For volume customers buying the Ultimate and Professional SKUs

Jul 13, 2010 14:52 GMT  ·  By

Windows XP will continue to be available for purchase worldwide, especially to customers that are not ready to upgrade to the latest release of the Windows client, via Windows 7 downgrade rights. Volume customers have the possibility to get either Windows XP or Windows Vista preinstalled on new OEM computers, even though they actually buy a Windows 7 license. Only Windows 7 Ultimate and Professional (yes, Enterprise too) come with downgrade rights, allowing users to essentially opt for either XP or Vista until they are ready to make the jump to Windows 7.

Of course, when customers do move from an older version of Windows to Windows 7, after having taken advantage of their downgrade rights, they can do so at no extra licensing cost. The problem was that the downgrade rights for Windows 7 were limited.

“Prior to shipping Windows 7, we communicated that end-user downgrade rights provided in the software license terms of Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate editions preinstalled on a new PC would allow a customer to downgrade to either Windows XP Professional or similar Windows Vista versions for 18 months, or until the availability of SP1, whichever came sooner. Generally, PC manufacturers are in the process of ramping down Windows XP downgrade facilitation options that some offer today,” revealed Brandon LeBlanc, Windows Communications Manager on the Windows Client Communications Team.

Essentially, OEMs could no longer preinstall XP Professional on new PCs for customers opting for downgrade facilitation as of October 22, 2010. This is no longer the case, as Microsoft took the measure of offering a reprieve to XP. According to the Redmond company, the Windows 7 to XP downgrade rights have been extended beyond the delivery of Windows 7 SP1.

“This will help maintain consistency for downgrade rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle. As a result, the OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional. Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7,” LeBlanc added.

LeBlanc made it perfectly clear that it was the feedback provided by customers that catalyzed the change. Microsoft took into consideration input from companies that are planning massive migrations to Windows 7, and that told the software giant that downgrade rights were critical to their transition process.

“While the majority of customers are actively transitioning to Windows 7, and PC manufacturers are focused on delivering PCs and devices with Windows 7 preinstalled, our business customers have told us that the removing end-user downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional could be confusing, given the rights change would be made for new PCs preinstalled with Windows 7 and managing a hybrid environment with PCs that have different end-user rights based on date of purchase would be challenging to track,” LeBlanc said.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta are available for download here.

Follow me on Twitter @MariusOiaga.