windows office: I want to go back to my Windows office, right now my vista is asking for my to type a product code, so i typed it in and it says its not valid..... thats the code it came with! So I just want to go back to my old windows where i had no problems! PLZ Help, no @$$ holes.... yeah i no vista is "better" dont care|||How to restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista View products that this article applies to. Article ID : 933168 Last Review : June 27, 2007 Revision : 4.1 On This Page SUMMARY Steps to restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista Step 1: Determine whether there is a Windows.OLD folder and whether there is sufficient free space on the Windows hard disk Step 2: Start the Windows Recovery Environment Step 3: Rename the Windows Vista folders Step 4: Copy the contents or move the contents of the Windows.OLD folder Step 5: Restore the boot sector for the previous Windows installation Step 6: Restore the Boot.ini file for the previous Windows installation of Windows XP or of Windows 2000 Step 7: Close the Command Prompt window, and then click Restart SUMMARY This article describes how to manually restore a previous Windows installation on the computer to replace the current Windows Vista installation. To do this, you must use the command prompt, and you must type specific commands at the command prompt to rename and to move folders between the different versions of Windows. This article is intended for a beginning to intermediate computer user. You may find it easier to follow the steps if you print this article first. Back to the top Steps to restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista Step 1: Determine whether there is a Windows.OLD folder and whether there is sufficient free space on the Windows hard disk 1. Click Start, and then click Computer. 2. On the View menu, click Details. 3. In the Free Space column, note how much space is available for Local Disk (C:) under the Hard Disk Drives area. 4. In the Hard Disk Drives area, double-click Local Disk (C:), and then determine whether the Windows.OLD folder exists. Important If the Windows.OLD folder does not exist, you cannot follow the steps in this article to restore the previous Windows installation to this computer. 5. Right-click the Windows.OLD folder. 6. Windows Vista will determine the size of the folder after several seconds. Determine whether the Windows.OLD folder is smaller than the free space that is available for Local Disk (C:) in step 2. Note If the Windows.OLD folder is two times as large as the free space that is available for the Local Disk (C:) entry, you may be unable to restore the previous Windows installation. Back to the top Step 2: Start the Windows Recovery Environment 1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the DVD drive, and then restart the computer. 2. Press a key when you are prompted to restart from the disc. 3. In the Install Windows window, select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard input method or other input method, and then click Next. 4. In the Install Windows window, click Repair your computer. 5. In the System Recovery Options window, click the version of the Windows Vista operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next. 6. In the System Recovery Options window, click Command Prompt. The Command Prompt window opens, and it displays the command prompt. The command prompt is where you will type the commands that are described in the following steps. Back to the top Step 3: Rename the Windows Vista folders Note When you type one or more of the commands at the command prompt in the following steps in this section, and you then press ENTER, you may receive the following message: The system cannot find the file specified. If you receive this message, go to the next step in this section, and then type the command in that next step. Type the following commands at the command prompt: 1. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: c: 2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: ren Windows Windows.Vista 3. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: ren "Program Files" "Program Files.Vista" 4. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: ren "Users" "Users.Vista" 5. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: ren "Documents and Settings" "Documents and Settings.Vista" Back to the top Step 4: Copy the contents or move the contents of the Windows.OLD folder Type the following commands at the command prompt: 1. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: move /y c:\windows.old\windows c:\ 2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: move /y "c:\windows.old\program files" c:\ " Type one of the following commands at the command prompt, as appropriate for your situation. When the previous Windows installation was Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP, or Microsoft Windows 2000鈥?Type the following command, and then press ENTER: move /y "c:\windows.old\documents and settings" c:\ " When the previous Windows installation was a different version of Windows Vista鈥?Type the following command, and then press ENTER: move /y c:\windows.old\users c:\ Back to the top Step 5: Restore the boot sector for the previous Windows installation Type one of the following commands at the command prompt, as appropriate for your situation. Note D: represents the DVD drive in the following commands. If the DVD drive on the computer is represented by a different letter, such as E:, use that letter in the command.鈥?When the previous Windows installation was Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP, or Microsoft Windows 2000 Type the following command, and then press ENTER: D:\boot\bootsect /nt52 c: 鈥?When the previous Windows installation was a different version of Windows Vista Type the following command, and then press ENTER: D:\boot\bootsect /nt60 c: Back to the top Step 6: Restore the Boot.ini file for the previous Windows installation of Windows XP or of Windows 2000 Note Only follow these steps when the previous installation is Windows XP or Windows 2000. Type the following commands at the command prompt:1. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: c: 2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: attrib boot.ini.saved -s -h -r 3. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: ren"boot.ini.saved""boot.ini" 4. Type the following command, and then press ENTER: attrib boot.ini +s +h +r Back to the top Step 7: Close the Command Prompt window, and then click Restart 1. Type the following command at the command prompt, and then press ENTER: exit 2. Click Restart. The previous Windows installation will start.|||Your very welcome Report Abuse |||It's imperative that anyone running Vista ensure their computer is capable of doing so effectively. In general, if your computer ever ran XP, it should never run Vista.|||Without knowing if you have a store-bought Vista AND an XP upgrade / full version Retail disks (not OEM) OR vendor (Dell, HP, etc.) supplied Vista AND XP Recovery Disks, here goes: You can't Mix & Match. You must use your PC manufacturer's XP Recovery disks to avoid driver problems, not a store-bought XP disk. TIP: The Vista Recovery disks may be ON the hard drive, so Read The Friendly Manual for your PC FIRST to find out how to BURN your own set of Recovery disks. IF Vendor Supplied: Back up all personal data from your PC ("Backup" means: copy to CD / DVD / external hard drive). Then, follow the Recovery procedure in the Manual. IF Store-Bought: Back up all personal data from your PC. Then, do a store-bought Windows XP "Clean Install", for further instructions, go to: http://www.theeldergeek.com And, here's the "store-bought Vista to store-bought XP" Step By Step from Microsoft:|||No such software as 'windows office'. Give microsoft a call and they will help you its a freephone number. They will help you to activate windows and provide you with a working key code. I am presuming you mean Windows XP. You might find you can use add/remove programs to uninstall Vista but I think its unlikely. You are going to need an XP disc and boot from it. If you have applications and files you wish to keep, run the easy transfer wizard in vista to save it to a cd/dvd/external hdd drive etc. Once xp is intalled, install the easy transfer wizard onto that by downloading it from microsoft and you should be able to get all your programs, documents and even your desktop back to how it was before.|||to fix the code you can contact microsoft to fix that... the other way around is to delete vista from your hard drive... meaning loosing everything on the computer and then restalling xp or whatever once again... the problem with that its kind time consuming and a little hard for someone that doesnt know what you doing