How to Downgrade Laptop from Vista to XP?

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As we are aware that Microsoft Vista was launched in early 2007 and many are still not familiar with the new operating system and would like to have the familiar XP interface on their new laptop which needs to be downgraded. This article highlights the reason and methodology of how to downgrade laptop from Vista to XP.

Vista the flagship product from Microsoft is the default operating system available on the latest laptops available in the market today. Many Windows users are familiar with the old XP system, and wish to maintain the productivity level by sticking to there preferred choice.

Before you decide to downgrade the operating system, you need to ensure that you have the original XP media CD along with the licenses, and this version is installable on any laptop. As there are OEM versions of XP available in the market, which are locked to the system on which you install for the first time. Hence if you are trying to use such version ensure that they are compatible with your laptop. Some of the versions are also locked at the BIOS level, meaning the computer they came along with.

The other thing to note is that the new laptop comes with a warranty; which needs to be checked with the vendor that by changing the operating system, you are not violating any terms. Plus you also need to ensure the drivers for the hardware was originally available for Vista; hence you need to find out compatible drivers for the XP version.

Before you start the downgrade of your laptop, please ensure that you have taken complete backup of all the relevant data in a separate area such as an external storage. Vista cannot be uninstalled like any other computer program. In order to install XP, you have to follow the clean installation methodology, which involves the complete formatting of the hard drive and the XP operating would be freshly configured on the system. Once downgraded to XP, you cannot revert back to Vista.