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Windows XP is proving to be the version of Windows that refuses to die, even after Microsoft dropped SP2 support yesterday. Reported by Computer World, Microsoft announced on Monday that they plan to extend downgrade rights from Windows 7 to Windows XP Pro for the whole Windows 7 lifecycle. This move is geared toward businesses, many of which have been slow to upgrade from XP for various reasons including older hardware, cost, wanting to standardize on a single OS, and using important programs that require XP.
Downgrade rights means that businesses can purchase computers with Win 7 pre-loaded and downgrade to Win XP without having to buy another license. Not all versions of Win 7 will enjoy the downgrade rights for so long; since the decision is aimed at new business computers with OEM installs the versions affected are OEM Professional and Ultimate. This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has extended downgrade rights; the time line has been extended once already from 6 months after Win 7’s release to the release of Win 7 SP1. The Win 7 lifecycle could extend into 2020, when Win 7 Professional is scheduled to be retired. Ultimate will be retired in 2015. That means if the lifecycle proceeds as planned the XP downgrade rights will continue until 2020.
This will be the only exception to the Windows lifecycle. Computer World explains what will happen to the other versions:
Other deadlines that Microsoft had previously scheduled for Windows remain in place. Computer manufacturers must stop installing Windows XP Home on netbooks as of Oct. 22, 2010, and they may sell PCs with Vista pre-installed only through Oct. 22, 2011.
Computer makers are also slated to stop offering factory-installs of XP Professional downgrades on PCs with Windows 7 Professional licenses after Oct. 22, 2010. That means Windows users who want to downgrade a Windows 7 system to XP must do it themselves starting Oct. 23 of this year.
Even though the downgrade rights extend for so long, it is unlikely that Microsoft customers will keep using it until the end because Windows XP support drops completely in April 2014.
Special thanks to Bensthelens for this news submission.
I know I’ll be the only one but this came across to me as a mass of confusing gobbledegook.
Too many variables; too many threads…Life really is TOO complicated !!
“Even though the downgrade rights extend for so long, it is unlikely that Microsoft customers will keep using it until the end because Windows XP support drops completely in April 2014.”
This is only the current schedule. By April 2014, this deadline could possibly have been extended a time or two again. The next time Microsoft extends a deadline will certainly not be the first.
XP is refusing to roll over and die! By the time it finally does become obsolete I reckon Ubuntu Linux (and others, incl Google’s offering) will be right up there with their free operating sytems to seamlessly take over. For the foreseeable future I am quite happy to run XP on 4GB RAM. It works for me!
I think it makes perfect sense to allow users to downgrade for free if they really want to. Not sure why they would, but ::shrugs:: why not let them purchase windows 7 and downgrade to windows 3.1?