I just bought a new computer that was preloaded with vista business [don't ask] and I was wondering if you guys knew how to downgrade to XP. I already know that it's possible and that it's free for business. I've already looked at tutorials and I'm sad to say that I couldn't understand half of what they were saying after reading through it thoroughly.

Easy, just get a Windows XP CD and install the OS to the Windows Vista OS. However, it's really not recommended to EVER downgrade an OS. The computer was built for the original OS. Upgrading is fine, but downgrading is really bad.

downgrading is fine. i downgraded my dad's hp pavilion, and made sure i got the right drivers for everything.
before you downgrade, check your device manager and write down the specific drivers your computer has. like some models come with different graphics and sound cards. so when you download the drivers from the site, make sure you download the one for geforce instead of dling the ati or intel drivers.
companies know how terrible vista is, companies know people are buying their cheap 400 dollar laptops and downgrade to xp for faster and better performance. they don't want anything to get returned on them, so they load xp drivers for that specific model on their site.

the computer was buit for the windows platform. windows is plug and play, which is backwards compatible with older or newer drivers. any hardware you have, people will always get around the system. basically any computer can be turned into a mac-osx, windows xp, vista, 2000, linux, etc. all you need to do is find the right drivers, thats all.

downgrading to xp won't hurt, but make sure you know what you're doing.

pm me and i'll run you step by step on how to do it if you're interested

Going from vista > xp is just fine.

Agreed.

God... Vista sucks.

Vista is just fine for video games, so long as you have the hardware to support it. The major issue w/ vista is the computability with work related programs.

Also the reason that going to XP is fine:
Hardware isn't designed for a specific OS.
You can go onto your hard drive, re-do the partition, and format XP to it, leaving no trace of Vista.
Hardware isn't designed for a specific OS.
Hardware isn't designed for a specific OS.

Did I mention that HARDWARE ISN'T DESIGNED FOR A SPECIFIC OPERATING SYSTEM?

If you have less than 2GB of ram on a Vista box... you're not gonna get the full potential of Vista, and that would only be the "Eye Candy".

Oh I know :) What I was saying though, is the specific hardware isn't designed for an operating system :)

Make sure your sound/wireless cards support XP, though.