How to uninstall vista RC1

[Mir96TA]

I did Vista RC1 Upgrade from XPSP2
How I can uinstall Vista RC1 so I can go back to my XPSP2

 

[wamasters]

You REALLY shouldn't have done that (upgraded to a beta OS) without backing up your drive. To be honest, even installing beta applications can imposes risks that you might not want to take on a system you need to rely on. Your probably going to have to bite the bullet, save whatever files you can, and re-install XP.
However, here's an alternative idea. Does anyone out there know if the soon to be released Vista Upgrade packages will work with a copy of RC1? I kind of get the feeling they might NOT (as Microsoft would not want anyone using a beta installation to reduce their cost ownership), but who knows?

 

[Mir96TA]

So there is no uninstall on Upgraded System ?
Weird

 

[stash]

There has never been an uninstall on an upgraded system, even with final code.

 

[Mir96TA]

Originally posted by: stash
There has never been an uninstall on an upgraded system, even with final code.

Well in a past you code uninstall Windows 95/98 and XP

 

[stash]

I don't remember 9x, but how can you uninstall XP? If you upgrade a 9x or 2000 box to XP, there's no going back short of a wipe and reload.

 

[Mir96TA]

Originally posted by: stash
I don't remember 9x, but how can you uninstall XP? If you upgrade a 9x or 2000 box to XP, there's no going back short of a wipe and reload.

Control Panel
Add Remove Programs
uninstall XP
Unless you remove uninstallation of Pervious OS

 

[stash]

Wow, never knew that: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303661/en-us

Guess that shows how often I upgraded to XP.

 

[zbalat]

This is what I did and I've had no problems


1. Use Vistabootpro to remove the Vista bootloader

2. Use (boot from) gparted live or a Linux live cd to delete the Vista partition and to resize the XP partition. I assume any commercial partition software would work as well (I don't own one).

Good luck.

EDIT: Back up your files first

 

[Mir96TA]

I meant to say how to do uninstall where bring it back to pervious system.
Like you can do with win9X and XP

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Mir96TA
I meant to say how to do uninstall where bring it back to pervious system.
Like you can do with win9X and XP

I never saw a way to do that; it may exist, but it wasn't obvious.

As zbalat said, wiping Vista and returning to XP is a bit complicated. I wasn't able to get a bootable install of XP by simply deleting the Vista partition with the XP install CD and proceeding normally. What worked for me (with one less step) was to use a Linux liveCD to format and install LILO. XP was subsequently able to write its own bootloader and install successfully.