Installed W8, Need Vista back

Hi. I installed Windows 8 on my computer, but all my programs are gone now. So how do I get It back to vista?

 

Yeah...I have no experience. If I did I wouldn't be here ?

 

Go back to one of your backups.

You did back up your hard drive before installing Windows 8, right?

 

I made a recovery in another partion (the D: one) and the explorer says it's still there, but I'm note sure how to use it in W8...

 

you obviously FUBAR during the install, you should of asked first on the forums and then decided to install, you may as well re-install w8 and re-install your programs, plus vista is just a big steaming pile.

 

frozenlandscapes There are some ideas here for going back from 8 to 7. which may be applicable to your situation. How to rollback to Windows 8 dev edition to Windows 7
For any of this to work verify you have a windows.old folder on your machine.
When you installed did you do an upgrade?

 

Recover from D: using the Vista DVD (Assuming you're talking about Windows System Image).

Restore your computer from a system image backup

 

You'll need a Vista install disc or a Vista system recovery disc. If you don't have one, see my post here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/mic...ing-vista-complete-pc-backup.html#post8302012

 

Since Microsoft is now broadcasting the news that Win 8 is available for download, lots of inexperienced people will probably try it and the results will be the same as our poor poster. Even though it is still in beta and not officially released for sale.

 

i use another HDD lol!

 

Well the program I needed is working, but I have one I use on occasion that isn't. To be honest I prefer Win8 to vista...because you know...it's Vista. And it's actually a lot faster. Might just put XP or 7 on another hard drive to use for that program...

 

Well the problem is that Windows 8 preview is really a Beta. That means it WILL expire. What you should have done was download a virtual machine like Oracle's VirtualBox or Vmware's VMware player and installed Windows 8 there. That's the best way to test Windows 8 unless you have a spare computer laying around.

 

Is there any compatibility mode available? I haven't checked.

VHD is superior.

 

I would've used sandbox/partition/vhd/itger but the last time I installed an OS was Ubuntu using Wubi and I assumed it was just another program "inside" windows like what Wubi did. And there is a compatibility mode that isn't really needed for most programs because it already is compatible, but the problem with this program is that it needs a W7/Vista/XP kernal to talk to and the W8 compatibility mode apparently doesn't do that :x (It's not the program itself, it's the security system the program uses...)

But I still like it better then Vista. Only thing I don't like is unlike the developer one, there isn't a start button that takes you to the start screen, it's just like this weird corner click...but I just press the Super Key anyway so no biggie

 

VHD is an unfamiliar and uncommon solution for most users. I always refer to virtualization, and refer specifically to Virtualbox as my first choice, simply because it is a very common, well supported, cross platform solution. It doesn't matter if the users is running OS X, Linux or Windows, Virtualbox is a free solution that works.

VHD might work for current Windows users, probably even for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, but I wouldn't be comfortable recommending it to anyone. Connectix might have made .vhd a universal format, but with the Microsoft sale in 2003, VHD is just another proprietary Microsoft sideshow.

So, I recommend virtualization through Virtualbox, Parallels or VMWare.

 

Yeah, I'm using VMWare. I suck at computers, so it took me a half-dozen times to get the install correct. Darned glad I wasn't affecting my real data each time I deleted the virtual machine and tried again.

 

I just saw that "legal download of Windows 7" thread and was wondering if it was possible to put it on a partition(or even a usb/cd) or something? If so is there like a how to I can read somewhere?

 

Good luck actually finding free Windows that isn't some scam. The whole reason people will pay $100+ for a copy of Windows is they don't just give it away.

 

I did the install with existing profiles etc. Tried it twicce and my backup for Win7 came in very handy. I wanted to like it but.

Now for those not using a VM etc. be sure to read the instructions and back up everything...................

 

Microsoft provides downloads through DigitalRiver for 7, and apparently, also for Vista. As long as you have a valid COA for the version of Windows in question, it's entirely legal.

 

I'm pretty sure the links to Vista stopped working awhile ago.

 

I thought so too, but apparently, there still are Digitalriver links for Vista in 2012?

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