How to Downgrade Your Vista to XP

To Microsoft, "downgrade" means  the licensing rights it grants to older operating systems. Downgrade doesn't mean the process for rolling back Windows from Vista to XP.Specifically, these downgrade rights lets owners of some versions of Vista replace it with Windows XP without having to pay for another license.In effect, the license for Vista is transferred to XP.

The process of downgrading to Windows XP from Windows Vista does take some work.

To downgrade, use the following as a guide:

1. Do a full backup of your current, Vista system. If something happens, you can always revert to the backup. You have to either back up your data files manually or use a third-party backup tool that works in both XP and Vista. One such program is 2BrightSparks 'SyncBack ‘ which is available in free ,Please read further  Free Backup Software Roundup from SparksSpace.Don't bother backing up your applications; you'll need to reinstall them later.
2. Boot your computer off the Windows XP disc. Just pop the CD into the CD-ROM and reboot. Configure your BIOS to boot your computer from a CD, if necessary.
3. When the computer asks to press the space bar to boot from the CD, do so.
4. When Windows XP Setup starts up, press “R” to enter the recovery.
5. If it asks you to choose a Windows installation, press a number and hit Enter.
6. In some cases, you may be asked for the Administrator password at this point. If you don't know it, you'll have to boot back into Windows Vista, open the Start menu, type lusrmgr.msc, and press Enter. Open the C:\Users folder, double-click on the Administrator account, and turn off the Account is disabled option. Open the Start menu again, type Control userpasswords2 into the Search box, and press Enter. Next, click the Reset Password button, choose a new password, and start over.
7. At the command prompt, we’re going to use the “fixboot” command. We’ll use the following commands in sequence to prep for XP:

   fixboot
   fixmbr
   cd \
   ren windows winvista
   exit

8. When done, reboot the machine again using your Windows XP CD. This time, you can proceed normally with a normal XP setup

When setup is finished, you'll have to move everything manually. This includes your documents, the contents of your desktop, and any other personal data that you'll need from Vista's now-defunct C:\Users folder into XP's C:\Documents and Settings folder.You need to re-install your applications .

NEC Computers has introduced NEC Flexload, a software solution ,that allows to downgrade rapidly and easily from Microsoft Windows Vista Business (the only edition that NEC supports the downgrade for) to Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

NEC's :FlexLoad

Category: Tips, Tutorial, Vista, Windows, XP