Can I revert from Windows 7 to XP?

I'm sure this has been asked before, but maybe not in this context.  I bought a dead laptop (Toshiba Satellite A75-S125) that looked to be in good condition, but the battery was dead and the AC power cable was missing.

I had a cable that fit and was able to power if up.  Unfortunately, it's running at a 1.0 performance score.  It's also running a bootleg copy of Windows 7, while the stickers say it's a Windows XP laptop.  It doesn't really have any bells or whistles (in fact it took me a few days to figure out how to get any sound out of it--drivers needed replacing, I guess).

I'm hoping someone can walk me through reverting this from the bootleg Windows 7 to an XP install.  I don't think this computer could handle anything beyond XP, although I am typing this in windows 7, so who knows?

I'll be very happy with any help you can give me.  I just want it to be functional so I can give it to my brother who's only familiar with XP, and I can be rid of it (I know that's not realistic, but I can hope...)

Edited by Platypus, 04 November 2017 - 04:45 PM.
Moved to more appropriate forum

Hello tronk,

 

To be able to run XP on the computer you will need XP media, an appropriate Microsoft product key + the notebooks drivers downloaded and saved to a USB thumb drive.

You really don't want to install XP. Get a free Linux distro. Puppy will work for sure. If you have a CD player on the laptop then you

can do it easily. If you need help with anything concerning Linux then start a topic in the Linux & Unix forum here at BC.

 

Whatever you do online can be done on Linux. You won't be able to play Windows platform only games or use Windows Office programs.

Fully agree buddy215, running Linux would be far safer than XP but the OP said his brother was only familiar with XP so never suggested it as an option.

 

just to add to what buddy215 has said about Linux, if your notebook can boot from a USB device there is an option for this as well, see here

https://support.toshiba.com/support/modelHome?freeText=1042105&osId=50

Here's the drivers. After installing XP, use a 2nd computer and stick them on a USB and install them, or for advanced users, slipstream them into the ISO using nLite.