XP install will continue.
Install a floppy drive and run the Windows 98SE startup disk. Then run fdisk and delete all partitions. Then boot to your XP disk and create new partitions. Technology has changed a lot, but, what we had 20 years ago still holds true today. The oldest system must be installed first and so on and so on. The bigest issue to overcome today is the SATA drives.
You can - But you will have to repair the boot manager from the Windows 7 disc. The reason why is XP will install it's own older version, and XP's boot manager can not boot to win 7. Repairing using the Win 7 disc will re-install Win7's boot manager, which can start XP. There are lots of different ways to update your system, including a complete format followed by an install of XP be careful of driver issues and any data will be lost.
You could perhaps also look at some kind of dual boot scenario and then you can keep your windows 7 install. That should solve your compatibility issues with least effort. Upgrade can be done online and is pretty quick.
I'm going to make a wild statement and say that this will be a horrible experience. Installing XP on a modern machine is going to painful because one the hardware is totally different from what XP was designed for 10 years ago, and secondly, XP won't have the drivers written for said hardware.
Quite a few new laptops preinstalled with Windows 7 are 64bit machines. Video card, webcams, wireless networking, USB3 support, all of those may or may not end up working. If you stil have a laptop that is 64bit, most XP disks are 32bit, and that's going to physically limit you from the ammount of memory that can be used with your machine. Many new macines now-a-days comes with at least 4gigs of memory, and can easily be upgraded to 8 because of the 64bit hardware.
You can install the 32bit OS on the machine, deal with the hardware issues and end up limiting yourself to less memory than what's installed on the laptop. Since Windows 7 has excellent support for XP mode, and if you have Windows 7 Professional or better, it's free to download and use, I have to go against the grain here and say keep what you have and use XP mode for a much better experience.
If you can run an extra hard drive, unplug the win 7 hard drive, install win xp on the second hard drive, plug the first and use F8 key during boot to pick the drive you want to boot from.
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