Sony TZ XP Downgrade disks

I know that downgrading to XP has been discussed for months, but most threads discuss how to install a fresh copy and manually install drivers. I have a TZ170 (vista business) 2GB ram and was wondering if anyone has downgraded using the XP downgrade disks supplied by sony? Does it work perfectly and downgrade flawlessly? are there functions that are missing? is it worth the downgrade if the only major annoyance I have with vista is that it takes 2 minutes+ to fully boot up (mostly use office and web)? the downgrade disks keep tempting me whenever I read a post that says their tz is a million times faster on XP. thanks

 

I am running XP Pro from those discs and its just about perfect. MUCH faster, MUCH less bloat (although they still manage a few titles) and everything worked right off the bat. You may just want to eventually look for updated drivers for intel/upek/etc, but not needed. Everything should work fine, including function keys. Good luck and you wont be disappointed.

 

Interesting, I've been contemplating doing the "downgrade", but after following the Vista semi-clean install links and cleaning up my processes/startup items, it runs a lot faster. But you think it will be even faster w/ XP? What about battery management? I seem to recall seeing a note from Sony that battery management w/ XP wasn't as good as Vista.

 

Installation is not THAT easy. You have to follow instructions on sony vaio site, because some drivers needs to be installed manually, not just with clicking the .exe file.

Otherwise XP really owns VISTA, too bad this nice OS is saying good-bye to OEMs.

 

OK, I've done the TZ31 Vista to XP upgrade twice (two systems) and a TZ21 once...
NO problem with install, except that camera was a tad tricky, because XP tried to install its own driver, which doesn't work. Fixable. Just uninstall the device, and then install a genric XP USB devise using the Sony driver. Bingo!

System boots faster, shuts down on the same day, and generally feels a lot sharper. BUT, the reason why is that I know XP very well, and know how to get things done. I'm not sure there's any major performance increase otherwise. Still worthwhile.

Just used this on an 8h+ flight, and it was on and working for the whole flight, except the up and down bits. Still had 20min left! I don't think XP compromises battery life, as long as you install the Sony power management tools on the XP disk.

For my money, the switch to XP made this a useable computer and I now think it brilliant,. The low mass, and the amazingly sharp screen means that it substitutes for any other laptop and it is my preferred system. Brilliant.

 

So what instructions should one use? I've seen stuff on this forum as well as on Sony's site... any recommendations?

 

Go to the sony support page and choose your laptop. There you will have an option of "downgrade OS to XP". You will have to input your serial number and email. then you will get into a page where you are able to download drivers + instructions.

Thats how it works for sony europen support page. Dont know about others.

 

I posted this in the wrong thread before, but do the down grade disks remove the Vista recovery partition that's currently on my drive? It says it will use all of the C: drive, but I don't want it to overwrite the Vista recovery partition in case I want to go back. Thanks!

 

Yes it will delete the partition. What you could do if space is not a huge issue for you is to log into vista, and go to the disk management thing and through the OS you can create another partition. On that partition you could load vista and have a dual booting machine with a little bit of tweaking. There are threads of how to exactly do this.

 

thats what i had wanted to do, but the sony recovery disks dont offer that option. i already split my 50 gig partition in two 50s and tried to run the recovery disk and install to my new empty drive.

will the recovery disks i mader estore vista and the recovery partition if xp doesnt work out?

 

Do you guys know if the XP disks of Portable One works on a japanese TZ?

 

The install I did completely removed Vista. I didn't even bother making recovery disks. I have no interest in Vista on this system, and would prefer to have all the disk space. I reckon that the next time I buy a laptop, it will either run Vista properly, or there'll be a new OS! It's not just about performance, Vista just gets in the way all the time.

To add to other views here = you do need to download the downgrade instructions from Sony, and follow the sequence as specified - the instructions are pretty clear. But, the camera install didn't work, and that was readily remedied - see above. As far as I know, everything is now working.

 

One month ago, I performed the XP downgrade. I did not use the Sony provided disk, but bought the Portable One Recovery DVD. The installation is a recovery image specifically for the Sony TZ series. Drivers are already installed with no bloatware. I love the TZ on Xp Pro. It is more stable. Battery life is the same or even longer. Full charge with 75% brightness lasts over 6 hours! The function keys work. Prior to the downgrade, I tried a full clean install with vista, and had to install all the drivers manually. Not fun. Had many BSOD with vista. I completely recommend the P1 recovery disk.

 

Do you know if this P1 disk works also for the TZ's purchased in Japan? Also you need to buy an activation key from microsoft for the XP no?

 

Can anyone purchase a p1 recovery disk?

 

I think I ll try the downgrade XP Pro from Portable One.