Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Whats is the best way for me to get XP back!

Aug 1, 2007 10:16AM PDT

Hi,

Just bought a brand new powerful PC (Quad processor) only problem is Vista won't run half of the programs that I use. XSI, Zeroeditor, AutoCAD... the list goes on. Whether its runtime errors or terrible glitches in the programs, Vista is just not going to work for me.

I NEED to get back to Windows XP, only I don't have a clue what my first step should be.

Should I just go to my local Best Buy tech support and say, put XP back on this desktop? Or Can I do it myself?

Also, if there is only one thing, and only one thing I like about Vista is Aero Glass...

Can I have XP with Aero Glass? And if so how?

Please help, I literally have a great PC that can't run anything because of the OS. Sad

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Why not add XP and dual boot
Aug 1, 2007 11:18AM PDT

first check for availability of XP drivers for your system. If the required drivers are available, create a partition for XP by using disk managment to shrink the Vista partition, then create a new one for XP.
Install XP on the newly created partition and use EasyBCD or similar program to edit the boot loader for dual booting.
Please note that in order to install XP on a SATA drive requires a driver on floppy disk from the motherboard makers. If you have a motherboard cd it may be on it, else you will need to get it from their website.
Another option would be to use a new hdd, an 80gig would be big enough and cheap. If you have a pata connector for your cd/dvd (80 pin) cable, it would be easier to get pata hdd and save the instalation problems, especially if you don't have a floppy drive.
Info on installing XP after Vista,
http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista

- Collapse -
Ditto that suggestion...
Aug 1, 2007 11:31AM PDT

And if you do go back to XP entirely the closest you can get to having Aero is purchasing WindowBlinds, a third-party application that enables a similar glass effect and the usage of advanced third-party themes and effects.

John

- Collapse -
Yikes, I can't
Aug 1, 2007 11:36AM PDT

Wow, thats a lot of high computer skill work, I'm not that good with computers.

Would I have to buy XP CD somewhere?

- Collapse -
Yes...
Aug 1, 2007 3:31PM PDT

In fact, if you wish to install XP you would have to purchase a full license unless you already have one that's going unused. You're looking at $100+ if you wish to go in that direction. If you need help wiping and starting fresh with XP or dual-booting just let us know.

John

- Collapse -
Yes, can be done without pulling all your hair out
Aug 1, 2007 8:41PM PDT

And I found just the look for a client who wanted the Aero look- freebie Brickapak 'Vistainspirat' works quite well, however knocks about 20 some % off you graphics performance- with quad core and 2gb of ram, you'll hardly notice-

- Collapse -
Vista To XP
Aug 2, 2007 3:32AM PDT

If you can afford it and find this is the best value for you, Best Buy doing the job is your best bet, the only thing I would do prior would be make the Factory Recovery DVD if the computer did not come with one in the box since you are entitled to the OEM Vista that came with that machine. This way if you ever do decide to move to Vista at a later date you will have that option open. You will need to purchase XP and pay the labor for them to install it.

To do it yourself you would have to identify and then locate the drivers for your hardware that are XP compatible, Video, Sound, LAN are the important ones and put them on a CD or other back up media. I was able to enter BOIS and under Advanced changed the Hard Drive from RAID to IDE, rebooted and pressed any key to boot from the XP CD, formated and installed it on my C:\ drive, I then installed the XP drivers and my software. Locating the drivers will be the hardest part. If you can't change the BOIS setting this would become a problem since newer computers don't come with a floppy drive to install the SATA drivers and other methods are a more involving.

Northlite