XP gets an extra year on Windows 7 machines
Microsoft has confirmed that people buying machines with Windows 7 pre-installed will be able to downgrade to XP until April 2011. It strongly appears this has been increased after a poor reaction to initial plans.
The XP schedule matches that for Vista: for 18 months after the release of Windows 7, buyers of the Ultimate and Professional editions will be able to downgrade to the equivalent edition of either Vista or XP. Buyers of other Windows 7 editions will be stuck with it, while corporate buyers with licenses for 250 or more machines will have unlimited downgrade rights.
However, the XP timetable looks to have changed recently. A PowerPoint slide shown at Infoworld clearly demonstrates their were plans for the XP downgrade window to be just six months. Michael Silver (pictured) of analyst firm Gartner maintains that Microsoft repeatedly told him the six-month idea was public policy.
As Silver pointed out, the six-month limit would have undermined Gartner’s standard advice that clients wait for 12-18 months after release before switching to a new operating system. For firms which had stuck with XP rather than move to Vista – which appears to be a substantial majority – there would have been a six to twelve month gap during which they effectively couldn’t buy any new machines unless they were prepared to either switch to Windows 7, have a mismatch of systems across their network, or throw Vista into the mix.
Of course, even with Microsoft’s apparent change of policy, there are plenty of caveats. The ability to downgrade to either Vista or XP is reliant on the manufacturer including the relevant software with the system, which not all will do.
Meanwhile some hardware manufacturers may be permitted to offer special downgrade programs after the official cut-off date (and let’s face it, the day when you can never get XP again has shifted back further and further again.)
There’s also a clause in Microsoft’s timetable which means that if it releases a service pack for Windows 7 before the 18 months are up, downgrade rights immediately cease. While it’s certainly possible that will happen (Vista’s first service pack came barely a year after release), it wouldn’t be so much as a problem as many corporate buyers are usually much more trusting of software once it has its first service pack.
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