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View Full Version : Easiest Vista Downgrade Guide EVER.



Luke122
01-03-2008, 05:36 PM
This guide will help you to cut through all the BS out there, and give you the fastest and easiest downgrade experience possible.

Here we go!

Requirements:

Vista Business OEM
Vista Ultimate OEM
Installation media for one of the XP versions below (Also must be OEM)
Installation key for the XP version below (yes, it can be one already in use!)

Either of these OS’s can be downgraded to Windows XP Pro, XP Tablet Edition, or XP Pro x64. Contrary to believe, you cannot downgrade from Vista to Windows 2000 (though you can from XP to 2000.. bit of a grey area to me).

MS will not provide the installation media, you have to get it yourself.

Procedure:

Once you are certain you want to do the downgrade, and have backed up all the essential stuff, it’s time for the fun.

Start by formatting the drive. Yes, this is a reinstall, not a true “downgrade”, or at least not an “in-place downgrade”. Does that suck? Oh well.. deal with it.

The XP installation CD is bootable (in case you didn’t know), so boot from it, and start the install. If you need to add drive controller drivers, press F6 (you are prompted for this).

When you get to the drive selection, it’s easiest to format the drive (quick is fine) and reinstall. You *could* juggle partitions here to keep data safe in another, but I don’t trust that myself.. I’m a big fan of external backups. Anyways, select where you want the install, and have at it.

Here’s where I got stumped at first: “Enter your installation key”.

NO, THE WINDOWS VISTA KEY DOES NOT WORK HERE.

Use the key for the XP version you are installing. It’s in use on another machine? That’s fine, use it anyways. **Before you ask, this is not illegal, you’ll see why soon enough.**

Finish the install, and get to the desktop. This will take some time.

OK, ready to activate XP? DON’T DO IT OVER THE INTERNET. IT WILL FAIL.

Choose the telephone option, and call the number for your country. I’m in Canada, so I chose “Canada”. Pretty obvious.

When the automatic voice thing starts, wait until it asks you what you want to do. Say “SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE”. It will confirm, and then bring up another prompt. Say “TRANSFER ME” to confirm again.

Now, you’ll be transferred to a real person (eventually.. my hold time was about 3 mins the first time, 5 mins the second).

Important step: TELL THE PERSON YOU ARE DOWNGRADING TO XP.

They’ll get you to read the activation key on the screen. Take your time, and get it right. Next, they’ll want you to read the Vista Biz or Prem. OEM key. (If you got this far, you know where to find it!)

They will then read you a confirmation number, take your time, and enter it carefully, confirming each series of numbers with them. Press next when it’s complete, and then press finish. If there’s no problems, it’s say “good job dude” or whatever.

THAT’S IT.

You now have a legal, licensed copy of XP installed.

---------------------------------------

So why did we use the installation key that was already in use? I called MS to get another XP installation key to do the downgrade before activating, and was told that it would cost $10 for a new key! Needless to say I was pissed about that, and the person I was dealing with (Ashley) refused to help me until I got a credit card number.

I asked for a manager to confirm, was put on hold for 10 minutes, and then was told that the manager would call me back in “30 minutes”. Suuuuure… that was almost 21hrs ago now, and still no call. No matter..

So yeah, this is free, this is legal, and the only person you have to deal with is the activation agent, who will absolutely empathize with you.. mine was like “You have no idea how many downgrades we do in a day!”

I guess I’m not the only one seeing red over Vista (Pissta?).

Enjoy!!!

-Luke

mtekk
01-03-2008, 07:28 PM
So now in the future, say if SP1 or SP2 actually fixes Vista, or some game comes out that actually does perform better with DX10, will you be able to "upgrade" back to Vista. Or do you forfeit that by doing this?

Helix666
01-06-2008, 02:57 PM
And this is a downgrade?
funny... I thought Vista -> XP was upgrading...

*puts on the asbestos underwear*
Flame away!

*sudden realisation that he's gonna get -repped into oblivion*

Luke122
02-06-2008, 01:37 PM
So now in the future, say if SP1 or SP2 actually fixes Vista, or some game comes out that actually does perform better with DX10, will you be able to "upgrade" back to Vista. Or do you forfeit that by doing this?

Sorry for the slow reply!

Yes, you can upgrade back to Vista whenever you want.

J-Roc
02-06-2008, 10:05 PM
Humm, intresting to say the least. Would this work for XP MCE? I'm asking because i dont have a copy of MCE and i'd have to download it. But if i can use my vista key to get me a legal MCE key it would still be legit right?

Luke122
02-06-2008, 11:56 PM
Nope, will not work for MCE. Only XP Pro, x64 Pro, and XP Tablet Edition. Sorry.. :(

crenn
02-08-2008, 10:23 AM
Once again... there is nothing wrong with Vista. Infact, the performance has become a lot better since drivers have matured (Vista was never really a problem, the 3rd party support was). Vista performance is within 5% of Windows XP, at most 10%. So if you get 60FPS in Windows XP, the vista performance is going to be 54FPS approx.

Luke122
02-08-2008, 01:13 PM
As I mentioned before, I will be going back to Vista once the technology matures a bit more. In the meantime, I have several legacy software programs which will not run on Vista. Also, one of my clients has several pieces of hardware which are not supported by Vista, and he cannot go without.

crenn
02-08-2008, 06:31 PM
Your personal system will run vista fine. As for older systems running Vista (or manufacturers not supporting vista), it's always a mixed bag, but wasn't Windows XP the same when it was first released?

As for 3rd party software, it's always going to be a problem. It's another mixed bag, but again, it's not vista's fault.

Killa_Ape
02-08-2008, 09:28 PM
Funny you should mention FPS

When I play TF2 I get 70-100FPS in XP and Vista I get 30-50 with everything closed in Vista, even tried different driver versions with almost no difference. So hopefully SP1 fill fix my issues, otherwise Vista runs very good with the exception that the Windows Explorer crashes when I load my profile then switch to another for a long time then come back to mine.

Luke122
02-08-2008, 10:31 PM
Your personal system will run vista fine. As for older systems running Vista (or manufacturers not supporting vista), it's always a mixed bag, but wasn't Windows XP the same when it was first released?

As for 3rd party software, it's always going to be a problem. It's another mixed bag, but again, it's not vista's fault.

As you said, when XP came out, it was the same. At that time, I stayed with Win2000 until my software and hardware needs were met by XP. And it will be the same this time as well.

My personal system gave me several bizarre errors when I installed Vista, including the licensing service failing with no apparent cause (or reason in the event log).

I'm not trashing Vista, I'm simply saying that it's not meeting my needs at this time, so I'm going back to XP until Vista matures. It works fine for some people, good for them. It doesnt work for me.

J-Roc
02-10-2008, 02:32 PM
I just got finished talking with M$, just to clear things up because i was a little bit confused. Here's how it works. If you have Vista Ultimate, you can only downgrade to WinXP. If you have Vista Business, you can choose between XP pro, XP tablet, or XP pro 64bit.

Which for me means the $200 i spent on home premium was a complete waste of money.

Luke122
02-10-2008, 02:54 PM
I wouldnt say it was a waste of money, unless it does nothing that you need it to do. I would say check out V-Lite, and see if you can strip down that Vista install to remove all the stuff you dont need. Once you get it trimmed down, it's actually a pretty decent OS.

I'm running Vista Biz on this laptop, and with all the unnecessary stuff stripped out, it's not a bad OS at all. It does what I need, and it's stable.

You could always try out one of the hundreds of flavors of linux for your computer (for free), but if you are a gamer, you'll find it a bit frustrating.

The boy 4rm oz
02-17-2008, 12:39 AM
Performance wise I don't have any trouble with Vista and gaming. My rig plays BF2 at above 100fps constantly with all the settings maxed out. I can play Oblivion at 65fps, what more do you want.

crenn
02-18-2008, 10:26 AM
Crysis at 80FPS!

The boy 4rm oz
02-18-2008, 10:27 AM
Well with everything set on high an 1280x1024 with 2xAA I get about 45-50fps in Crysis, this is the demo by the way so no DX10.