Downgrading Vista to XP

[DazzerT]

I am keen to get a laptop which is a reasonable spec - dual 2 core 2.5GHz with 4Gb ram, a 5400 or 7200 rpm hard drive, blue ray drive, firewire and hdmi, but having chosen first the Asus that fitted the bill then the Sony Vaio, I find neither can be downgraded to XP from Vista as there's no drivers available.

Is it now impossible to get a new reasonable spec laptop which can be downgraded to XP?

XP is still recommended by many for the music software I am running, simply because more drivers are available and Vista hogs CPU.

Any help much appreciated.

Dazzer

[mikeL]

You can tweak Vista down so it isn't such a memory / resource hog.
http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/supertweaks.htm

As for the music software check to see if there are drivers for vista, However I feel your pain on the downgrading to XP, it shouldn't be so difficult.

[shadowpr]

Look at the dell small business line of laptops. They have the option of downgrading to xp.

[glc]

Generally, Dell laptops have XP drivers available. You have to research each model.

[mikeL]

My mother in law ordered a downgrade from dell, they were happy to install XP for $100.00 instead of vista.

[glc]

The Dell downgrade is not available on all models though.

[Petef56]

Originally Posted by shadowpr Look at the dell small business line of laptops. They have the option of downgrading to xp.

I agree with shadowpr. The trick is to buy a PC with Vista that comes with the
XP downgrade CD. With Dell they will actualy downgrade it to XP for you.
So basically you have the option to use XP today and upgrade to Vista at
some time in the future. For DELL, check out the business line of PCs to
get Vista with the XP downgrade deals.

I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect that HP might be offering something similar.
I'd say, call to HP's sales line and talk to a human about the XP options.

---pete---