Installing Windows XP on Your Pre Installed Windows Vista Computer

A lot of people are not pleased with Vista and it happens to come pre-installed with most of all the new computers. It may not be running that great because it requieres more resources or you just don`t like. But whatever the case is I will show how to put Windows XP on a computer with Vista Pre-installed. You will need a copy of Windows XP.

Shrink Volume

The first thing you need to do is shrink the size to make room for XP. Just go to the Start Menu and right click onComputer. Then select Manage.

Then you will be taken to Computer Management. From the left menu select Disk Management under storage.

Then you shrink the primaary hard drive by right clicking it and selecting Shriink Volume.

Then you will choose how much of the drive you want to shrink. This means you can pick how big you want the Windows XP partition to be. Do not pick what they give you as default. 

You might want to change the DVD-ROM drive to E: so it looks better. If you do it,it won`t make any major difference, just easier to find. You can change the drives name by right clicking it and selecting Change Drive Letter and Paths.

 Now you can name it to what you want it to be called.

Right click on the unallocated area and select New Simple Volume.

Go through the wizard and select the drive letter. Now you must reboot to proceed to the next step.

After rebooting co to Start--> Computer and right click the new partition and select Properties.

Now you can take the extra step to backup your drivers if you don`t have the Driver Disk or can`t find them on the manufacturers website. First Download Driver Magician. Driver Magician backs up your current drivers and lets you restore them later. This is not the best way to get your drivers since these drivers are intended for Windows Vista, but if you have no option then you should use this tool.

Then pop in your Windows XP CD and shut down your computer. You might have to set your BIOS to boot from the CD Drive or go to the boot menu. When you get to the screen where you choose the right partition. If you use the Vista Partition all the data will be rewritten. 

Now you have installed XP you may have lost the option to boot from Vista. You will need to download VistaBootPro and install it to restore Vista`s Bootloader.

When you install it you will have to install .NET 2.0 framework. After the installation is complete open it and select the System Bootloader tab. Then check Windows Vista Bootloader and All Drives buttons. And click Install Bootloader button.

Now you can boot into Windows Vista.