Downgrading to Windows XP Professional ?

[joecass]

Just happened to get the latest copy of Micro Center catalog, I see Dell desktop computers costing $1500 - $1600 with
Windows 7 Pro installed, the ad print reads "available downgrade to Windows XP Professional"
Why would someone spend that kind of money on a Dell with an Intel I 7 cpu, oodles of RAM and hdd space, and install
Win XP Pro ? doesn't make any sense at all..... am I missing something ?

[jagabo]

Some programs don't work in Win7. Also, many businesses don't won't to have a mix of XP, Vista, and 7. It's much easier to support a single OS. On top of that there's no significant performance advantage to Vista or 7.

[El Heggunte]

If there are XP drivers for the hardware, then XP becomes preferable to both Windows and Se7en.
Yes, there are people who do not like Aero, nor UAC, nor fake directories (aka "libraries"), nor the lack of the "Classic" Start Menu, nor etc etc etc.

[El Heggunte]

[ double post ]

[Bjs]

Just consider dual boot ... xp for legacy ... windows 7 for all the new products.

Example : Your employed by a company which insist you have a copy of there program installed in order to perform your duties however the product fails to function under windows 7 ... you go home at end of day and simply boot back into windows 7 ... all's well .

[Khaver]

I'm the net admin at my work and many of the programs we use (virus protection, accounting, CAD) are not compatible with Win 7. To upgrade all these programs just so they will work with Win 7 does not make sense economically since they work great in XP. Dell's option to downgrade to XP on new computers is a great idea and I order all our new comps with this option. The bad thing is at first when they started offering this, it was free, now they charge $99 for the option, but it's still worth it for us.

What I've been looking into is using VirtualBox on a minimal Linux host that boots straight into an XP guest. This would allow us to buy comps without the cost of an OS and new apps. I could just setup Linux on the comp and copy over the virtual hard drive with the users XP setup in it and they're good to go with no time wasted reinstalling all the apps they use. Experimenting, I've been able to accompish this on a comp with 2GB of ram. I've given the guest 1.75GB of ram leaving 256MB for the host. Now I just need to make it foolproof for the user so it's completely transparent from boot to shutdown. I can boot straight to the XP guest but I'm trying to find a way to automatically shutdown the host after the user shuts down XP.

[TBoneit]

Windows 7 Pro with the Microsoft XP Pro download and have both.

[jagabo]

Windows 7 Pro with the Microsoft XP Pro download and have both.

Are you talking about "XP Mode"?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

That runs a lot of old XP only software but not all.

[usually_quiet]

Windows 7 Pro with the Microsoft XP Pro download and have both.

Are you talking about "XP Mode"?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

That runs a lot of old XP only software but not all.

The XP virtualization available with Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise, and Ultimate does more than compatibility mode in the Home version, but I think it you are correct. It may not run every piece of software that can run under XP. Perhaps because some software designed to work with particular devices needs drivers installed that are incompatible with Windows 7?

[jagabo]

The XP virtualization available with Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise, and Ultimate does more than compatibility mode in the Home version, but I think it you are correct. It may not run every piece of software that can run under XP. Perhaps because some software designed to work with particular devices needs drivers installed that are incompatible with Windows 7?

Yes, drivers issues are the source of many of the problems with XP Mode. VirtualBox and VMWare do a little better.

[Constant Gardener]

Perhaps because some software designed to work with particular devices needs drivers installed that are incompatible with Windows 7?

I have tried without success to run an ATI 550 capture card within Virtual XP - something doesn't like the XP drivers, and neither the capture software nor the card are supported under Windows 7. I didn't really expect otherwise, and it is not a problem for me. Meanwhile, several elderly favorites run just fine within Virtual XP, but they don't need special drivers.

[jagabo]

I have tried without success to run an ATI 550 capture card within Virtual XP - something doesn't like the XP drivers, and neither the capture software nor the card are supported under Windows 7.

I have an ATI 650 USB2 card that works from Win7 64 bit natively but doesn't allow access to the proc amp settings. So I tried to get it working via XP Mode (XP Mode does have support for some USB devices, and the XP drivers for the 650 do support the proc amp settings) but, like you, I couldn't get it working.