Can I switch from Windows Vista back to XP?

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I'd say the biggest complaint about Vista is not UAC, but speed.

Most of the laptops we see coming into my office have a gig or less of RAM. Vista on 512MB RAM is not good - my vista machine boots using 600MB, with Aero off!

Manufacturer's should be obliged to provide XP if they sell Vista on sub-spec machines.

What is the easiest way to reformat the Hard drive?
I do not know how to re-format the C drive (where Vista is instaled) as that is the active partition.

Leo, You say bite the bullet on Vista. The ones that need to be biting the bullet is Microsoft. I certainly hope that the Vista project team has all been fired, and they are now working for Apple. I suspect this team was the same one that gave us 'ME'. Maybe they will fix everything in the next version OS. Until then, will keep XP running.

Before you do anything I would advise you to image your C: drive using something like Acronis True Image or Paragon Drive Backup; then as Leo suggests, format and reinstall OR setup a dual-boot. I'm unsure whether or not there are some hardware components that only have Vista drivers; if that it the case it'll cause big problems: If you have an image of the original installation you can just pop that back in if all else fails.

To format your C: drive you need to boot off the XP CD - for the information of the poster who asked.

I think Vista includes some sort of downgrade license. Which means that if you have a license for Vista, you can legally install XP (possibly using the same product key - check the license agreement carefully to be sure) as long as you remove Vista but do double check the license very carefully. Just because one edition allows this doesn't mean that every edition of Vista allows this.

Another suggestion that might work is something I did several years ago when XP came out and I didn't want to switch from 98SE because some of my software was too old to work on XP so I installed a second hard drive and a little item called Nick-Lock. Nick-Lock fit into a 3.5 bay and had wires that plugged into the jumpers on the two drives. A key in front of the bay could be turned to one side or the other and depending on which way the key was turned that hard drive became the C: drive and the other drive became the slave drive. I installed XP on one drive and 98SE on the other drive and could use both OS's whenever I wanted. By leaving the key in the middle setting it could be removed and the system would not boot up. I don't know why Nick-Lock didn't catch on more than it did but it was very handy for keeping an old OS available for use. It also gave one another slave drive to store files on. The stored files did not affect the other OS when it booted up. I thought it was the best of both worlds and will use it to keep my old XP OS when I eventually have to switch to Vista.

I'm supporting several people who are running Vista. I've seen issues, especially early last year with video drivers. The drivers are getting much better, especially from Nvidia who was really slow at resolving issues. I found that Vista needs a decent dual core processor and the more ram the better. I recently upgraded my home desktop from 2GBs to 4. I know 32 bit Vista only sees 3.25GBs but the difference was surprising. It's $100 well spent. When I see these cheap AMD powered laptops with 1Gb of ram at Best Buy I cringe. To add to that they are loaded with trialware which doesn't help at all. There's no way people buying these will get a decent computing experience.
The first thing I do when preparing a Vista machine for someone is get rid of all the trialware and make sure it's running at least 2GBs of ram. I always encourage people to learn to run as a limited user and only disable UAC in the admin account, if at all. It's much easier than fixing an infected machine or doing a re-install.
Xp was fine in it's day but downgrading from Vista can be a hassle. Some of the new laptops with new generation video don't have XP drivers. Be careful before you buy XP you may not be able to downgrade successfully. Definitely verify that the drivers you need exists. And if you can't afford a reasonably powered machine, wait or get a refurbished machine off the manufacturers website.
I've had great luck over the years buying refurbished or returned machines, and you can find XP if you want it. You can dual boot a machine with Vista and XP, it's much easier if you start with XP though, if you add XP to machine with Vista pre-installed you will need a Vista install DVD to repair the boot manager to boot into Vista.

will microsoft ever fix vista so my microphone and webcam will work...I like talking to family/friends rather than typing and i like seeing them on cam..i have been waiting for 5 months now..if they dont fix it soon im going back to xp...I been reading your articals about maybe not getting all the rite drivers when switching from vista to xp so i went to the pc manufacture website and typed in the model number of this machine then went to driver downloads...when they asked which windows i was using i clicked xp and then saved all the xp drivers in a folder and burned them to a cd..will this work if i ever do have to wipe out vista

Let me make it very clear. I absolutely detest Vista. I bought two new units with Vista, one of which I have not turned on in two months, the other is just as sorry. My solution-- I have carried my old machine to get XP upgraded as much as possible. I went to your site to see if downgrading to XP is possible. At my skill level it isn't logical. I can only hope Microsoft doesn't help us any more by coming out with a "new, improved system" Second hope is my old XP keeps on working.

I bought a new computer (Acer)with Vista on it and have been using XP. I have office XP Pro and VB 6 Pro I want to continue using. Can I install them on Vista and have them run O.K.?

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