Vista To XP

[silent disaster]

Well, I have Windows Vista. I don't really like it so i thinking of downgrading to XP.
If I do go through with this downgrade, will i still have all my files and stuff?

Oh, and can you run S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chenrobyl on Vista? It doesnt say it does. Just 2000, XP, or whatever.

 

[OODA Loop]

because S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chenrobyl was made before vista (i think?)

im not sure you can downgrade and keep your files, you should back them upp if possible

why dont you like vista? its awesome

 

[Lafinass]

Keep your filthy Vista lies to yourself Slusserjon.

Your ability to keep your files or not depends entirely upon the structure of your hard drives. The easiest, and the option I took when I downgraded, option is to have more than one hard drive. Swap the boot order and install to the other drive. Your files on Vista will be intact, though most programs/games will have to be re-installed. Then, if in the future, you choose to go back to Vista all you do is swap the boot order again. No fuss, no muss, no re-install.

 

[MikeV]

How about you dual boot. Vista will be the OS of the future. If you aren't happy with it, keep it anyway because in the future, most games are only going to support vista and xp will just be gone. Windows and microsoft just need to fix all these bugs with vista and it will be fine. Dual boot both xp and vista.

 

[Lafinass]

Ehhh...

Dual booting, particularly without a thorough knowledge of what you're doing, is asking for trouble he doesn't need. I can't count how many times I've had to fix a computer someone managed to scrap the boot on. Vista is indeed the OS of the future, unfortunately. But there is no need to switch back and forth, there is very little that is mutually exclusive across the two.

My rule of thumb - Are you going to need to change operating systems on a regular basis? If so, dual boot. If not, just use the BIOS to swap boot orders when you do need to switch.

 

[chinaonnitrous1]

I say NAY to dual boot.

XP's time is limited, however Vista has not yet caught up to the gaming performance of XP. XP is still faster in the majority of cases, especially even with SLI involved.

Microsoft always likes clean things. If you have more than one HDD, Save all your files, moives and mp3's etc.. into the other hdd.

Format and install on your faster and non-important HDD.

Viola you now have XP on one, and your Crap vista and important files on the other.

If you dont have a 2nd hdd, just simply burn all your important documents. Or pickup a External HDD, they're inexpensive now a days, and nice to have for backup reasons. Again back important items up, load XP and reinstall games.

Regardless with any new installation things will run better and smoother. Also a good time to look for all the latest XP drivers for your items, firmware flashes etc...

 

[silent disaster]

Uhh thanks for the help.
I dont have any money to spend on an hdd, so its not really an option for me. So i'll talk to my uncle. See any other alternatives.

Oh and I checked around the internet for games that would work on Vista. Apparently S.T.A.L.K.E.R. can be run on Vista but im not positive if it will because another game that i happen to own (Deus Ex) is supposed to work on Vista, and then during installation it crashes and i've done it more than once. Will the same thing happen for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

 

[The_Shooter]

A legal copy of Windows XP can run $89 on up. From the sounds of it, it appears that you have a prebuilt PC such as an HP or Dell? If that is correct, then you best make sure you can downgrade the system and have driver support. Otherwise, you would have wasted $90. Personally, I would just stick with Vista.
I have Vista on my machine and I love it. You usually hear someone who says to stay away from Vista but they themselves have never used it. When I used to work retail, that was the funniest, they had never used Vista, yet swore up and down it was the worst ever.

 

[chinaonnitrous1]

I do agree Vista is a nice OS....just still needs improvement.....but if you have it....its the future anyway. So just deal with it. Unless you have the resorces to do otherwise.

 

[Lafinass]

I wasn't assuming you had spare money. I also wasn't assuming you only had a single hard drive.

 

[-nocturne=-]

[quote1207207452=The_Shooter]
You usually hear someone who says to stay away from Vista but they themselves have never used it. When I used to work retail, that was the funniest, they had never used Vista, yet swore up and down it was the worst ever.
[/quote1207207452]
That's about everything right there...

It's really not worth spending any money for the downgrade. You may gain a little performance (1-5fps, 5% max), but if you take the time to disable aero, indexing, and a few other useless services, you won't notice any difference versus XP (except for the better).

If you plan on dual booting, keep in mind you'll have to deal with NTFS file ownership, meaning you won't be able to access any 'user files' from the 'other installation'. It might work if the user accounts are the same, but I don't think it does...

 

[=(eG)=Veruca]

I really don't recommend down grading any computer that was preloaded with vista for the reason taht the hardware really wasn't designed for XP any more. That is why vista came about. Vista was the jumping point for the kick butt hardware we are all running. Yes, it can be done and it can be a headache but what it really comes down to is if it's really worth the time and effort. In most cases the answer is no.

I'm running Vista 64bit ultimate and there have been very VERY few things that haven't been able to run on it. Every game I've ever owned will run on it. Also, remember, there is a compatibility mode you can use to help run older programs. NEVER EVER install anything Microsoft based that is older than 2002 (absolutely NO office 2k or 97), and no intuit programs older than 2007, and finally no printer drivers that are not labled Vista capable, they will eat Vista.

 

[Lafinass]

[quote1207696991=veruca]
I really don't recommend down grading any computer that was preloaded with vista for the reason taht the hardware really wasn't designed for XP any more. That is why vista came about. Vista was the jumping point for the kick butt hardware we are all running. Yes, it can be done and it can be a headache but what it really comes down to is if it's really worth the time and effort. In most cases the answer is no.

I'm running Vista 64bit ultimate and there have been very VERY few things that haven't been able to run on it. Every game I've ever owned will run on it. Also, remember, there is a compatibility mode you can use to help run older programs. NEVER EVER install anything Microsoft based that is older than 2002 (absolutely NO office 2k or 97), and no intuit programs older than 2007, and finally no printer drivers that are not labled Vista capable, they will eat Vista.
[/quote1207696991]

I'm sorry, could you please point me towards the hardware that will not run properly on XP? Go ahead, I'll wait.

 

[=(eG)=Veruca]

I never said it WON'T run I said that it will be harder to get running. I can tell you first hand that down grading a generic retail PC from vista to xp can be a chore. A lot of manufactures are not supporting XP with the newer computers, and Gateway is one of the biggest violators. Since the manufactures aren't supplying the drivers you have to hunt them down. The major components of the computer like the video cards, NICs, modems, and sound boards aren't the problem. It's usually the drivers for each Bridge and BUS controllers.

Just so I'm clear, I'm NOT saying it CANNOT be done, just saying it's often more of a headache than it's worth when most everything will run the way it should in Vista anyways.

IF you are building your own then you should have fewer problems with this.

 

[Arn0t]

[quote1207710243=Lafinass]
Ehhh...

Dual booting, particularly without a thorough knowledge of what you're doing, is asking for trouble he doesn't need. I can't count how many times I've had to fix a computer someone managed to scrap the boot on. Vista is indeed the OS of the future, unfortunately. But there is no need to switch back and forth, there is very little that is mutually exclusive across the two.

My rule of thumb - Are you going to need to change operating systems on a regular basis? If so, dual boot. If not, just use the BIOS to swap boot orders when you do need to switch.
[/quote1207710243]

with the whole vista thing, i heard they are scrapping vista, saying it was kinda like a windows ME and they know they screwed it up, so they are leaving it behind. But i also heard that with SP1, it changes the performance alot, and made it a better OS. Also if you do end up downgrading to XP, but you still want the visual appeal of Vista, i have a program, that comes pretty close to making your XP look pretty much like vista, although it does take up alot of resources, so you need a pretty decent computer to run it. I could tell if you would be able to run it decently if you put up your specs, if you decide to downgrade to xp.

Now with the dual boot. At his point, he is not able to do a dual boot off one HDD, he would have to go with the change boot order in the BIOS. Reason for not being able to do the dual boot, he needs to have a clean drive to fdisk and create the partitions. So it is heck of alot easier just to go with the second HDD, if you can find a cheap one. I know newegg has some nice HDD for really cheap and you should be able to get a decent one for now for 40-50 bucks.

 

[Lafinass]

Nah, there are plenty of utilities that allow you to create and manage partitions without wiping.

Still not a fan of dual booting when it's not necessary though.

 

[Arn0t]

[quote1207768139=Lafinass]
Nah, there are plenty of utilities that allow you to create and manage partitions without wiping.

Still not a fan of dual booting when it's not necessary though.
[/quote1207768139]

Well i do know of one program that will let you manage partitions. Its Partition Magic. It is amazing and i have used it to combined partitions, but im not sure how it working splitting into partitions.

 

[Jubei]

Reminds me of the time I was using Partition Magic and found out the hard way that the drive had TONS of bad sectors. Ate the partitions and the data too. Good thing I backed everything up! I probably could have fixed it and got the data back, but then what? I still would have had a bum drive that needed to be replaced. Now I run a good surface check before messing with partitions.

I also have Vsta Ultimate 64. Love it. Is it as fast as XP Pro 32? No, of course not. But waaay better than the 64 version of XP Pro (as far as finding drivers).

 

[imported_JarHeaD]

DONT DOWN GRADE!!! Thats a big no no.... Its nothing but a headache..... If you want you can check out www.vmware.com Hint: there may or may not be a cracked version out there