How to get Windows xp on Windows 8 computer

[mirandabm1]

I bought a new computer about six months ago. It's got Windows 8. I really dislike it and want Windows xp, which worked well for me. I don't understand computer speak, so in words of one syllable, can I do it and how please? If possible I'd like to have Windows 8 still there but use xp for my work.
Thanks

 

[jimmysmitty]

More than likely you will not be able to do it. The main reason is that Microsoft is ending support for XP and so OEMs and hardware vendors have started to stop supporting XP. That means that you might be able to install XP but it wont have drivers for the system and the manufacture of your PC also probably wont provide the drivers.

As well, XP does not support AHCI and if its a newer system and there are no drivers for AHCI you need to run it in IDE which means you would need to have one HDD for XP and one HDD for Windows 8.

XP is an archaic OS. It was designed a long time ago (12 years is a very long time for PCs) and worked well with the hardware it was designed for. XP does not know how to utilize more than single core processors efficiently nor does it support more than 4GB of RAM unless you have XP 64bit which had horrible driver support.

In all, XP was great for its time but now its a relic of the past. If anything you can see if you can go to 7 for the system as that will have better support options and is like 8 but with a more XP like interface.

 

[mirandabm1]

Thanks Jimmy. I'll forget about xp and maybe go for 7.

 

[_Cosmin_]

Just fire up XP in a virtual machine and use it in fullscreen.