Downgrading from Win7 to XP

I bought this desktop from HP last year and the main purpose of me buying this desktop is to play one of my favorite games, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and X with PMDG plug-in. 

When the desktop arrive at my door step, I was so happy because I could start to have a better flying experience with such a high performance desktop and even thinking of upgrading the the machine to support 2 monitors to widen my view in the game.

OK, the first thing I will do is to install the simulator and I didn't encounter any problem during the installation nor the game but the most "exciting" part came from PMDG plug-in. I can't install it! What? Then defeat the purpose my purpose of buying this machine. The first thing came to my mind was to downgrade my PC from Vista to XP because it was running fine in my old PC which is using XP.

I proceeded to visit HP website to look for the whole set of drivers for my Win XP. The best thing happen now, HP doesn't support Win XP!

OK, I gave up and I told myself I might need to wait for the next release of Windows that might help in solving my problem. I waited until Win 7 came into the market and get it installed in my machine. The first thing I did immediately after the installation was to try PMDG again and it failed again. Oh gosh, I was so sad and really really sad. I am not going to wait for the next release of Windows again because I can foresee that Microsoft is not going to help me to give me the flying experience that I am expected. I have decided to look for alternative solution.

I came across a suggestion on how to downgrade my machine to Win XP although it is not supported in the official website (HP).

First, find out the technical specification from HP about my machine. I don't want to open the cover, I believe even if I did, it won't help me in identifying the chipset and lots of technical details.

The most important thing that you need to know are as below:
1. Mainboard model and manufacturer.
2. Chipset that came with the board.
3. Display model and manufacturer / brand name.
4. Sound model and manufacturer / brand name.
5. LAN card model and manufacturer / brand name.
6. WiFi card model and manufacturer / brand name.

Second, go to the manufacturer website and look for the driver. Usually they will support from Win2000 – Win 7.

Third, download the drivers. Make sure you are downloading the correct one.

You are done, go ahead with the downgrade process.

And I am happily using my machine with Win XP Service Pack 3, MS Flight Sim 2004 with PMDG plug-in now.