You're Not Stuck With Vista: Downgrade to XP
Are you unhappy with Windows Vista? Lots of people are, especially folks who were forced into it when buying a new system.
The first inkling of the Vista backlash happened when NEC offered a tool for IT administrators to downgrade Vista systems to XP. Unfortunately, it works only on NEC Versa notebooks and PowerMate desktops (See NEC Supports Vista 'Downgrade' to Win XP .)
Vista to XP News From Dell
Dell's making sure its customers are happy. The company is willing to supply PCs with XP; see Dell to Install Windows XP After June 30 .
According to a Dell rep: "Dell will still offer the Windows Vista Bonus option which will allow a factory installation of Windows XP Professional. (It will not be available for XP Home.) It will basically amount to Dell installing Windows Vista Business or Ultimate and then performing the downgrade to XP Pro so that you won't have to. After feedback/concerns from our customers, Dell has found a legal way to offer XP Pro after June for the time being."
Do It Yourself
If you have a spare weekend, and the wherewithal to find all the drivers, you can do the Vista-to-XP downgrade yourself. The biggest hurdle will be finding information about the specific brand and model of your system.
I dug around and found a few spots that offer some help. Cyberwalker's Peter Ehm put together a generic downgrading step-by-step. There's a load of stuff available from a Google search. And "downgrading to XP" on Microsoft's TechNet found over 60 messages.
Talkback
Have something to say about Vista? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.
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With the right drivers, Vista offers a better user experience for most everyone. It is unbelievable that flamers make Vista to be a complete flop when it is not.
Go ahead - Use yesterday's technology if you want. But don't continue to complain about a product you don't even use.
Its clear.
Vista is bloatware and a nuisance to use.
XP is prefered by gamers and others who want an efficient and driver friendly operating system.
Vista is not good for notebooks with low-end processor + integrated graphics card (even with more than 2 GB of RAM). Downgrading a notebook is much more difficult because the manufacturer may not provide drivers for XP. I managed to downgrade but it took A LOT of searching for drivers and forcing it to install on the computer. My notebook is much more efficient with XP.
The cost of a hard drive is peanuts. Get two drives; iinstall XP on one and Vista on the other. When you want to have some fun and get some work done use the drive w/XP and when you want some challenging experiences, use the one with Vista.
"Vista" is a classic case of "Upgrades" are not always discovered as "Improvements" (by many users). While there is NO doubt, that Vista is considerably more powerful as a "Tool" in "graphic" and "scientific" environments than is XP-P, it unfortunately becomes anathema to those entrenched in "historical", "User Friendly" applications. I have worked through "No hard drive", MSDOS, WIN 1, 1.1, since 1977, and each major "sotware upgrade" had its hurdles. We will live through this "Vista", as well! :-)
Trust me! (I am not Bil G.) :-)
TWiKy
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