Win 7 to XP problems

[GregI]

I had a look at the XP mode and it looks good. I don't really want it to do that natively installing apps into Windows 7 thing though.

We use VMWare in college so it seems logical to do the same at home so then if need be I can just copy the .vmc file to my usb drive etc.

Just gotta get the anti virus protection up and running since I'll be constantly putting my pen drive into college computers. Last year we had a large virus that crippled all the systems for months. Thinking of using malware bytes, nod32 and comodo firewall.

Thanks.

 

[richb93]

I agree that you should just use XP in a VM however if you do want to install it in the future or dual boot etc you can quite easily make an XP disc using nLite that integrates ACHI drivers onto the XP disc so the installer will pick up the ACHI controller.

 

[manic_man]

I had a look at the XP mode and it looks good. I don't really want it to do that natively installing apps into Windows 7 thing though.

We use VMWare in college so it seems logical to do the same at home so then if need be I can just copy the .vmc file to my usb drive etc.

Just gotta get the anti virus protection up and running since I'll be constantly putting my pen drive into college computers. Last year we had a large virus that crippled all the systems for months. Thinking of using malware bytes, nod32 and comodo firewall.

Thanks.

being quite honest, once you have Windows 7 on there, i'd be quite happy trusting MS Security Essentials and the built in firewall, They are about as low impact as these types of things can get (from personal usage experience) and while i'm sure there will be some things NOD32 is better at or Comodo, unless your college is really badly run i'd hope the machines shouldn't be riddled with Trojans or Viruses. It's free to download from MS here: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx, it effectively extends Windows Defender to add virus support as well as spyware and trojan protection. I have no doubt it isnt the best, but at the same time, it integrates perfectly, is low impact and unintrusive and tbh i'll be willing to bet its protection is nearly as good as 3rd party apps. Keeps itself up to date through windows update as well, which is a bonus.

 

[GregI]

I got time to boot into the BIOS and there is simply nothing to change beside boot order.

rich, thanks for the info. I am on the nLite site now and just trying to figure out how to use it. If this does fix the problem I am gonna stick XP and 7 Pro as a dual boot I think. That would be a killer combination.

manic, thanks for all the help. The MS stuff probably would do but I have been using Comodo firewall on another machine and if anything wants to change anything, this will flag it up. My college uses Sophos and that does not even seem to be in any top anti virus list.

Edit - YES!!!!! Thank you Rich. I stuck the driver for AHCI from Sony support site into nLite and it worked. Installing XP now. Damn. What a hassle for something so little. Only thing I can see causing a problem is XP not picking up the drivers. I did stick all the drivers from Sony site for XP onto a disk. Fingers crossed.

2nd Edit - Ugh. I try to run the drivers for ATI in XP it gets to the install bit and then my PC restarts. I got the wireless card installed though. Sound also seems to not be installing. Any help?

 

[GregI]

See below for a summary.

 

[GregI]

Right, this is really frustrating and I really need some help. I install VMWare player on 7 Home Premium and use the original XP disc I got from MSDN and XP installs. I then go to activate Windows and it says incorrect product key and message number: 45128

Is it actually possible to get a fully functional XP on these new systems? I have inputted 3 product keys (I know they should work) and none of them work. Same error as above.

 

[manic_man]

I would suggest in that case, as silly as it sounds, you need to call the activation "help line" and ask them why your keys don't work. My guess would be they are OEM licenses you have already activated on another system.

OEM licenses have a single activation allowance. So once you activate it against a certain hardware setup, MS wont let you re-activate it if they deem the hardware to be suitably different.

Having said that, if you are downloading it fresh from MSDN, and have't activated it before, i'd suggest phoning/emailing them is about all you can do unfortunately.

 

[GregI]

Key was straight from MSDN so nothing on my end.

I just gave up and obtained a working SP3 image with no activation required and working nice.

Thank you Microsoft. You make the world of computing so much easier. I feel stupid for buying Office Ultimate now (even at 38 quid). Let's hope that key works............

To sum this thread up -

If you want to downgrade from 7 to XP, use nLite to attach the drivers needed on a pirated version of XP. No other way will work.

 

[manic_man]

I'm not 100% sure why your copy of XP wouldn't activate,. Having said that I haven't tried to activate a copy in many years now, been using Vista since it came out and haven't looked back since (controversial I know )

Anyway, glad you have it all working, now all you need to do is try and convert your college to upgrade to the year 2010!

I have the same problem at my University, they took one look at Vista and literally drop kicked it in the bin, now they are assuming Windows 7 is the same without even looking, I have spent MANY hours arguing with the IT department people to get them to even trial it on one of their machines and actually see why its bad, but they simply wont, XP "works" and that's all there is to it, I wouldn't mind but the uni automatically gets upgraded site-wide licenses for the new OSs, so it had them for Vista and now has them for 7...

I guess it'll take MS simply stopping support for XP for them to even consider it...

Job done for you though I suppose

 

[Rroff]

Personally I'd have stayed with win 7 for main OS and installed windows XP in VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org)

 

[GregI]

manic, same here. The reason we got for being the "tech people" is that XP works and that large corporations like it and it would take a large amount of retraining and money to implement a global system.