Question: From Vista to Xp?

Hi, Ι am in a quandary about changing from Vista to Xp. I would like to know; is it worth it?
Second; Do system characteristics affect the compatibility of my pc to perform on xp?
If it does, these are;
Original Windows Vista home edition 32-bit
CPU Intel@core 2 Quad Q9300
2 GB DDR2-SDRAM
500 GB harrd disk space SATA 3G (7200rpm)
DVD Writer SATA DVD RAM and DOUBLE LAYER supporting Lightscribe technology
NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS with Pure Video HD Technology 512 MB , available graffics memory up to 1279 MB as allocated from Windows Vista
Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g
Intel@high definition Audio 7.1
(Sorry if you don't understand anything- I translated it from my language)
Can I restore Vista from my DVD software if there is a problem? Does it worth to wait for Windows 7 to release?
Sorry for bothering you and thanks for your patience while reading these lines.

It is rarely worth the trouble of converting to XP from Vista unless you have a specific, critical program that simply won't run under Vista. Many businesses have such program incompatibilities, but for a normal individual user, these cases are fairly uncommon. I have both operating systems on my computer (dual boot) and I don't see many problems in Vista, other than one or two video editing applications that won't run in Vista. That said, I prefer XP, and turn off all the extra visual effects in Vista.

Your main concern going to XP would be finding all the drvers for your hardware. Is your computer a home made build, or is this from one of the OEM's like Dell or HP? Chipset drvers for the motherboard would be something you'd need to find before changing the operating system.

Do you have a full version of Vista, or is your copy a restore disk only?

Most people who have tried both Vista and Win7 prefer Win7 by a large margin. I personally haven't bothered with it yet.

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Last edited by Kerry56; 06-06-2009 at 23:43.

My PC is bought from a store, HP brand and the operating system was written in a separated hard disk called "Recovery". I had to write it in 2 DVDs. As for the drivers, can you tell me (if you know) from a quick look if there are in Xp?
I appreciate your help.

For some weird reason, the forum has blacklisted the word d r i v e r. I'll take a look for your HP computer if you like, but I'd need to know the model number.

If you mean the (S) Serial No: CZX8224JXG

No, it would be something like HP Pavilion a6700z, or HP Pavilion Elite m9500z, or HP Pavilion Slimline s3700z. Something along those lines.

Oh, it is HP Pavilion Elite m9345.gr PC. Is it that? If you don't have time, just leave it. Find it anytime you want, if you want.

It doesn't look like HP offers d r i v e r s for this computer for XP. You would have to find out the chipset used in it and get the correct d r i v e r s that way.

Thanks a lot!

A, and last; can I change back into Vista if I change mind?

If you upgrade your RAM to 3 or 4 gigabytes you will see a nice improvement in the performance of Vista. It is a RAM hog and works much better with at least 3 gig. I recommend going to 4 gb even with 32 bit Windows as it will use up to 3.5 gb of the four to apply toward video memory and other devices in addition to the operating system.

Well, the reason I don't like Vista so much isn't only the performance so I would not like to risk spending money (even not much) when I know (from now on) that Xp manages RAM better

Except that XP doesn't exactly manage ram better. It leaves quite a lot of ram unused...sitting idle. Vista doesn't, but the way Vista uses ram doesn't interfere in priority work either. It caches data from the hard drive using Superfetch, which speeds up drive/data access. Vista's memory management is actually one of its strong points vs XP. If you want confirmation take a look at this article from pcstats: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2163

Vista does require a larger amount of ram as a starting point. I've run Vista on 1gb, 2gb and 6gb of ram (using Vista 64 with the last figure). 1gb was slow compared to XP. 2gb seemed fine. 6gb is overkill so far.

Based on my experience with a laptop I just bought with 3gb of RAM, that seems to be the sweet spot for 32 bit Vista. I had an extra 2gb memory stick lying around and I installed it and found the video performance improved a little. Not enough to justify buying a stick of RAM though.

As Kerry already pointed out XP doesn't manage RAM better. Vista just needs more of it to run well. I find it interesting that Windows 7 seems to run well on less RAM than Vista.

I am not sure what you don't like about Vista but it has options to make its interfaces very similar to XP. I have done this on my laptop and find it much more user friendly. One thing about Vista that I love is the display quality. It looks much better than XP, IMO. The Aero option is nice too. Also, you can disable many of the nag screens if they bother you. I used to dislike Vista with a passion but after buying my laptop a few weeks ago I have warmed up to it a lot. It took some tweaking to get to that point but the effort was well worth it.

The two more severe reason about "disliking" Vista are because they are boring when demanding administrator privilages. Also, it doesn't search well. I mean that if you seek for a file, you must write it as it is, even the capitals. On the other hand, if I remember well from my last Xp pc, you typed a letter and everything showed. And last, they are a little slow for me, with 2Gb ram.

I run Vista on my lappy, with only 1GB Ram( ok to laugh)...However I don't do much video stuff(encoding/converting/editing etc)..I'm going to be adding another 1gb, one of these days....I'm actually getting used to it, as in me likey...Can't remember if it ever crashed on me or not...How can it, all I ever do with it is, occasionally view some flicks, play/stream(wireless) music, to the PS3, and chat with you all...Life is good!..