Can I Downgrade from Vista to XP on my VGN-FZ18L

[JeremyKingston]

I have just received a VIAO VGN-FZ18L as an insurance replacement for an ACER
that was stolen. At first I was over the moon as the new VIAO seems fantastic.
However several of our prorietary software packages will not run on Vista and
we need to downgrade to XP. We have done this with other (Dell) laptops with
great success. The Viao did not come with any recovery discs so I have searched
website to look for XP Drivers for the VIAO VGN-FZ18L. I cant find them and it
seems that I cant downgrade??? Anyone know any different

[Blencogo]

Hi Jeremy and welcome.

Sony do not support a downgrade to XP for your model - they only support this on "business" models sold with Vista Business installed as agreed with Microsoft. Unfortunately, even this is only a partial solution.

The XP Drivers for the VGN-FZ19 (the closest 'business' model) can be downloaded here: -

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/FZ19/DRIVERS/

The FZ19 only has Intel Graphics, so you will have to find a XP Driver for your NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GT - somewhere like this: -

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14549

This will give your Vaio basic functionality under XP but Sony do NOT release XP Utilities for the FZ-series so you are going to struggle with Bluetooth, AV Mode, Webcam, Power Management and Special/Fn Keys unless you can find utilities from other Vaio models that will work on the FZ-Series - not very satisfactory. Unless you really know what you are doing, you will only have this partial functionality.

Can you Dual-Boot with both Vista and XP? Can you not run your software under Vista in XP Compatibility Mode?