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Downgrade Any PC from Vista to XP

Downgrade to XP List

Before using this guide I wish to point out that the best way and only way certain to work is to use the official downgrade path provided by your PC maker, failing that try to find XP drivers specific to your make and model of PC. they are about just hard to find, finally if all else fails try this method or a combination of Manufacturers Drivers and the process below.

This process will work with most PCs and Laptops to varying degrees but not all of them and is not in any way guaranteed to be successful. I have done several PCs using driver packs without major problems but there are thousands of hardware configurations so the odd machine is missing drivers for one thing or another and some will not work at all. If you try this method I request you email me the manufacturer and model these drivers worked for; or any missing drivers which I will then find and post on rapidshare.

OK this method requires the use of Driver Packs, these are downloadable compressed files containing thousands of generic XP drivers for all commonly used hardware.

1. Download and Burn Drivers to DVD

go to this site

http://www.driverpacks.net/DriverPacks

Download all the driver packs listed on the page but don't bother with DriverPacks BASE at the bottom unless you want to slipstream drivers into installation CDs, if you don't know what that means you don't need DriverPacks BASE forget about it.

Next download the free version of 7zip from here

7zip is like Winzip a compression archiver, it is open source and free, you need it to extract the drivers from the packs you downloaded from DriverPacks above. The download page is a bit confusing for non geeks so here is what you need.

If you downloaded the DriverPacks on an XP Machine you need this             7-Zip 4.57 - exe 32bit
If you downloaded the DriverPacks on an Vista Machine you need this          7-Zip 4.57 - msi 32bit

Run the installer to install 7-Zip on your PC then reboot

Now open 7-Zip, find the DriverPacks you downloaded and extract them all to a new folder on your hard drive ensuring you give it a recognisable name. Once all the DriverPacks are extracted in your driver folder (the one you extracted the packs to) open the folder and you will find in there 7 folders called "C, CPU, G, L, M, S & W" use your DVD burning software to burn these folders to a blank DVD, how to here if required and you need to burn a DATA dvd.

Once you have a copy of the DriverPacks on a DVD you are ready to ditch Vista on the downgrade PC and install XP.

2. Make a Backup of Vista

I recommend making a full backup image of the hard drive first using Acronis or similar drive imaging software before ditching it and installing XP. If you do not do this there is no way back to Vista; therefore if things go badly wrong with your XP downgrade you may end up with an expensive paperweight. My method of doing this, which is entirely foolproof is to take the original hard drive out untouched and replace it with a spare then it does not matter how badly I screw it up the original OS can be restored by putting the original drive back in, dead easy and spare hard drives are much cheaper than new laptops.

It goes without saying that downgrading Vista to XP without using the official manufacturer's downgrade process invalidates any guarantee and is entirely at your own risk.

NB 32 bit XP only.

Install XP this starts from a new XP installation

3. Install Drivers

Once XP is installed insert your DriverPacks DVD into the DVD Drive.
Cancel the Autorun Pop-up when it appears - ie select "Take no Action" and OK out of it.
Next click the Start Button then Control Panel - when the control panel appears look at the top left and select "Classic View". In the control panel find "System" icon - Double Click it then select the "Hardware" tab and click on the "Device Manager" button.

Now you will see lots of yellow ?s which mean "I have no driver for whatever this is" so starting from the top and working down for each yellow ? which will be labled "unknown device" or something approximating to the type of hardware, double click on that line which will open a control window. Select the "Driver" tab on the top then click the "Update Driver" button. You will then get the "Found New Hardware" pop-up - select the "Install Automatically" button and the Driver required will be found on the DVD drive then installed. Follow the ensuing wizard, ignore any dire warnings just click through them this is normal, if the driver is not found move on to the next one on the list, do the same for all the missing drivers then reboot

Now update Windows to XP3 via Windows Updates if you did not do this when installing XP, you may find any missing drivers in the Windows Updates Drivers section in this case use them to clear up any missing drivers.

These drivers will not do everything, most crucial drivers will be found but odd card readers and other manufacturer specific hardware will not. If you are missing a driver and it is crucial contact me and I will see if I can find the correct one, no guarantees though.

That's it XP should be installed and functional with all the hardware working.

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