I just bought a new computer and of course it came with Vista. I work from home and the place where I work at is not compatible to Vista. Is there anyway I can get rid of Vista and go back to XP?

Thanks,
Lisa

There are a couple of ways:
1) You can format your drive and install XP from CD
2) You can install a virtual machine program and run XP inside of it

There is a better (more technical way to approach this) way to look at it.

First off: Ask youself about who the manufacturer is.
You may want to check their website for XP Drivers.

Drivers remember are the small pieces of software that send instruction to the parts of your computer.

Your video card "driver" would tell the video card how to Display Video.

Secondly, Do you pay for XP? In this case you may have to pay full retail. 299.99 for XP Pro Full edition.

Contact the manufacturer and ask if they have an XP Option. IE Can you purchase an XP Restore Set.
Restores include the OS, Drivers, and Any Featured software typically. If your manufacturer provides Restores for XP on a machine that Had Vista, you may be able to get XP Much cheaper. This is not always the case tho.

Also, Why is your PC not compatible with the network? Does it have something to do with the Default settings in Vista? (Meaning the way vista is set up out of the box) If so, there are a number of ways to
Use Vista with your existing network. For that you may want to see The Network Forum here on BC or you may want to visit Microsoft.com for walk-throughs and how-to's.

If there's anything further, please Post it here.

Hi Lisa,

I had Vista pre-loaded also. When trying to connect to office network, the other computers could not be seen, that is, they did not show up in the network folder. I removed the pre-installed Norton Internet security and voila...problem solved...

if that is your only problem, that your computer cant see others on the network, try removing Norton if it was also preloaded..if you have a 15 month subscription it will tell you the meter will still be ticking while the application is not loaded..ie, remaining days will reduce accordingly regardless of the presence of Norton on your system,,,

I'm not a norton fan personally.

Good luck
Darren

As you have Vista, a better option is to keep it. Is there a spare partition on your New hard disk of about 15 Gbs. If not, there are several ways to make one. You do not need a virtual machine. Having made the xtra partition, it is possible to then install XP on that. It will creat a dual boot problem and you will not then see the Vista boot option. There are several ways around that. If you want to go on that route, I or others can post the method(s)

Also as a side note there may be problems installing the XP when doing a format clean install if the HDD is a SATA drive so you may want to make sure to get the drivers for that if there are any problems getting to the XP disk. Also to add to the previouse statement with the dual boot situation when you boot into Vista you will loose you XP restore points and vice versa so keep that in mind.

Hey Lisa -

I'm curious, too.

What is it on your work's computers that is not compatible with Vista?