Vista Tutorial - Downgrade Vista Home Premium to XP Home

Can I downgrade to XP Home with an upgrade disk?

Rob T. <RobT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Can I downgrade to XP Home with an upgrade disk?

Downgrade from what, please?

If you're downgrading from Vista, yes, you can but you'll need to do a
clean install so back up everything you want to keep first.

If your XP Home is an upgrade disk you'll need the qualifying product
such as Windows 98 or such, you'll be asked during the XP install for a
qualifying product, insert the Win98 (or other qualifying product) CD
and XP will find it and proceed with the install.

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XS11E <xs11e@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote:

> If you're downgrading from Vista, yes, you can but you'll need to
> do a clean install so back up everything you want to keep first.

Oops, should have mentioned IF you did an upgrade to Vista and IF you
selected the option to keep your XP files then you can go back to XP.

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Rob

No, any downgrade install requires you to perform a clean install on a
formatted hard drive.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Rob T." <RobT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:67CA0AEF-7C2D-4A07-B086-502E63F15B9F@microsoft.com...
> Can I downgrade to XP Home with an upgrade disk?

I currently have Vista Home Basic, and I know that I (CAN) downgrade to XP
Home using my computer's backup cds, but my question is: if at a later date I
upgrade my computer a little more (enough so to run Vista better than it
currently does) will the license activation accept me upgrading if I've
upgraded once before?

"Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote:

> Rob
>
> No, any downgrade install requires you to perform a clean install on a
> formatted hard drive.
>
> --
>
> Ronnie Vernon
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Shell/User
>
>
> "Rob T." <RobT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:67CA0AEF-7C2D-4A07-B086-502E63F15B9F@microsoft.com...
> > Can I downgrade to XP Home with an upgrade disk?
>

Brogshy

Of course you can. The license is perpetual and can be activated an
unlimited number of times. The only thing that cannot be done is installing
the same license on multiple computers at the same time.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"brogshy" <brogshy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3172D846-2CFE-4A98-A064-ECD297BE8263@microsoft.com...
>I currently have Vista Home Basic, and I know that I (CAN) downgrade to XP
> Home using my computer's backup cds, but my question is: if at a later
> date I
> upgrade my computer a little more (enough so to run Vista better than it
> currently does) will the license activation accept me upgrading if I've
> upgraded once before?
>
> "Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote:
>
>> Rob
>>
>> No, any downgrade install requires you to perform a clean install on a
>> formatted hard drive.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Ronnie Vernon
>> Microsoft MVP
>> Windows Shell/User
>>
>>
>> "Rob T." <RobT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:67CA0AEF-7C2D-4A07-B086-502E63F15B9F@microsoft.com...
>> > Can I downgrade to XP Home with an upgrade disk?
>>

Hello,

Last year I purchased an HP Laptop that they claimed was "Vista Compatiable"
and when Vista came back it was sent to me as a free disk, which I installed
to my laptop. Unfortunately, my computer simply should not have been called
Vista Compatiable. With only 1GB of Ram it really cannot play any type of
game.

Therefore, I was wondering if I could downgrade to my previous XP version.
This thread appears to say that I can. However, what I wanted to find out if
it will also wipe out my Microsoft Office 2003 (meaning I need to find the
discs). Also, I know that this is a Windows group so it might be foolish to
ask...but, my laptop appears to have a back up recovery disk directly on the
laptop (my D: drive). Does anyone have any feedback exactly how it would work
to use this feature (which I assume is neccessary to go back to XP)

Thanks

"Rob T." wrote:

Hi,

You can rollback if you have the appropriate media. If you upgraded and the
windows.old folder still exists you can use the procedure described here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933168, otherwise you'll need to contact the
manufacturer about how to employ the recovery partition (the D: drive) or
obtain a set of XP recovery disks.

As to your Office 2003 software, if it was installed prior to the upgrade,
it should still be there after the rollback procedure described above. If
you have to do a full wipe and reload from the recovery software, you will
need to locate the disk and reinstall it afterwards.

By the way, 1GB of ram, though a bit light, should still be sufficient for
normal use under Vista. I suspect your problem actually lies in other
software loading at boot and occupying some the memory space from the
get-go, and not releasing it accordingly. Trimming the startup group and
removing memory-hogging antivirus software like Norton/Symatec or McAfee may
go a long way towards resolving the issues you are having without the hassle
of going back to XP.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"BLYKMYK" <BLYKMYK@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8467B28A-29F0-49CE-95ED-DFDADC025AC5@xxxxxx

"Rick Rogers" wrote:

What is a clean install and how do you perform one? I would like to go back
from Vista to XP but do not know how. Consider me technologically illiter