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April 27, 2007
Dear CNET members,
Happy Friday everyone! This week's question from Franklin is probably what a lot folks are experiencing. You went out and bought a new PC with Windows Vista preloaded on it and came to quickly realize that some of your favorite programs and peripherals aren't compatible with the new operating system. And Franklin, I don't blame you one bit for being frustrated and wanting to revert to XP. But before you take on the task of going back to XP, there are a lot of members who suggest giving Vista a chance, to see if any of the software or hardware that you use have updates to them that will make them compatible with Vista. If that fails, talk to the PC manufacturer. Maybe the company will work something out with you by giving you an XP disc in place of Vista. Because ultimately, if you are going back to XP using your recovery disc from your old computer--either it won't work or it will cause you more of an headache attempting to do so. The bottom line is you will most likely have to fork out some dough to buy Windows XP outright again. On a side note, Dell recently announced it will be bringing back XP on some home systems because of the number of complaints by consumers--so talk to your PC manufacturer, and maybe the company will be able to work with you.
For all of the folks finding themselves in Franklin's shoes, we received a lot of great advice and recommendations from our members--so give them a thorough read. I have picked out a few outstanding submissions for you to vote on. If you have any additional advice to offer our members or have experienced this yourself and have successfully reverted to XP from Vista--swing on by and discuss this topic with us. Thanks for your participation. You rock! Have a great weekend!
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Member Question of the Week
I recently purchased a new desktop preloaded with Windows Vista Home.
But after some frustrating moments of attempting to install and run
a few of my favorite programs, I've realized that Vista just isn't
playing nice and simply just won't run them! On top of that I even
have a couple of peripherals left out in the cold because of a driver
incompatibility issue with Vista. This is so irritating!
I've decided that the best thing to do is go back to Windows XP
because everything worked flawlessly on my old system--
but how do I go about it? What are all the necessary steps I need
to take to get me going on my new machine with XP loaded on it?
Can I use the system recovery disk from my old XP computer
to replace Vista with XP on my new computer?
Or will I have to buy another copy of Windows XP? Thank you
for any help you can provide.
Submitted by:
Franklin S.
Vote for the most helpful answer
 Which answer below would you consider the most helpful? Click on the title to see the answer by the member. To vote, click on the button next to the answer to weigh in on the decision.
Here are the selected submissions grouped in one post.
(Note: these answers selected below are not listed in any particular order,
so please read the answer before casting your vote. Thanks!)
 Answer by Watzman (Read submission)
Answer by John.Wilkinson (Read submission)
Answer by waytron (Read submission)
Answer by Michael J Kelly (Read submission)
For the member whose answer was voted the
most helpful by our community, we will send
this member his or her choice of any
CNET Learning CD.
 Previous week's Q&AThe votes are in! Below is the answer voted most helpful by our community to last week's question.
What are the warning signs that any PC needs to be replaced?
Is it when a computer says it should be opened in safe mode?
Is it when a computer cycles through opening Windows but never
gets to the desktop screen? Is it when my computer won't let
me print, or it corrupts my Microsoft documents when it tries
to save them? Is there anything that can be done to give CPR
to my computer and save it from the recycle heap? Or is it
really just time to give it up and move on to a new PC?
--Submitted by:
Janet H. of Rancho Cordova, California
None of the examples you gave are absolute signs that a computer has reached the end of its life and needs to be replaced, but rather that it needs some loving care and maintenance. Actually, a few of these symptoms might be easily corrected by running a chkdsk /r from the recovery console, performing a virus scan, or performing a system restore from safe mode. However, you always run the risk of losing your data whenever you start working on your computer, so backups are...
(read more)
--Submitted by:
Dana H. (CNET member: waytron)
Congratulations to the winner!
Community Buzz
 Each week we take a look at topics discussed in the forums.
Have fun and enjoy!
More from the forums
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Check out next week's question:
To my online virtual family of help, I'm in the spring cleaning mood and I've cleaned my house already, but now it's time to face the chore that I have been dreading for a long time. That is cleaning up my two-year old Dell computer with XP, which I think has 200MB of memory, but I'm not absolutely sure. I need to face the music and do this because it is getting slower and slower every time I attempt to use it. Programs take a long time to load and just booting up Windows takes an eternity. I'm not a technical person, but I'm a fast learner, so your assistance would be most grateful. I need some straightforward guidelines (not too technical if possible) on how I can clean up my computer to make it run faster, and once I clean it up--do whatever it takes to continually keep my computer in tip-top shape, so when the spring season comes around again, I'm not looking at a chore that I hate doing again. Thanks for your help.
--Submitted by:
Sandy H. of Des Moines, Iowa
We feature a new question every Friday, and if you have the answer for our member, you can submit it above. If your submission is picked by our members as the most helpful answer, you'll receive a free CNET Learning CD of your choice.
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