Help remove Vista

I just got a laptop, old one was dying and I had a chance to get something similar pretty cheap. I tried to run Vista but when it took over an hour to move 400MB files into a thumb drive, I got fed up. Is there any way to remove Vista and go back to XP that is simple? I have a legal XP Pro disc, but Setup won't run from that, even when the Optical Drive is the first boot drive and the system is shut down. I remember doing similar things on PCs in the past, but when I try to remember them they all go away. Or should I just forget it and try to live with the bloat?

If you want to tell me to do my own searches, can you tell me where to start? Everywhere I search for "remove windows vista" either finds no matches or tells me how to remove malware, etc.

Oh, if it isn't obvious, I would strongly recommend against Vista. Many of the things that were so simple in XP are difficult or slow in Vista. Even removing several levels of subdirectories--Vista insists on removing them one layer at a time. And renaming files [as in multiple photos] where XP allowed you to arrange the files in order, then name, Vista reorders them in a random order. If you can stay away from it, do so.

 

So you mean the setup file from when you launch from within windows? Or when you try and boot from the CD?

 

Go to bios,set first boot option to CD,second and third-disable,and there was another feature caled-I think-check for device on boot-disable that too.run boot CD,and Good luck.

 

Nope, tried those things before I asked. Even with the DVD drive first and all other drives disabled, it still loaded Vista.

I looked at another forum and was told that I would have to find SATA drivers for XP [Vista SATA drivers won't work], then create an XP disc with them, then disable the bootloader for Vista. That's just above my comfort level; though I may have to live with it, because I can't live with Vista. Either that, or find some repairman that can do it. I've been reading that shops are charging $150-$250 for the job, and the only one I've talked to flatly refused to attempt it [which I thought was good, instead of trying and screwing it up, then giving it back to me--and probably charging me anyway].

Thanks for the info. I'll see if there's anyone that has a simpler way to do it.