Performing the Upgrade

The next step in the process is to install Windows XP. I don’t need to rehash the XP install process, as Icrontic’s own Rob Hallock has provided a great guide that covers this process.

After the fresh XP install, the computer will boot up in a functional state, but with some functionality crippled until your new XP drivers are installed. Perform the major driver installations, rebooting the machine as you’re prompted to. Don’t forget to install your security software before connecting to the internet. Next, navigate to Windows Update and install, at the very least, all of the critical security updates available to you.

Now it’s time to find out which, if any, drivers are still missing. Open the Device Manager and look for any exclamation points. There are a few reasons why an exclamation point might appear in Device Manager, specifically missing or incorrect drivers in this case.

If you have any missing drivers that contain some type of description, look at your drivers.txt file for the driver that the previous Vista install contained and track down an XP reference driver on the manufacturer website if possible. If no reference driver exists, there are two options. First, look at the corresponding detail in drivers.txt and search the web for XP drivers for that device name. If that fails, it’s time for a gamble: locate the Vista driver package for the device and attempt to install it. If the device with missing driver doesn’t have any description, search the web for your model of computer and “XP drivers” and see if other people have solved this problem.

 

My drivers.txt file open in Notepad.

 

If the exclamation point in Device Manager is due to an incorrect driver, uninstall the incorrect driver and then follow the steps for a missing driver for that device.

In my fresh XP install, I found that I was missing two drivers at this point. The first driver was not identified, but I was lucky to turn up some results via a web search. Several people with my model of computer had an unidentified device after XP install, and the solution was to install a driver for AMD Live. This solved my unidentified device issue as well.

The second device was the Bluetooth receiver. Originally I had hoped that Windows Update would provide a reference driver for this device, but unfortunately I was wrong. After a fruitless search for an XP driver for the Dell Bluetooth device, I decided to try the Vista driver option. I located a Vista driver package for my Dell Bluetooth model on Dell’s website and ran the install file. I was greeted by an error message that said the driver could only be installed under Windows Vista. I decided to try one more option: I used Device Manager’s ability to browse for a driver. From the Hardware Update Wizard, I selected ‘Install from a list or specific location’ and browsed to the directory that the Vista version of the driver had saved into. Luckily, this option automatically installed the driver without an error message. I was restored to a fully operational PC with Windows XP.

Conclusion

There’s little doubt that Windows XP offers superior performance to Windows Vista on the same hardware. It’s an unfortunate side effect of Microsoft’s Vista adoption campaign that some OEMs offer preconfigured machines with only Vista as an OS option. Hopefully this article has armed you with the knowledge to upgrade your preconfigured system from Vista to XP to regain that performance.

The process requires some research and even a bit of ingenuity, but in the end your reward is nothing less than a better understanding of the hardware in your own computer, and possibly even a greater enjoyment of your machine.

If you decide to embark on this project and run across any stumbling blocks, remember that Icrontic’s forums are only a click away and the community is eager to lend a hand.

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Tags: drivers, Microsoft, Vista, Windows