Downgrading from Windows 7 to Windows XP

[suikojay]

Hi guys, my dad had asked me to change his OS from Windows 7 to Windows XP on his netbook since he thinks it will help it to run faster. What would be the best way to go about this since the netbook does not have a DVD/CD drive. I am planning on ordering a Windows XP OEM CD w/a product key, but obviously, since there is no DVD/CD drive in the netbook, am I able to make a bootable Windows XP Full Installation usb stick or something? Also, do u guys think the OS change will really help all that much (in terms of speed)?

FYI, here are the specs on the netbook:

• Toshiba NB505 N500BL
• Processor Intel Atom N455 / 1.66 GHz
• Memory 1 GB
• Hard Drive 250 GB - Serial ATA-300 - 5400 rpm
• Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Starter
• Display Type 10.1 in TFT active matrix
• Max Resolution 1024 x 600 ( WSVGA )
• Graphics Processor Intel GMA 3150 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 4.0

Thanks guys for any help u can give me!

 

[Yami]

am I able to make a bootable Windows XP Full Installation usb stick or something?

Yes.
[Tutorial] Install Windows XP From USB in a simple way - Tutorials - reboot.pro

Also, do u guys think the OS change will really help all that much (in terms of speed)?

Yes.

 

[KSoD]

What we think doesn't matter. In fact your quest may already be over. Last time I checked, there was not a single driver made for any Netbook for Windows XP. Last thing you want to do is install an OS that you cant fully use.

Sure enough there is no XP Driver set for this model. So already you don't have the option to install to the SATA unless you use it in IDE mode. Removing any of the speed that it would have.

Next no drivers for display, so you would be stuck with the generic 16Bit color. Last but not least, no driver for WiFi.

 

[Yami]

What we think doesn't matter. In fact your quest may already be over. Last time I checked, there was not a single driver made for any Netbook for Windows XP. Last thing you want to do is install an OS that you cant fully use.

Sure enough there is no XP Driver set for this model. So already you don't have the option to install to the SATA unless you use it in IDE mode. Removing any of the speed that it would have.

Next no drivers for display, so you would be stuck with the generic 16Bit color. Last but not least, no driver for WiFi.

I checked for drivers when I replied. Of course there are XP drivers, a good portion of netbooks came with XP.

Edit: Ah, oops, you're right. I double checked and it's just the random crapware applications that support XP. The actual drivers are just for 7. Good catch.

 

[PP Mguire]

Speed issue can be solved easily by doing a few things.

Get a 2GB stick of RAM for it, upgrade to an SSD instead of the HDD (even if it's a cheaper SATA2 SSD, doesn't matter), disable Aero theme if it's being used, even if it's basic, and disable anything that is running all the time that would hog up RAM. Another problem is, Windows 7 Starter is rubbish.

The biggest issue with 7 and older netbook users is they load them up with a ton of bloatware and it hogs up all the RAM leaving all paging to the slow as arse HDD. Believe it or not, 7 is faster than XP and handles resources better.

 

[KSoD]

I checked for drivers when I replied. Of course there are XP drivers, a good portion of netbooks came with XP.

Edit: Ah, oops, you're right. I double checked and it's just the random crapware applications that support XP. The actual drivers are just for 7. Good catch.

Only the very first set of Netbooks came with Windows XP. The rest have come with Windows 7 and now with Windows 8.

So in reality there are far fewer that have XP or support XP than have been made/released.

 

[strollin]

We have 3 netbooks in our family that originally came with Win XP installed that I replaced with Win 7 Pro and they run as well, if not better, with Win 7 then they did with XP. All 3 have been maxed out with 1.5G of RAM.

Personally don't see why someone would want to go back to XP once they've used 7 but everybody has their own preferences.

 

[PP Mguire]

We have 3 netbooks in our family that originally came with Win XP installed that I replaced with Win 7 Pro and they run as well, if not better, with Win 7 then they did with XP. All 3 have been maxed out with 1.5G of RAM.

Personally don't see why someone would want to go back to XP once they've used 7 but everybody has their own preferences.

Because some people think XP is faster because it has a smaller RAM footprint, which in this case could be true but if the install was properly optimized 7 would definitely be faster.

 

[Yevrag35]

Because some people think XP is faster because it has a smaller RAM footprint, which in this case could be true but if the install was properly optimized 7 would definitely be faster.

Would installing a Win7 Starter Edition as opposed to a full 32-bit home premium\professional installation make the RAM footprint even less so? or not noticeably?
Because I've always seen netbooks installed with the starter edition and would have guessed this was so to reduce the OS clutter on system.

Or do they do it to reduce disk space usage so there's more room on the already fairly small hard drives?

 

[PP Mguire]

Space usage mainly, plus it's uber cheap. You can hog all of your RAM up using Starter just as easy as any other version. Starter holds back RAM updates though.