Installing different software on a computer

[Larry Woller]

Hello,
My wife's computer has Windows 7 Home Premium on it and she hates it!..smile.. I have the software for Windows XP Small Business and were wondering how difficult it would be to install the XP to use instead of the 7... keeping in mind I am not a expert at such things...

Thank you,
Larry Woller

[Salmon Trout]

1. Legal. You need to have a valid licence for XP Small Business that would truly cover your wife's computer.
2. Once (1) is checked out, if the computer is a recent one there may not be XP drivers for the hardware, for example if it has SATA hard drive. This can be got around if the PC or motherboard maker has provided drivers. You can put them on a floppy or CD and install them when prompted during the XP install. Other hardware might be a problem (sound, display, network). Best to say what make and model the PC is and we (or you) can Google for "XXX PC install XP" pages and discussions.

[Larry Woller]

Thanks for your prompt reply and sorry about the delay of answering, been a bit busy here...the software is legal, not a issue... what I was inquiring about is what difficulties one may encounter while trying to download the XP software on a PC that already has Windows 7 software... I have managed to do some brief research in the matter and with being busy at the moment and the possible difficulties I will encounter, have decided to forgo any attempts at this time, perhaps later in the year with winter and more time to experiment..

Again, thanks for the prompt response....

Larry Woller

[truenorth]

One thing you may wish to contemplate is to do a dual boot configuration with Win 7 AND XP. That way as win7 becomes more familiar to her she will retain it and be able to transition to it. Better to leave the option to move forward rather than backward. Xp is about to lose all support.truenorth

[Computer_Commando]

You can make Win7 desktop look just like WinXP or even Win98.  It took me about 2-3 days to figure it out.  It's all there, you just have to dig around for it.  I have found that MS changed the names of many of the Control Panel items which is why it's hard to find things you are already used to.