Hate Windows Vista? Here's How to Keep or Switch Back to Windows XP

by Will Safer on June 5, 2008 at 03:19 PM

Are those windows of yours looking a little smudged lately? No, we're not talking about the windows in your house or apartment, or the windshield of your car. Instead, we at Switched, like many other consumers and tech watchers out there, are looking at the somewhat confusing view put forward by Microsoft and computer makers for the future of Windows the operating system.

Windows Vista was introduced last year to much fanfare but has since proven to be a bit of a disappointment among individual computer users and businesses. They've all been slow to adopt the new system. And in an odd twist in the normal progression of new technology, Windows XP (the older and widely-used operating system in use on the majority of PCs in the marketplace) will continue to be available on many machines through June – and even beyond – along with various levels of support by Microsoft.

Why would anyone want an older operating system such as Windows XP? Well, if you've tried Vista recently, you'll probably have learned that many programs and computer peripherals still don't work for the new operating system. And don't even get us started on how slow Vista can be. Windows XP, which has been around for a few years, has none of the above problems.

If you think Windows XP is still the right operating system for you, then there are solutions available.

June 30th is the last official date that Windows XP will be available on regular new computers. HP and Dell, however, will offer an operating system "downgrade" on several models beyond that date, which means you buy one of their computers with Windows Vista, but also receive the installation discs with Windows XP, giving you a choice of which system to use. These downgrade options will continue through the beginning of 2009.

And then there are the makers of ultra-low-cost PCs, which will offer Windows XP on some of their bare-bones models until June 2010.

And this is the story of Windows XP: It doesn't die, it just fades away. [Source: PC World.]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, downgrade, Windows Vista, Windows XP, WindowsVista, WindowsXp

Comments

Iyema SonovabichJun 5th 2008 4:49PM

Neutral

'DISAPPOINTED' in Vista? Howzabout 'enraged', or 'ticked-off', or seriously pissed-off about the serial-incompetance of the designers, programmers, supervisors who signed off on this pile of crap and most of all, the F*&^%%$ idiots who produce this horse sh#@!!!! Someone should have had the testicular accountability to stand up in a meeting somewhere and risk getting fired with honours by exclaiming in a loud, unmistakeable voice "THIS SH#@ SUCKS!!!!!!!I It is NO DAMN GOOD!!!! NO ONE LIKES IT!!!!
Flush everything done so far, and START OVER!!!!
The best possible comment I can make about Vista is that it is with out a doubt a hinderance to progress of any kind in any context.

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LorrieJun 5th 2008 6:20PM

Neutral

Vista takes a bit of patience to get use to , however, it is not so bad once you start using it regularly. Microsoft is going to phase-out XP so people would be smart to embrace Vista. You cannot be a dinosaur when it comes to technology.

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ss4coloJun 5th 2008 7:47PM

Neutral

Not once does it say how to switch from Vista to Windows XP even though that's what the article title is.

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Frenchy10-4Jun 6th 2008 12:34AM

Neutral

Article must've been written by Mac

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DennisJun 5th 2008 8:39PM

Neutral

Just curious if those people that hate Vista have tried disabling the UAC?

I don't use mine for overly complicated applications, but as soon as I turned off the UAC everything worked as smooth as silk. The games never had a glitch after that.

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joyceJun 6th 2008 11:44AM

Neutral

How do you disconnect the UAC? I like playing Pogo games online, and half the games will not load with Vista

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Love VistaJun 5th 2008 8:49PM

Neutral

I cannot understand why folks have problems with Vista, I have an OEM installation on this PC with 2 gigs of ram and Athlon 64x2 4000+ dual core CPU and all my programs run on it no issues all my hardware runs on it no issues Heck it evens runs some Win 98 programs XP wouldn't! It has never crashed never frozen and is faster then my old XP based system with the same cpu and ram!
I think all the whiners are MAC users logging in as "Vosta" users to discredit a OS that makes thier machines look like fossils.

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GuyJun 6th 2008 1:06AM

Neutral

Vista Happens!

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richardJun 6th 2008 3:40AM

Neutral

XP??? I wanna go back to 98SE !!!! Now, about this disabling the UAC? Any way to tell me what this is and how to do it in plain english? Some of us old geezers aint techno-dudes.

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vvav5128mepJun 6th 2008 3:55AM

Neutral

Vista sucks! My business has sufferred, I'm frustrated and I want something....anything different!

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joyceJun 6th 2008 11:45AM

Neutral

Interested in purchasing a new PC from HP...I wrote to them asking if they would downgrade the system to Windows XP, from Vista...and this was their reply:

"Current Pavilion and Presario desktop PCs are not available with Windows XP or a Windows XP downgrade option. While it is possible to replace the installed OS with a retail copy of Windows XP, HP will only support the PC as it is configured from the factory. I apologize for any inconvenience that this causes."

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DaveJul 29th 2008 1:25PM

Neutral

What is UAC???!...I need to know!

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W. Arnold HolmesJul 29th 2008 7:18PM

Neutral

VISTA SUCKS

The title says it all, y'all!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jOh6Nh8w6f8

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MarkAug 30th 2008 12:02PM

Neutral

User Access Control, I think that is the ingenius security feature that constantly informs you that you, the administrator and computer-owner, don't have enough access priveledges to do what you're trying to do, or asks you 3 or 4 times if you really, really wanna run that file. What an idiotic idea of security this is. Sometimes you aren't sure if running a file was a bad idea or not unless you're brave enough to try it, asking 3 times doesn't help that.. That's what backup images are for. I ran Vista for 6 months and happily switched back to XP.

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