I just bought a new computer 2.5Ghz, 4GB RAM, 500 HD, Vista 64 bit, and Im having problems installing programs I need to work and live. Is it possible I can install XP on this computer, or perhaps partion the HD and run both??? Answers are much appriciated while I still have the opportunity to return this bitch and move on to other options.....thanks!!

 

You can install XP on it. If you were going to dual boot, you would have partition first then install both OS's, unless you use some 3rd party software (maybe partition magic?) I have no experience in dual boots, so I'm only giving what I remember and may not be correct.

What kind of problems do you have when installing software?

 

Yea you could dual boot both XP and Vista. Although I don't see the point in even keeping Vista.

You will need GRUB boot loader, that will allow you to select which OS you want on startup.

 

Im having problems like when I try to install a program I use (AutoCad Architecture 2008) it and as soon as i click install a message says "Architectire 2008 can not be installed on 64-bit". Then again thats true, y keep vista...so if i wanna run XP alone, is there any complications with going backwards from Vista? Im hope that is simple and my computer wont notice the difference...thanks guys

 

Well, I doubt you'd absolutely need the GRUB bootloader, though it'd probably be easier. Windows has a tendency to be completely retarded and overwrite the windows master boot record whenever you try and add a different version of windows. For partitioning I use Gparted. You can download an ISO of a bootable cd and use that, or you can just grab yourself an Ubuntu install cd and run Gparted from there. Either way, use something like Gparted to create another partition, and then throw in your XP cd, install it to that other partition. The part that I'm a little fuzzy on is if you can just use the fixmbr command and have the windows boot loader figure out there's two operating systems there or if GRUB is in order. but I'm pretty sure you'll be able to install GRUB from within Windows so you'll have the internet as your resource. I'd start by googling dual booting xp and vista because I guarantee you are not the first person to want to do that and there's probably a host of HowTo's online.

 

before you try going back to xp, try right clicking on the exe and running as administrator. if that doesnt work, right click and go to properties, compatibility tab, set to windows xp compatibility mode and then run as admin again. if you need xp for a few application, depending which ones, you can use virtualbox to run a xp vm.

 

Maybe this could help you....
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...linkID=9240658

OOPS i think that is wrong, try this instead:
http://www.sonic.net/~odin/Coverpage/cover3-07/lounge-set_aca_on_vista.htm

 

This is so badass, I just got a txt msg telling to check for a fix or patch and u nailed it before I did thanks, only thing Im looking at is if this is 64 bit for xp or 64 bit for vista? regardless all I gotta do is try it and find out. Thanks, sinceu guys are the experts, is it true that if I install XP my computer might only read 3GB instead of 4GB of RAM???

 

I made the same mistake of getting a x64 vista. Everything works on xp and regular vista, but x64 is a P.I.T.A.

 

yes and no. it will read 4gb of ram, but it will never truly use all of it. 32-bit architecture can only physically address 4gb of ram (proc, video, sound, etc) at any given moment.