How to Downgrade from Vista to XP

Fed up with Vista? Here are step-by-step instructions for downgrading back to the warm familiarity of Windows XP.


If "buyer's remorse" describes regret and self-doubt after a costly purchase, then "upgrader's remorse" seems to sum up the feelings some people have after switching to Windows Vista.

And why shouldn't they feel that way? Windows XP is noticeably faster than Vista on the same hardware, and it gets by with much less RAM and hard drive space. Microsoft's Service Pack 3 makes XP even faster, but the same cannot be said of Vista's Service Pack 1. And Windows Explorer crashes far more often in Vista (preceded, of course, by the notorious Green Ribbon of Death). Why, XP's staggeringly superior hardware support alone makes a convincing case for dumping Vista in favor of its predecessor.

Problem is, downgrading a Vista PC to Windows XP can be a chore, and doubly so if you want to do it without reformatting your hard disk. The main roadblock is Windows Setup, which won't let you install an older version on top of a newer one; you are left with the tedious task of fooling Setup into thinking that there's no Windows at all on your PC.

Regress Without Reformatting

Of the two approaches to downgrading Windows, the first is more convenient, as it doesn't require you to wipe your hard drive. You will need a genuine Windows XP installation CD; if all you have is a recovery disc, use the "Start from Scratch" process that follows.

Before you proceed, make sure you have several gigabytes of free space on your boot drive (usually C:). Take a moment to back up your entire hard drive; if you have Vista Business or Ultimate, you can do so with the Complete PC Backup and Restore tool, making it easy to get back into Windows should this process hit a snag.

Start by booting to your XP disc: Just insert the disc into your drive and turn on your PC, then press the spacebar when it says Press any key to boot from CD... If you don't see this message, you'll have to enter your PC's BIOS setup screen and change the boot options so that your CD drive appears above your hard drive in the boot sequence list. Consult your PC's manual for details. (If you can't boot from your CD, you can download free XP Setup boot disk files by searching for Q310994 at support.microsoft.com.)

When XP Setup starts, press R on the first page to open the Recovery Console. If you are asked to choose a Windows installation, type a number (usually 1) and press Enter.

In some cases, you may be asked for the Administrator password at this point. If you don't know it, you'll have to boot back into Windows Vista, open the Start menu, type lusrmgr.msc, and press Enter.
Open the C:\Users folder, double-click on the Administrator account, and turn off the Account is disabled option. Open the Start menu again, type Control userpasswords2 into the Search box, and press Enter. Next, click the Reset Password button, choose a new password, and start over.

Now. at the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following commands to prep your hard disk for XP:
fixboot
fixmbr
cd \
ren windows winvista
exit

When your PC restarts, boot onto your XP CD once again, and then proceed with setup normally.

When setup is finished, you'll have to move everything manually. This includes your documents, the contents of your desktop, and any other personal data that you'll need from Vista's now-defunct C:\Users folder into XP's C:\Documents and Settings folder. You'll also need to reinstall all your applications and device drivers, and eventually delete the abandoned C:\Winvista folder.

Start from Scratch

Without a true XP Setup disc, you won't have the luxury of the Recovery Console. Your other option is to use your PC's recovery disc, applicable, of course, only if your PC originally shipped with Windows XP.


Before you begin, you'll need to back up any files you want to keep. Unfortunately, you can't use any of Vista's built-in backup software for this, because XP doesn't include any tools that can read Vista backups—understandable but a shame. Your best bet is to copy your data onto an external hard disk manually (via a USB or eSATA connection) so that you can easily get it back once XP is up and running. Make sure you back up the entire C:\Users folder, which will catch your Documents directory, anything on your desktop, and application data such as stored e-mail.

Recovery procedures vary widely, so consult your PC's manual for details. Typically, the recovery software wipes the hard drive clean and then places a preinstalled copy of Windows onto the drive, complete with all the drivers and demo software that you got with your PC when it was new. When it's done, hook up your backup drive and copy your files back into position.

Other Downgrading Options

All that work ultimately leaves you with a PC running what is essentially an out-of-date operating system. XP is history now, just as Windows 98 was seven years ago when XP arrived. New products are being tuned for Vista, and it won't be long before legacy XP support disappears. But what if you have some essential application or device that simply won't work with Vista, yet you don't want to downgrade?


One approach is to install XP alongside Vista, using a dual-boot configuration. You'll need a second hard drive, or a second partition on your primary drive, on which to install XP. Begin by booting off an XP Setup disc as explained earlier, and then install the operating system on that second drive. When that's done, don't panic when Vista won't start; all you need to do is to reinstall Vista's boot manager. Just boot off your Vista Setup disc, click Next on the first page, and then, on the Install Windows page, click Repair your computer. Thereafter, you'll be prompted to choose between XP and Vista each time you turn on your PC.

The other option, and a good one if performance isn't too important to you, is to use a virtual machine, such as Microsoft Virtual PC (free from www.microsoft.com/virtualpc) or VMware Workstation (30-day trial at www.vmware.com) to run XP in a window from within Vista. To set it up in Virtual PC, click New, and then use the New Virtual Machine Wizard to create a virtual machine (below). When prompted, choose Windows XP as the platform and specify at least 512MB of RAM. Complete the wizard, and click Start to open the new virtual machine. Insert your Windows XP Setup CD, and from the CD menu, select Use Physical Drive D:. Now you'll be able to install XP as though drive D: were a separate computer. When you're done, you'll have a functional virtual XP PC that you can start from your Vista desktop any time you need it; you can even copy and paste between both platforms and share files over its virtual network interface. For more of the nitty-gritty on running a virtual machine, see our recent Solutions story "Windows in a Window".

Vested in Vista?

So, you've reluctantly decided to hang in there with Vista but still prefer the XP experience? The good news is that there are things you can do to make Vista look and work a little more like XP.


First, right-click on an empty area of the desktop and select Personalize. Click the Window Color and Appearance link, and then click Open classic appearance properties for more color options. From the list, choose Windows Vista Basic to get a quasi-XP look and feel, or Windows Classic if you prefer the utilitarian interface from Windows 2000 and 98. Either choice should also improve system performance, since the flashy (and essentially useless) transparency effects are system resource hogs.

While you're at it, you can also revert Vista's Start menu to the simpler form it took in earlier versions of Windows. Right-click the Start button, select Properties, and then choose the Classic Start menu option.

Next, if you're frustrated by the absence of drop-down menus in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer, you can bring them back any time by pressing the Alt key. To make this change permanent in Windows Explorer, open the Organize drop-down, select Folder and Search Options, choose the View tab, and then turn on the Always show menus check box.

One of Vista's biggest problems is the Green Ribbon of Death, the harbinger of a crashed Explorer window. XP certainly has Vista beat in this area, but only because XP's Windows Explorer doesn't take on as much. To make Explorer more stable in Vista, open Folder Options in Control Panel, and choose the View tab. Select the first option here, Always show icons, never thumbnails, and click OK.

Now, if you'd rather not do away with Vista's thumbnail previews of videos and pictures, you're probably going to need to deal with the occasional crash. If the Green Ribbon rears its ugly head, just press Ctrl-Shift-Esc, then choose the Processes tab. Click the Image Name column header to sort the list alphabetically, then select an instance of Explorer.exe and click End Process to close it (repeat for each open Explorer window).

If the desktop disappears in the process, don't sweat it: From Task Manager's File menu, select New Task, type explorer in the box, and click OK to bring the desktop back. If this problem keeps happening, particularly each time you browse a specific folder, the likely culprit is a corrupt photo or video file; delete the file to stop the crashing.

And finally, if Vista's infuriating UAC feature is driving you batty with tiresome prompts when you do as little as rename a desktop icon, see"Tame User Account Control" from our July 2007 issue.