Downgrade from Windows 7 to XP?

I've found that about 80% of issues with Windows systems are PEBCAK, and most of the other 20% are issues with programmers of third party software using very bad practices or not updating properly.

The reason why Windows is the target of over 3/4 of the attacks is because of how large its user base is compared to any other system. If an exploit works on one windows box, it is going to work on 1000 others. If an exploit works on a Linux box, you'll be lucky if it works on another 20 boxes.

As Macs and such become more popular we will see a greater number of attacks against their system. Already we see more attacks on them, and apparently some sources are suggesting this number is rising faster than its market share. (This oddity is easily explained by people attacking Macs for no other reason than the ad campaigns of "A mac won't get a virus.")

 

...PEBCAK. (humorous) Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard. ...

new one for me. nice!

 

Symantec's SEP Corporate (and its ancestors) has been doing a very good job of catching the nasties on all my home and campus computers for the last six years or so. It's pretty unobtrusive, resources-wise. I'm not sure if you can get individual copies without a corporate IT department, though.

Spybot-S&D (already mentioned) is great for clearing out unwanted trackers, adware and other crud.

The Sysinternals suite (free from Microsift Technet) includes some excellent utilities for tracking down rogue apps, rootkits, run-on-startup junk and other unwanted code.

Having said all that.... I've not yet encountered malware of any kind on Win7. And I only enountered a handful of minor, easily caught and repaired infections in six years under WinXP.

The only serious malware I've ever had a royal pain removing was on a WinXP office computer in which the issue was most certainly PEBCAK.

And yes, there are viruses that target Macs- being Unix-based doesn't make them invulnerable. Having a tiny user base did, for a while, but not anymore (especially with so many easy exploits cropping up in third-party plugins).

 

I once was helping a student who was having issues because "Java was broken!", and given how tired I was and how my shift had ended half an hour ago I told her it was likely a PEBCAK error, and she would be better off in the long run if she worked it out her self. (Plus I was off work and needed to finish my own assignments.)

She spoke up again a minute later, "So, the error is Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard? Will it go away if I move the chair?"

She was one of the few good stupid people I had to deal with. At least she tried.

 

Thanks Grant... I spent ages trying to figure that one out!

 

That's kind of like the nut holding the steering wheel in a car, I guess....

 

Since December I am struggling with my computers. I had a disk crash. I was able to save all the latest data via a DOS O/S on a stiffy onto a harddisk, but data only.

I have one computer with WIN7 , this is a brand new computer and is connected to the Internet.

I like to download WindowsXP, because none of my older items like Canon scanner, Iomega multiple reader, 10 years of e-mails, work under WIN7.

I have logged into Microsoft, but WIN7 is a special loaded software by the computershop special for Africa and Asia. It will only work in those regions.

I cannot find the correct download site on the South African Microsoft link. (we get automatic re-directed to this website)

How could I download this O/S XP version under WIN7 ?? (step for step where to download if possible)

That is my first question, now my next

In the process of re-loading WinXP on a brand new 80 Gbyte harddisk, I made an error and had to reformat the disk and also had to re- partion the disk, I got the weirdest errors like ***stop 000 etc errors also I had the NTLDR error.

Question: How can I reformat the harddisk and re-partion this disk in such a way that I am able to load WindowsXP on this disk (IDE) using the chipset and motherboard (ATA) + 1 x IDE without that I screw the bios up of this motherboard and thus not able to use it again for WIN7.

I thought to load UNIX and use the unix to re-partion and clean the hardisk out. Or does it mean that I have wiped confidential information of this hardisk used by Microsoft for WIN7 and WINXP ??? (their latest trick)

Bert

 

Windows XP mode, as a virtual machine, is only available for Win7 pro, enterprise and ultimate. If you have one of these versions, it will do what you need. If your Win7 installation is geographically locked, it's probably Home Basic, which is a cheap, dumbed-down version with artificially restricted capabilities that MS is trying to push in "developing" markets.

An alternative is to run a copy of WinXP in a true virtual machine under a type-2 hypervisor such as VirtualBox ( http://www.virtualbox.org/ ).

Migrating your old emails to a new version of your mail client should not be difficult if you are using something like Thunderbird or Outlook.

The best way I know of to wipe a disk totally clean for re-use is DBAN ( http://www.dban.org/ ), also found as part of the UBCD collection ( http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ ). Formatting or repartitioning doesn't necessarily erase the data on the disk (although it does erase the file allocation tables); DBAN really does wipe the whole thing clean. Writing to, or wiping, the hard disk should not have any effect on the BIOS.

 

Thank you so much for your help Mash. If you don't know where to look, it keeps you going for weeks and days in circles.
Thanks
Bert

 

If you do have the home version, look at the anytime upgrade option. You may be able to step-up to the pro version then use the XP compat mode to run older software. Xp support will be going away soon, so I'd try to keep the win7.
You could also go to computer manager and shrink the main partition and load XP onto the extra space to dual boot Win7 and XP, if you already have a retail XP install disk. If you shrink make sure you have a win7 recovery disk, you may get a msg about boot loader missing but it's an easy fix, with the disk. Nothing like waiting for Hp to mail you the disk, they should have sent with the computer in the first place. =)

 

Why not a dual boot?

 

I do not know of any maker that gives the restoration disc now, you must make your own, I just bought a tosh notebook, there is a restoration back to the way it was when you purchased on the hard drive
I t does give option to run r4 comapatibilty mode for xp service pack 3, but still does not fire the programme With a cad 11 it just will not even load it, my solution was to buy a 160 dollar desk top from ebay But IF someome could talk me through the things some of you have suggested In would sure appreciate

 

I just bought a dell 1012 netbook, it shipped with all the disks, but no cd or dvd drive. I have a usb dvd burner that worked great to restore the boot loader after I created a dual boot win7 and freebsd-8 netbook.

 

For a win7 and Xp dual boot. This link has a step by step tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html