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Hi, i want to tell my view of going back from a 150.00 vista home premiumback to xp mce sp2. It all started when i got a thought in my head that said "upgrade that xp machine via the vista os" not knowing the mischief waiting for any moment to strike. I called hp and they said run vista upgrade advisor, which said my pc is "ready" for vista. Well, i popped the preparation disk (given by hp), then the vista disk, then it all started well. Then, amidst the installation, my dvi connection ceased to operate and the screen went blank. i had to temporarily use 800x600 vga to continue the installation. So it went on, then kept restarting, at i started all over from scratch (pulling my hair that i even bothered to install vista). so it installed well. then no sound, but dvi worked. so i popped the time consuming driver cd (again), and one hour later, it was all fixed. Then it ran fast for about two weeks, then half my programs ran limited functionality! Then it slowed down. and down, and down, until i beat up my pc so hard that it needed a new side panel (given by hp via the one year warranty program for free). So, three months later, when a visitor came over and used my pc, he said it was as slow as his 512 meg xp machine (my vista machine was one gig of ram)! Then it started taking 10 mins. to boot and another five to shutdown. I had it! I used the recovery dvd's that i made (thank god) to restore my xp machine back to how it was. With the recovery dvd's the normal 12.5 minute recovery process took a mouth-drying one hour to finish up all the way. So what did i do next? I bought a new 1250.00 notebook with 2048megs of ram, a 240gig hdd, dedicated v-card with 256mb discrete+767mb shared. Guess what, it works like a charm. So, a word of warning to pre xp machine: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

So if u installed vista over xp and it's running slow or hate the expreience, go back to xp and see if u can get ur money back! Then, if u really want vista, buy a new pc!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

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As reports, moving between major Windows releases often exposes driver, performance, and stability gaps that were not obvious until after the upgrade. Treat an OS change like a small project: plan, back up, gather drivers and keys, and understand your licensing options before you start.

Practical checklist before attempting a downgrade or reinstallation:

  • Make a full disk image so you can restore the entire system state if needed (use an imaging tool or external drive).
  • Back up personal files and export browser favorites, mail archives, and product keys separately.
  • Download drivers for the target OS from the PC or component maker and store them offline.
  • Confirm licensing/downgrade rights from the OEM or Microsoft so the target OS will be legal to run (see Microsoft OEM downgrade guidance).
  • Decide whether to do a clean install. Clean installs avoid leftover drivers and registry clutter that commonly cause post-upgrade slowdowns.

Recommended installation workflow (keeps things simple and repeatable):

  • Boot from the target OS media and perform a clean install to a formatted system partition.
  • Install chipset and storage drivers first, then network and video, then audio and peripherals.
  • Run system updates, then reinstall apps and restore data from backups or the image if necessary.
  • Test hardware and basic tasks before restoring large data sets or custom configurations.

Context and cautions: newer Windows releases typically need more CPU, RAM, and driver support than older ones; older machines frequently struggle and may be better served by staying on a lighter OS or upgrading hardware. Also note that Windows Vista is no longer supported by Microsoft (support ended on April 11, 2017), so consider security and update implications when choosing an OS (Windows Vista lifecycle; ).

A careful backup-and-clean-install approach avoids most of the headaches described by and keeps options open if the new OS does not meet expectations. ’s short laugh aside, preparation is what saves the day.

Member Avatar for jbennet

</rant> lol :)

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