®®® Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 This is old news which i posted way back in June in our SuperUser area, but still worth to mention to everyone as it's a little known fact. Whenever you buy a new laptop make sure you get OEM VISTA Business or the Ultimate version preinstalled as according to Microsoft you are eligible to downgrade these version (only!) to XP Professional :) Can I downgrade my OEM version of Windows Vista Business to Windows XP Professional?Yes. OEM downgrade rights for desktop PC operating systems apply to Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate as stated in the License Terms. Please note, OEM downgrade versions of Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate are limited to Windows XP Professional (including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP x64 Edition). End users can use the following media for their downgrade: Volume Licensing media (provided the end user has a Volume Licensing agreement), retail (FPP) (edit: Full Packaged Product), or system builder (edit: edition) hologram CD (provided the software is acquired in accordance with the Microsoft OEM System Builder License). Use of the downgraded operating system is governed by the Windows Vista Business License Terms, and the end user cannot use both the downgrade operating system and Windows Vista Business. There are no downgrade rights granted for Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium. The complete downgrade chart document can be found HERE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 Please, everyone knows that going from Vista to XP Pro SP2 is an upgrade, not a downgrade. We shall have to see if this comment holds up a few years from now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
®®® Posted October 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 It depends on your configuration. But i see your bias :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duddels Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 And how do we Downgrade this? Sorry for my extremely newbish kind question... Do we need an XP installation CD or...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerXML Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 They get the whole file copy/paste/move/transfer thing worked out I might be willing to use one of my 3 copies of Vista I have lying around (1x Home Premium and 2x Business). It takes forever to transfer files over a network or it randomly crashes, it randomly refuses to, stops or crashes when copying or moving files. My desktops X-Fi card sounds terrible, I hate (absolutely hate) UAC and I still haven't gotten LOTR Online to play without tearing and weird graphics glitches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitetigerx7 Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 Actually I could care less about XP anymore. IMHO Vista is about the same if not better. Disabling UAC is probably the biggest issue and the easiest tweak to maximizing Vista's performance. Other than that I like Vista. Free DVD Recording and Mastering Software was also a point I liked. I really see no benefit to going back to XP other than minor Audio issues, but that's mostly a desktop issue that was solved by Creative's ALchemy driver. To say Vista downgraded to XP SP2 is an upgrade is kinda ridiculous. It's really neither an upgrade or downgrade really. Thanks but no thanks. IMO Vista can be tweaked to run like XP through disabling the UAC feature. After that all you have to do is work the system. All my software still works thanks to disabling the UAC feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 I'll probably jump ship to ubuntu with a fancier than vista interface with OpenGL 3.0 support before I bother installing vista on this thing. UT3 should have better graphics on OpenGL 3 then in XP on DX9. It might even run faster if its optimized enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSudlow Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 whitetigerx7, DX9 games still take a performance hit on Vista. If your system is at all marginal, it's a hit you really can't afford. The real killer for me is video performance. Vista's DRM model chokes the life out of HD video on FX-series cards. It does have some very nice features, though, and will definitely be the wave of the future as we upgrade our hardware. For anyone who doesn't know where to disable UAP (or UAC or whatever), it's in the User applet in the Windows Control Panel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 The DRM ****/driver lockout really is the worst part about it. Even though my quad core would run through it like butter, XP and linux will probably be much more responsive. For the same CPU and graphics power I will also get better effects in linux than using aero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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