Hey guys. Ive been researching the internet for how I can 'downgrade' (upgrade) my PC from the Vista OS to XP, and i found some articles which say Microsoft are allowing Vista users to downgrade to XP with the Vista product key. It said on all of them to call Microsoft and when you get the line, the rep will talk you through it. This failed as some might know, it took me 15 minutes of waiting then I put down the phone, as I wasn't waiting any more for the slow call reps to get my call. (Took me half an hour to get a rep when I needed my 360 fixed) and I was wondering if anyone knew a quicker way to get the downgrade, without having to call Microsoft. I'm not expecting any sure-fire answers, just maybe a push in the right direction.
Thanks.

Reformat after backing your shiz up on 50 floppy disks.

Uh, how about no? Reformatting wouldn't get him XP, it would leave he with a BLANK hard-drive.

Son of a ♥♥♥♥♥...

If you have an XP CD just pop that in after backing up the stuff you want to keep. You'll want to reformat (WHICH THE CD SHOULD DO) because of the radical differences between Vista and XP handling drivers and all such.

No XP disc available. Never got given one. I asked the supplier of my PC but they can only give me a Vista disk, as the PC I have is Vista.

unfortunately you will have to buy an XP installation disk or... acquire one.

Honestly Xing just try to connect with Microsoft support. Since you've burned so much money buying Vista they should have no problem in sending you an XP CD. Try emailing and calling, one's bound to be faster than the other.

I can't think of a safer way to do it.

Come on, no one actually buys vista. Vistaids comes preloaded with computers- probably the only reason people actually use it.

To the rest of your post however, I must say I agree. Getting it a different way can be risky- and you don't get those snazzy free updates. Though XP probably won't have many more anyways.

Actually, as much as it comes preloaded on computers, that doesn't mean you aren't paying for it. Usually, unless you get the bare bones edition, you pay an extra 200 dollars, and even then it'll be included in the price a little without you know.

This man is right.
Mine came with home basic, and making it home premium or whatever cost extra.

Just call them and wait. MS support sucks deal with it.

Do they actually support downgrades? I was under the impression XP was going to be removed from shelves in 2009.

Apparently this was already done: www.stuffwelike.com/stuffwelike/2008/04 ... s-in-june/

I thought they extended that.
Or maybe that was support for it.

I thought Vista comes with a key for XP? I just installed XP to a different partition, and it hasn't asked for a product key since. All I needed to do is use the registration program thingy once I installed XP, no need for calling anywhere. This may not work if you want to remove your Vista however.