Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing!

What's the best way to revert from Windows Vista to run applications that don't work?

Question:

I recently purchased a computer. It came with Vista premium. The programs I
bought this computer for will not work with Vista. It keeps telling me there
are compatibility issues and to got to the Microsoft website. I found no
support there. I guess what I’d like to know is if it is possible to remove the
hard drive with Vista and install my last hard drive with XP? All the programs
I need will work fine on XP. My old processor just wasn’t fast enough. I know
the question is kind of vague and might not be answerable with the lack of info
I have given. My old computer was a put together by a friend who gave it to me
when he was done with it. The new one is a HP a1700n. Or, is there a way to
remove Vista and install XP on this one. In order for me to use Vista, I will
have to replace most of the programs I work with. That is a little too spendy.
Any suggestion would help.

I haven’t taken the Vista plunge just yet (though Vista Ultimate is sitting
on a shelf behind me as I type), but your complaint is one that I’ve been
hearing from time to time: Vista doesn’t run everything just yet. Normally it’s
a problem with hardware drivers, but I understand some applications may have
difficulty as well.

So what’s the best way to “revert” to Windows XP?

There are a couple of options, but none of them are truly seamless.

Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!

Unfortunately the idea that you have – just swapping out the hard drive –
will probably not work. Windows XP on the old hard drive is configured for all
the hardware on that old machine. Booting it in the new machine will at best
confuse the heck out of Windows as nearly all the hardware is changed out from
underneath it at once. At worst Windows XP simply won’t boot.

You could certainly remove Vista and install XP. Just grab a Windows XP
install CD, boot from it and proceed to install Windows XP from scratch. When
it asks you to choose a partition, choose the one with Vista on it, and have it
reformat the disk. Vista will be gone, XP will be in its place, and you can
proceed to set up the applications you need. Be sure to keep the Windows Vista
installation DVD that should have come with the new machine for use someday in
the future.

If the hard disk is big enough, you might consider a dual-boot option
allowing you to boot your system into either Vista or XP. It’s been a while
since I’ve played with dual boot, but it’s a viable option if you want to keep
Vista around for other things.

The approach I would take, however, is similar, but significantly more
flexible.

I would use a virtual machine.

Virtual machines are, in essence, a virtual “PC in a window”. When you start
a virtual PC, for example, the first thing you see is a virtual BIOS screen as
it starts up and tries to boot. I use a virtual machine to run Ubuntu Linux in
a window on my Windows XP laptop:

Ubuntu Linux in a window in Windows XP

I also use a virtual machine to run Windows XP on my MacBook Pro running OS
X. It’s pretty amazing technology.

So you can probably guess where I’m headed. I would leave Windows Vista
installed, and create a separate virtual machine that would run Windows XP as a
“guest operating system” in a window within Vista, where Vista is the “host
operating system”. That installation of XP could then run all of the
applications that you care about.

It’s the best of both worlds, in my opinion.

The virtual machine technology I’m using is Parallels Workstation for Windows. While I’ve not run
Parallels under Windows Vista, they do list it as supported, as both the host
operating system, and as the “guest” – meaning I should be able to try Vista in
a virtual machine within Windows XP as well.

Parallels does an excellent job of mapping almost all the hardware through
to the guest operating system, with the most notable exception of 3D graphics
acceleration, so no gaming, but most everything else is available and operates
at near full speed.

Do this

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.

I'll see you there!

16 comments on “What's the best way to revert from Windows Vista to run applications that don't work?”

  1. many people have had luck in running older programs on Vista by setting the properties on the program to run in compatiblity mode for XP.

    Reply
  2. This is yet ANOTHER example of how out of touch Microsoft is with their customers. Our computer had security problems with THEIR O/s, and people attacking it from the outside. Vista makes it incredibly difficult to do everyday tasks, because Microsoft thinks that it is WE who are the security risks, and make us jump through hoops just to do basic things. Their IE solution is already getting patched, even though it was supposed to be almost impenetrable! Either way, I’ll stick to XP for another year or so. My son had a problem installing Adobe on his new Vista laptop. We had to use the XP Compatibility settings. That Mac is looking MUCH better these days! :)

    Reply
  3. Regarding the dual-boot idea, as I recall, XP must be installed BEFORE Vista. I don’t think you can add XP to an existing Vista installation and dual-boot.

    Reply
  4. If you want to go virtual, VMware is by far the best answer today. I’ve used it on both Windows and Linux hosts to run a wide range of guests (Windows XP & 98, Linux, NetBSD, etc). You will pay a performance penalty, but if your new system has a rich memory and fast disks, the net effect should be fine for most applications.

    Reply
  5. How does Windows Genuine Advantage affect the dual-booting or Parallels Workstation idea? I thought the mantra has been “one XP, one computer”.

    Reply
  6. —–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
    Hash: SHA1

    A fine question, and I think the specifics have yet to be determined.

    Certainly you can have a licensed copy of Vista on the machine, AND a
    separately licensed copy of XP on the same machine in either dual boot or VM.
    You’ve paid for two operating systems, and can run them on a single machine –
    nothing really new there. WGA will simply record the activation within the
    environment it sees at the time.

    Things get dicier with VM’s. You could have more than one copy of XP running in
    multiple VM’s on Vista. Would that require more licenses? It’s still the one
    machine. But multiple OSs? It remains to be seen.

    WGA’s ability to detect piracy is also in question once you install XP in a VM.
    The VM’s hard disk can easily be copied to another machine and run on another
    instance of parallels. Is that “legal”? Dunno. Will WGA catch it? Maybe, maybe
    not.

    Lots of open issues here. I don’t think there are clear answers yet.

    Leo
    —–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
    Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)

    iD8DBQFGAvwKCMEe9B/8oqERAlV/AJsEkbkeKJYH4BbspoYrDBww/AIvfwCgjid+
    R1FtrhF0l3ekCsQI+82BUJo=
    =LV5+
    —–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

    Reply
  7. Some good comments, but unfortunately, it is not as simple as loading the Windows XP disc and reformatting/reloading the software. Since I installed Vista, my computer no longer recognizes the hard drives UNLESS I am changing versions of Vista. XP reports that there are no hard drives….I have booted into the drives several times and so I know they are there….just XP no longer recognizes them.

    VISTA=TRASH and a waste of time. Completely useless OS until more companies are willing to spend the time to write drivers and actually support this new OS.

    Reply
  8. It is by all means possible to install XP in a dual boot environment when Vista is already installed. It is also possible to do a clean install on top of Vista, though I would not recommend it if your machine came with Vista and has all hardware specifically designed for Vista. A virtual machine is a great option, but it seems kind of silly to use a virtual machine to run one version of windows on top of another. In my experience, however, 99% of the applications people say are not compatible with Vista will run under compatibility mode (see one of the above posts for more info on compatibility mode). So the most cost effective, simplest, and most all-around efficient option is to utilize the compatibility wizard.

    Reply
  9. Vista does not run these programs — even with compatability options.
    Quicken 2004
    Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005
    Those are just the ones I know about—there are also a bunch that it runs partially. For instance, if you choose to enlarge fonts in windows because you have a high-pitch LCD, most XP programs won’t handle it well, and you end up with two sets of menus that overlap and created a jumbled mess.

    Reply
  10. the model you are working with is the a1700n. Here is a listing of the a1700n motherboard specs. I found the predecessor model the a1600n, and here is a listing of the a1600n motherboard specs. As you can see the motherboards are the same. HP went through some rapid model no turnover after the introduction of Vista in the spring. First they changed the model with the introduction of Vista and then they changed the mobo and went to black cases.

    The motherboard has nVidia 6150LE chipset, and the lan is a 10/100 Marvell 88EC031.

    Here is a driver listing from the HP website. Try the nVidia LAN driver. Please note on the website that Service Pack 2 MUST be installed prior to installation of this driver.

    Reply
  11. i have the same problem my hp a6230n doesnt want to work with my ie and yahoo mail cant i just make a backup disk with the programs installed on new hp install xp and than reinstall the programs from recovery cd i made a recovery and it reads on my toshiba laptop so my question is is it possible to recover say my litescribe programs and so on from that disk i have a licence copy of xp please email me if you have any suggestions
    generator1487739@yahoo.com

    Reply
  12. Today….
    My OS died. Vista has given me nothing but problems on my HP media center. Compatibility with any game software is nearly impossible to accomplish. I installed NVidia’s latest driver for the 8600 gfx series, and after restarting my computer, I got the “BSOD”. My OS is completely fried, and I really don’t feel like buying new restore discs.

    Reply
  13. Leo And To Everybody Here!! READ THIS I Bought A New H.P Phenom X4 9550 Quad 7gb Ram 740gb H.D.D 64 Bit S-P-1 With Vista Premium! I Was A X.P Lover..NOW I wouldn’t Go Back! Vista JUST Takes Getting Used To!! I Also Have 2 H.P,S With X.P But
    Once You Do You TOO Will See How Much Smarter VISTA is And Safer! MY 64 Bit Has Rarely Encountered A Software Program IT Can,t Install When I search I add X 64 And 99% of the Time I can Find A 64 BIT Version of Any Program I want!!SO Don,t Be So Quick To Hate VISTA!! it Just Takes Getting Used TOO!! AND Once You Do YOUR GONNA LOVE IT! I Wanted The NEW POWERFUL Phenom QUAD So Bad! Note! make Sure You Get A AMD Motherboard..They Are Better And Faster Than Intel 9-2-09

    Reply

Leave a reply:

Before commenting please:

  • Read the article.
  • Comment on the article.
  • No personal information.
  • No spam.

Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read.