Downgrading Vista to XP?

yosser hughes

Has anybody downgraded from Windows Vista Business to Windows XP? Does anybody know how to go about obtaining a downgrade. The Microsoft support website says to contact your manufacturer,in this case Dell and I cannot find any contact details on Dell's website. I telephoned Dell customer support and spoke to someone in india was very unhelpful.Is there not some easy way to do this. I am sick of Vista as it keeps disconnecting me from the internet. My partner who has XP never gets disconnected.Any help?

I've never done it but this seems to be the procedure I've read online.

You need to provide your own XP Pro installation media. Install it using any valid product key (doesn't matter if it's in use, we'll come to that later). When it comes to activating it, activate by phone and talk to a customer service rep. Inform them that you want to downgrade from Vista Business to XP Pro, at which point they should request the product key from your Vista install and ask what type of XP disc you used to install it (Retail, OEM etc). Once this is verfied they should issue you a new XP product key and activate Windows using that key.

Rackstar

yosser hughes wrote: »

Has anybody downgraded from Windows Vista Business to Windows XP? Does anybody know how to go about obtaining a downgrade. The Microsoft support website says to contact your manufacturer,in this case Dell and I cannot find any contact details on Dell's website. I telephoned Dell customer support and spoke to someone in india was very unhelpful.Is there not some easy way to do this. I am sick of Vista as it keeps disconnecting me from the internet. My partner who has XP never gets disconnected.Any help?

AFAIK you can downgrade your OS without needing a new licence. You could get a copy of XP and use your partners key to install. If you have hassle activating after the install call the activation number and explain you are downgrading from Vista to XP. Check the Dell website and make sure they provide XP drivers for your laptop!

Overheal

Thats kinda using a Bomb to hammer in a Nail isnt it? You just need to solve your internet connection issues.

Capt'n Midnight

You can downgrade the License (if it is PRO, if it's HOME you can't )

This means you can do a Clean Install with XP ,
microsoft will give you no support, manufacturers won't give much support beyond telling you where the drivers are on their web site, SONY don't even have XP drivers for some of their laptops

You almost certainly have a SATA HDD so will need drivers

You have to beg borrow or steal the XP CD , Neither DELL or Microsoft will give or sell it to you.

You can't downgrade windows on the hard drive - it's a clean install, so all apps will need to be reinstalled n' stuffed

You can't have dual boot unless you have TWO licenses , so you have to remove Vista first.






Ring microsoft to get new serial number , based on your vista one.


much easier to fix the network problem , are you using wireless and do you have at least 3bars signal strength ?


Have you tried the vista tweaks up on the stickies ?

Have you checked for malware ?