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[sammy12 Profile]

now I get security center telling me uac is disabled everytime computer starts. What is slipstream, surely there's got to be an easier way to clear system of vista and reinstall xp. I can always use drive scanner to get my drivers after install of xp but need to get rid of vista first and vista boot pro doesn't seem to be able to help.

[NT50 Profile]

Do you have Service Pack 1 install for Vista?

[sammy12 Profile]

no I have my Gateway Vista Home Premium operating system disc that came with my new computer. I imagine I could dwld a Vista Sp1 and use my good serial for non sp1 disc if requiried

[JabbaPapa Profile]

now I get security center telling me uac is disabled everytime computer starts.

You mean the little thought baloon in the notification area ? just ignore it

UAC is a lot better in Windows 7, you can keep a basic level of UAC running with NO annoying notifications whatsoever. This feature also existed in Vista when it was in Beta, but some brainless software manager decided to kill it LOL

What is slipstream, surely there's got to be an easier way to clear system of vista and reinstall xp. I can always use drive scanner to get my drivers after install of xp but need to get rid of vista first and vista boot pro doesn't seem to be able to help.

Sorry no, there's no easy way to install XP on certain non-XP-compatible computers -- this is nothing to do with VistaBootPRO, nor technically with XP either.

Your computer has devices that need drivers that are not contained in the XP setup CD, simply because these devices are recent inventions that XP does not "know" about -- XP setup does have a method to install required drivers using a floppy, but in cases where drivers are needed to use the CD/DVD/BLURAY drive itself, then they need to be included in the installation media -- ie your Setup CD -- because the XP setup environment will not be able to even initiate properly if it can't read itself from the CD. Vista and Windows 7 will let you use a USB flash drive or a CD/DVD/BLURAY for extra drivers loading, but XP only lets you use a floppy -- and YES it is a huge annoyance that Microsoft have chosen NOT to include drivers installation from USB drive/CD in XP SP3

Therefore, to install XP on your computer, you need to :

1) Find a download location for the SATA controller drivers that you need, either from your computer manufacturers' site (bearing in mind that SOME manufacturers do NOT provide properly working XP setup drivers for their Vista-era hardware in DIRECT breach of their Vista>XP downgrade-ability contracts with Microsoft and with their customers ), or from the motherboard or chipset manufacturer's site, or from some hacker site (if you're *really* unlucky and need hacked drivers) --- and you need to make sure that these are drivers that would work with the F6 drivers installation method, and NOT just drivers installation executables that many companies prefer to distribute but which only work when XP is *already* installed

2) use nLite or some other method to include these drivers into a .iso image of your XP installation media (nLite is just the "easiest" way -- I personally prefer a more hands-on method, but it can only be recommended to people with a certain depth of expertise -- so just use nLite)

3) Burn the results to a CD, and use this CD to install XP instead of your official Microsoft CD

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No this is NOT easy, especially not if you have never done it before, but there will be no other way to install Windows XP on your computer. You should also be aware of the fact that more and more computers, having more than 4GB of installed RAM, require a 64-bit version of Windows, so that XP cannot be installed on these computers AT ALL -- your computer is NOT one of these, but in a relatively short time, XP will become installable ONLY on older hardware and on certain low-budget solutions -- and in all cases will require personalised installation media as described above.

The move from 32-bit to 64-bit computing is taking longer than the 16-bit>32-bit revolution, but it is just as unavoidable, and XP is increasingly becoming Yesterday's Windows. Hard Drive capacities in TB instead of GB are another nail in XP's coffin, because it will in the more medium term become possible to have multiple Hard drive arrays in a home computer that 32-bit computing will simply be unable to manage.

You would probably be happier with Windows 7 than Vista, because W7 is basically an annoyance-free version of Vista which is faster than XP (and Vista), and which also appears to run more happily on older hardware than Vista does. But it only comes out at the end of the year

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Anyway, bottom line is that if you have enough motivation and patience, you should be able to create your own personalised XP setup CD that will work on your computer -- so good luck, and if you need help locating drivers and stuff please just ask

[sammy12 Profile]

thanks for the well written response. I think I'll just stick with Vista and go with new windows when it's released. I don't imagine one would have problems formatting Vista with a fresh install ofWindows 7 when it's released.

[yeshuas]

thanks for the well written response. I think I'll just stick with Vista and go with new windows when it's released. I don't imagine one would have problems formatting Vista with a fresh install ofWindows 7 when it's released.

You should not have any trouble installing Windows 7 when it is released, as in my humble opinion it is really Vista Enhanced or unplugged or what ever you want to call it.

Windows 7 is a lot better than Vista, it is what Vista should have been actually.