Downgrading from Windows 7 to Windows Vista without losing settings

[KoopaScooper]

no, he wants to downgrade, not upgrade

Same rule still applies.
Also notice how I said "If it works for 7, it works for Vista."

[Ad Bot]

[JPSC]

Burn gparted to a CD, pop it in, and shrink your W7 partition by at least 10 gigs. Insert Vista CD and install it to the unallocated space. Use easybcd to add W7 to the boot menu.

This is called dual-booting. This way you'll be able to use either OS.

You may all call me stupid for this, but what's a gparted?

[blaman]

yes.. sure. I am thinking about getting a technique to help me with this because I don't want a microphone that's not built-in, and have to approach my mouth to the microphone to talk. It looks ridiculous, specially when video-chatting.

Any decent mic at all wouldn't require you move your mouth to it to talk, and would probably give better sound quality then the thing built into your computer.

But if getting a new mic is out of the question, there has to be a driver somewhere for that mic that would work with windows 7 unless the laptop is absolutely ancient.

[Nickelob Ultra]

Did you have Vista before?  Did it come with the computer?

[JPSC]

Any decent mic at all wouldn't require you move your mouth to it to talk, and would probably give better sound quality then the thing built into your computer.

But if getting a new mic is out of the question, there has to be a driver somewhere for that mic that would work with windows 7 unless the laptop is absolutely ancient.

I inserted the drivers CD and tried installing the microphone's driver for Vista (as there's no Windows 7), it didn't work. The operational system does not recognize the microphone.

Did you have Vista before?  Did it come with the computer?

Yes, I upgraded it to Windows 7 myself.

[CanadianPenguin]

You may all call me stupid for this, but what's a gparted?

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

download the livecd .iso and burn it to a CD/flash drive, then boot from it

I would recommend backing up anything important before repartitioning in case you screw something up

[Night Fox]

I am asking if there's a way to downgrade my computer without losing files, not asking you if I should buy a new microphone.

if you ask how to do something dumb in order to compensate for something that's easy to fix, I'm going to tell you how to fix the problem before I tell you how to do the dumb thing

[JPSC]

if you ask how to do something dumb in order to compensate for something that's easy to fix, I'm going to tell you how to fix the problem before I tell you how to do the dumb thing

It's dumb for you probably because you're a geek.

[Night Fox]

It's dumb for you probably because you're a geek.

no, it's dumb for everyone
Vista is in no way better than W7, it would be irrational to downgrade to it

[JPSC]

no, it's dumb for everyone
Vista is in no way better than W7, it would be irrational to downgrade to it

I don't care. All I want to do is to downgrade my OS and have my microphone working.

[Nickelob Ultra]

If the computer came with Windows Vista the microphone only worked because it had the proper audio drivers installed.  Go to the computer manufacturer's site to get the drivers for Windows 7.

Downgrading it back to Vista wouldn't fix it.

[TapeDeck]

What make/model is your laptop?

[JPSC]

What make/model is your laptop?

Dell inspiron 1525.

[Max4344]

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_1525&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=
Go Go Find that Mic Driver

[Ethan]

Download the latest x32 or x64 driver:
32 bit: http://www.w7forums.com/dell/R171786_32bit.exe
64 bit: http://www.w7forums.com/dell/R186858_64bit.EXE
(Download the 32 bit one if you installed a 32 bit version of Windows 7, or 64 bit of you installed a 64 bit version of Windows 7)

Right click computer, and choose manage, then device manager.
In the Sound, Video and Game controller group you will see a device called "Windows High Defintion" - delete this by selecting and pressing delete.
Now having removed this device from your system you should run the Dell Sigmatel Driver EXE you downloaded previously.
Restart when prompted.
???
Profit!