Post by Gary on Aug 4, 2009 10:38:32 GMT -5
As we all know some laptop manufacturers are selling low spec laptops with Vista on them. They are doing things like disabling pieces in the bios so you can't just do down-grades to XP. Well I have found my favorite solution to it yet. nLite OS deployment tool. This program is great. It is very easy to use. You track down all the drivers for XP from the hardware manufacturers sites, for each piece of hardware in the laptop. I have found the actual laptop manufacturers don't supply XP drivers. Then copy your XP disc. Then load nLite from www.nliteos.com/. Just follow the steps that it gives you. Add in the drivers. Add in your CD key from XP. You can even add in other software you want installed. Burn the image it creates to a DVD. Then just boot up your laptop to the DVD. It is completely unattended if you want it to be. It sometimes takes a few minutes to get started if the system has low specs, but it does take less time in total than a standard install.
It is way easier to use than the Windows OPK disc and it can work for just about any system. I would suggest using CPU-z before you start just to make sure you get drivers for absolutely everything. The most important will be some of the motherboard drivers, as HP and Dell may not have them and you can't install without them. I found the Motherboard manufacturers like Intel, always do if you look hard enough.
The deals some of these big companies are making with Microsoft are making it harder and harder for people to get decent laptops at a decent price. Downgrading from Vista to XP may be a serious upgrade for systems with lower specs, and nLite can help you do it.
It is way easier to use than the Windows OPK disc and it can work for just about any system. I would suggest using CPU-z before you start just to make sure you get drivers for absolutely everything. The most important will be some of the motherboard drivers, as HP and Dell may not have them and you can't install without them. I found the Motherboard manufacturers like Intel, always do if you look hard enough.
The deals some of these big companies are making with Microsoft are making it harder and harder for people to get decent laptops at a decent price. Downgrading from Vista to XP may be a serious upgrade for systems with lower specs, and nLite can help you do it.