Downgrading to XP? Issues I should know about?

**Steve B** · 02-11-2012, 09:01 AM

I've got a Motion le1600 that I'm letting my niece and daughter use to draw on. Artrage mostly. Right now it has a copy of Win7 Home on it. I'm thinking of upgrading my x200t to 64bit, and using this copy of Win7 to do it for free (45$ to get a copy of Lenovo's Win7 cd, with all their bloatware). I've got a copy of Motion's XP Recovery Cd's lying around, and am thinking of putting that on the 1600 for the girls. Are there issues I should expect, that will need to be fixed? Or should it really run fine?

We'll be using it just for drawing, not for handwriting, and aero won't matter, nor will the slightly more responsive UI. Those are the main things I feel like Win7 offers. Is this worth it to save myself 100$? or should I just cough it up and get a second copy of Win7? I could find 100$ if I needed to, but I can think of better ways to spend it. I just thought if I were going into XP (which I haven't run in a while) with open eyes, I'd be prepared and know what to expect. I wouldn't do it for a main computer, but for this sole application, I thought it might be fine. Opinions??

**Hattori Hanzo** · 02-11-2012, 11:54 AM

I see no problem with that. If I'm not completely off, the LE 1600 should have XP as an officially supported OS.

If the recovery CDs are from Motion and for the LE1600, I see no tripwires.

If you don't need the Windows 7 features, why pay for them?

**Steve B** · 02-11-2012, 12:59 PM

The 1600 is xp originally, so that works out fine. And the CDs are the Motion Recovery CDs. My concern was about potential known problems using XP for art- I feel like there are some sort of known issues with pen lag and needing to use the TabTip Tamer??? Or was that more about the older Wacom drivers and less about the OS?

I also have a newer wifiN card in the 1600. I was wondering if there are possible issues in that realm as well. ??? I still have the old card and could downgrade tht as well, if need be.

That sort of stuff.

**Hattori Hanzo** · 02-11-2012, 02:25 PM

Well, if there's drivers for the card for XP, which should be the case, it's maybe an additional download, nothing more. I don't expect any problems from that.
Hardware compatibility with XP still is quite good for standard components.

When it comes to art specifics, you better wait for someone else, though. My experience with the Tablet PC variety of XP is limited and I'm anything, but no artist

**Agent 9** · 02-11-2012, 03:53 PM

I'm curious what the COA sticker is for on your X200t; if its a Win 7 one then all you need is to follow one of the things here (probably the 'ISO Method') LEGAL Windows 7 Download Links (Just like Vista before!!!) then install the version of Windows 7 the COA key is for, but the x64 variant, and use the key to fully and legally activate the OS on the X200t.

As for XP, its a decent OS, but I personally can't stand it and many of its quirks and placements of things and all the little things; I'd use some Linux distro before going back to XP; but Windows 7 has a home on my Tablet PC's because it has the best support for pen input and programs I use... XP should do alright on the LE1600, and you may encounter the issue with the Win XP tablet services interfering with the Wacom drivers (I think it causes loss of pressure sensitivity, severe slowdown and lag [I've seen this on my Pentium M units, especially in the TIP]), I'm not sure what programs you plan to put on the device (if you have extra keys for them or not), or if she would buy programs and put them on there herself/ with your help; or what your plan is on all that (including things like if you'll leave the Wi-Fi card in and let it connect to the internet and if there would be some kind of anti-virus ow what not)... you may want to consider plopping a copy of Ubuntu, Linux Mint (current favorite), or one of the others as they should have decent performance, some support for the pen (out of box it should work with pressure, and with Cell Writer you get a Win XP like TIP sort of thing, and My Paint should work very well), plus it is way more secure than XP/ 7/ 8 even with some anti-virus

And on that note, you may want to seriously consider putting the Win 8 Dev Preview, and maybe the Win 8 Beta whenever it is actually released; it'll be a little buggy (you may not encounter the issues though with limited use patterns) but it will have Win 7 like features and fluidity with the price tag of zero for at least the next few months.

Lots of options really (even ones we are not allowed to talk about because of our rules of not talking about running OS X on non Apple hardware

), personally I'd say try: Win 8 first, then a linux distro, then the not-allowed-to-be-talked-about, then XP as a last resort; but thats me

**Steve B** · 02-17-2012, 08:26 AM

Hey, mildly off topic, but related-- So I'm actually trying this out, and will be installing Win7 64 bit on a new 120 gb ssd. I've not installed a new OS on a brand new SSD before. Is there anything I need to know? Or will Win7 setup sort of run things for me, and make sure the ssd is done right? I've sort of browsed over things like raid0 this, partition that, blah blah blah, but I don't really understand that stuff, and I'm not sure if I really need to, to do the clean install on a brand new device.

Input?