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How do i downgrade my Windows OS?
DarrenW - 10/4/13 at 06:17 AM

I know, bit of a strange question this!!!

Firstly, ive never wiped a hard drive and reinstalled a windows package before, so treat me like a numpty.

I use a Macbook Pro when im travelling and a iMac at home so im up to date with what i need every day. However the kids have my old Windows laptop which is running Windows 7 64bit. It works great but they hardly ever use it after getting ipads for Christmas. I have a copy of VagCom which will be great for working on the Audi, but it doesnt work on 64bit! So i need to either downgrade my Windows 7 to 32 bit, or maybe even install Vista or XP. Can anyone advise what OS would be best and how to do it please?

Im getting a copy of XP professional with the most up to date service packs (sp3), but do you think this would be too old?

I did also think about just buying an older laptop for use on the car, but that seems like such a waste when the laptop i have is pretty decent.

Thanks in advance,
Darren.

britishtrident - 10/4/13 at 06:37 AM

The main problem with installing older version of Windows on more modern computers especially Laptops tends to be drivers.
You could partition the disc and dual boot but I can't advise on that as I have only ever dual booted Windows with Linux.

What I would do if the Laptop has a reasonable amount of memory is install XP as a Virtual machine .

Davey D - 10/4/13 at 06:41 AM

You could shrink your current Win7 x64 partition, then create a 2nd partition, and install windows XP giving you the choice of dual booting


Or you could have a go at installing Oracle VM Virtual Machine with a copy of XP to see if that works, then there is no need to mess around with partitions

britishtrident - 10/4/13 at 07:02 AM

Just found an alternative approach http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-xp-mode-windows-7-win7,10213.html

Slimy38 - 10/4/13 at 07:18 AM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Just found an alternative approach http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-xp-mode-windows-7-win7,10213.html


Won't help I'm afraid, VAGCOM can't run in XP mode. Or virtual machine.

As mentioned, the most difficult issue you'll find is drivers. However, to just get it working with VAGCOM the number of drivers required are minimal. You won't need sound or network, the graphics driver can just be the default VGA one, and all the rest are fairly standard.

Personally I would buy a small replacement drive, take the Windows 7 one out and keep it safe, then install XP SP3 on the replacement. It only needs to be something like a 40Gb or similar. But do a bit of preparation while you still have a working windows PC, trawl the internet and download as many drivers as you can find for XP on your particular laptop. Keep them safe on a flash drive so you can use them during the install.

BenB - 10/4/13 at 07:25 AM

Worth seeing (in BIOS) if it will boot from a USB device. If so a usb hard disk would make the above step very easy.

Slimy38 - 10/4/13 at 08:32 AM

quote:
Originally posted by BenB
Worth seeing (in BIOS) if it will boot from a USB device. If so a usb hard disk would make the above step very easy.


I reckon any laptop young enough to host Windows 7 should be able to boot from USB, and what you're suggesting is actually a very good option. In fact, two minutes with Google leads me to this page;

Run XP from USB

About halfway down is a link to Hirens Boot CD, I'm not 100% but it sounds like a suitable 'XP on a stick' image.

Edit: My mistake, looks like a bootable XP CD image. I think it might still work though.

[Edited on 10/4/13 by Slimy38]

tegwin - 10/4/13 at 08:48 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Just found an alternative approach http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-xp-mode-windows-7-win7,10213.html


Won't help I'm afraid, VAGCOM can't run in XP mode. Or virtual machine.



This is wrong!!! I run Vag com quite happily using Win-xp mode on my macbook air (which is running win7-64bit)

The instructions for installing win-xp mode are here... it is very stragithforward if you follow the steps at the bottom of the article.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-windows-7

mjkh - 10/4/13 at 08:51 AM

I'm running VAG-COM on my Win7 64bit laptop without any issues.

snakebelly - 10/4/13 at 09:03 AM

and whilst were on the subject does anyone have a "spare" copy of VAGCOM? :-)

DarrenW - 10/4/13 at 09:09 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mjkh
I'm running VAG-COM on my Win7 64bit laptop without any issues.




I wont go into details why mine wont run on Win7 64bit, other than to say its an old version from before Win7 was born. My options are therefore to either get a version that is compatible with 64bit, or make my version work. Funds unfortunately mean i need to find an o/s that will run it. Well, actually funds and that my Audi is 1999 so my version is perfectly OK, i dont really need a newer version at the moment.


Ive got some great advice and things to try. First up will be virtual XP as that seems to be the easiest and less risk of breaking the kids computer!!!

britishtrident - 10/4/13 at 11:28 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Just found an alternative approach http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-xp-mode-windows-7-win7,10213.html


Won't help I'm afraid, VAGCOM can't run in XP mode. Or virtual machine.

As mentioned, the most difficult issue you'll find is drivers. However, to just get it working with VAGCOM the number of drivers required are minimal. You won't need sound or network, the graphics driver can just be the default VGA one, and all the rest are fairly standard.

Personally I would buy a small replacement drive, take the Windows 7 one out and keep it safe, then install XP SP3 on the replacement. It only needs to be something like a 40Gb or similar. But do a bit of preparation while you still have a working windows PC, trawl the internet and download as many drivers as you can find for XP on your particular laptop. Keep them safe on a flash drive so you can use them during the install.



I have never had any problem running any diagnostic software in a virtual machine, as far as the software is concerned it is running in Xp.
Having said that I usually Oracle Virtualbox run on top of Linux, to get USB to work properly it has to the propriety Sun/Oracle Virtualbox not the community GPL version, as both are free for home use no problem.

silky16v - 10/4/13 at 12:03 PM

proper version of Vagcom runs on Win7 64bit

the version you get off ebay doesn't

get a USB Pen create it as bootable device and install winxp on it

[Edited on 10/4/13 by silky16v]

Slimy38 - 10/4/13 at 12:57 PM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident

I have never had any problem running any diagnostic software in a virtual machine, as far as the software is concerned it is running in Xp.
Having said that I usually Oracle Virtualbox run on top of Linux, to get USB to work properly it has to the propriety Sun/Oracle Virtualbox not the community GPL version, as both are free for home use no problem.


That's the experience I've had with virtual machines, as you quite rightly say it's the USB driver/connection that is usually the problem rather than the software. The Ross Tech website used to explain it better, something to do with the low level USB access needed to get the timing right? As mentioned, the later versions of the software work fine so I guess they resolved whatever the issue was.

As for virtual machines as a whole, XP mode is quite well done and it serves me well for a lot of work apps that aren't 64 bit friendly. VMWare is another one I use on a regular basis for work that requires an isolated environment. I've not used virtualbox though, I might give that one a try.

[Edited on 10/4/13 by Slimy38]

Ninehigh - 10/4/13 at 08:16 PM

Easiest way is to just format the drive an install xp, as for the drivers I downloaded Drivereasy which detected and downloaded everything. The free version takes ages to do it but it worked for me

britishtrident - 10/4/13 at 08:31 PM

As there is no guarantee XP drivers will even exist for the Laptop in question wiping the disk would be a gamble.

Ninehigh - 10/4/13 at 08:35 PM

Well you can get a drive caddy for about a fiver, replace the drive? Although this is getting into the "costing a fair bit" territory!

Surrey Dave - 11/4/13 at 12:41 AM

I tried VMWare on a Win 7 laptop that wouldnt run XP properly, you fire up VMWare and install XP as if in a different computer, no drivers needed, worked first time faultlessly.

Not easy to transfer files from the Win 7 part to the XP part though ,you have to set up a kind of internal network, to difficult for me!