Upgrading to XP over Vista

I recently purchased 2 hp machines from the local best buy and need to put them into service. They came with Vista and Vista will not support the software I need to install.
Windows XP on the other hand will. I have 2 windows XP pro upgrade cds in stock.

Do you know of any way I can upgrade from Vista TO XP pro or am I SoL?

If it helps, they are HP Pavilion a1710n.

 

You can try booting off of the CD and see if Vista counts as qualifying media. It would require a clean installation, and you would be WISE to wipe everything out and start over.

However, before you do, make certain you have a way of reinstalling Vista at a later time via recovery DVD or whatever they supplied. IF you dont have one, search the start menu for a recovery disk maker, because you will need to make one. If you wipe it out beforehand, there is no going back to Vista, and your other software.

 

Since Vista is a NEWER operating system than Vista what you want to do wouldn't be an upgrade it would technically be a downgrade.

This is NOT possible you cannot go backwards with OSs. If you examin the upgrade discs you will probably see that they will upgrade to xp from win98, ME or 2000. (or possibly xp home to xp pro)

If you really feel the need to replace vista with xp you will need to format your computer and instal xp from scratch.

This is probably not a great solution for you, perhaps if you are more specific about which software won't work with vista we can help you find an alternative solution. I personally use vista and have done since the beta version and I have yet to find something that REALLY doesn't work.

 

You definately can't upgrade, but you could clean install. You will need to boot from the XP CD, format the partion and install with XP (you could not format and over-write the windows folder, but I would not recommend it). The only problem is the existing Vista instalation will not work as qualifying media, so you will need to get your hands on a full version XP, 2000, ME, 98 or 95 disk, and put it in the drive to be read when prompted. Best of luck

 

Alright, thanks for the quick responses. Its not MY software I need to install but their company software which they have stated "(It) is not compatible with the Windows Vista operating system". I'll most likely install an OEM home on them and then install the pro upgrade.
I don't suppose we could leave this thread open for a few days to see if anyone has any further information?
I'll check back every couple of hours.
Thanks
-Locus

 

Ya, you are SOL I'm afraid and those XP upgrades are no good unless you have a '98 disk. Another option would be to load a retail XP on a second partition and dual boot with Vista though there are pitfalls there too with Vista's bootmanager though there are ways to do it. Either way, have a restore disc for Vista just in case.

EDIT: You may be able to use the '98 upgrade option but I've never seen it done with Vista on a system first, unknown territory ATM.

 

Can't you just run your software in Vista under XP compatabilty mode, by right clicking it and selecting that option?

Just like XP has a windows 95 compatability mode?

 

I have a client with this same problem. I installed a dual boot system so that they can choose XP or VISTA upon booting up. This requires reformatting the HD and partioning it then doing a fresh installation of both operating systems.

The XP upgrade won't work on it's own. Buy a windows 98/ME/2000 second hand somewhere and do it from there.

The dual boot works great. Also you can try virtual PC. This is a free download from the Microsoft website. This enables you to run another OS within VISTA or XP, but you will need a PC with at least 512 MB RAM.

Cheers