End-User Downgrade Rights to Windows XP Extended until 2020
End-User Downgrade Rights to Windows XP Extended until 2020
Posted 07/13/2010 at 5:17am
| by Pulkit Chandna
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The Windows 7 juggernaut has little regard for impediments, but it does have a soft spot for an elderly cognate that refuses to die: Windows XP. Microsoft marked the availability of the public beta for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) by extending the end-user downgrade rights to Windows XP until 2020, even though the previous deadline for their expiry was set at Windows 7 SP1.
End-user downgrade rights let businesses use a prior version of Windows on new machines until they are ready to transition to the latest version. Only OEM copies of Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate include downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista Professional. According to Microsoft, the move is meant to “provide customers and partners with more predictability around the lifecycle of Windows.”
Apparently, its business customers feared that removing end-user rights could lead to confusion. “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,” Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc wrote in a blog post yesterday.
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hades_2100
July 13, 2010 at 11:59am
Are they doing this because in 10 years XP will be a viable choice? I hope the OS market will have changed significantly by then, but who knows what Hindsight (Windows 8), Rearview (Windows 9) and PerfectVision (Windows 2020) will bring...
hades
Caboose
July 13, 2010 at 8:26am
You know, there's a point in time, where Microsoft is going to have to say "We are not offering any more support for this OS, it's not being produced anymore, and no more keys are going to be issued, it's time to move on.
How many people out there do you see with a death grip on Windows 95, 98 or me? I think it's time to let XP go...
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
nHeroGo
July 13, 2010 at 9:52am
...and that time is 2020, for Windows XP - by then they will firmly stop it - and there will be an angry crowd running around with pitch forks then too. It is comforting to know that you will be able to downgrade any future Windows OS to Windows Vista (particularly for the 32-bit enthusiasts like me) until 2028, however, this rumor is still unverified. So keep checking the blogs - I've got my RSS feed set because I want to be the first to know about Vista's downgradability in 2028.
As you understand, I am using old stuff for legal reasons and not for any practical purpose, except for Pong. I support this extension of downgradability of the future, because I really do not want anybody to illegaly downgrade to Win XP (the home edition) in 2020.
Please do not make fun of my future downward upgrade to Vista. Let's make fun of those Apple-folks instead. They deserve it.
PS: Does it expire Jan 1, 2020, or Dec 31, 2020? Sometimes they mess around with the calendar by fiscal year, which may sometimes be in April or October. This needs to be sorted out and clearafied immediately. This is why I recommend that you should all downgrade in 2019 to be on the safe side, or suffer the consequence.
Wareagle
July 13, 2010 at 8:03am
It does sound ludacrous to be running a 20 year old OS. 20 years ago, Windows 3.1 hadn't even come out.
However, with desktop virtualization becoming popular, it will probably beccome more and more common to see these older operating systems sticking around.
mobiledude
July 13, 2010 at 6:28am
I did not see the mention to 2020 anywhere in the linked blog article. what am I missing?
Also, to the earlier poster, skip Win3.1 and go straight to 3.11 with networking goodness.
nHeroGo
July 13, 2010 at 6:18am
I call myself a forward-planning business, and I am marking my calendar to downgrade to Win XP sometime in December 2019. I am so forward-planning in my business lifecycle that I plan to reintroduce a twenty year old OS. Other people will be using an OS called Windows Hindsight at the time (that's a pun) by then.
You may think I am mad, but I work with some really old equipment. I still prefer my reel to reel tapes. And I am just about to get my Windows 3.1 going here soon. Wish me luck. See you in 2020.
nHeroGo
July 13, 2010 at 9:28am
...when we are all very modern people, circa 2019, I will upgrade from a Pentium with MMX technology to a Pentium III just so that I can run Win XP. I will have 256kB of RAM by then, which is more than any computer will even need.
You will all fly around in your solar-powered jet cars sharing your music and spread sheets with your 512 core iPods. And you will be smiling to each other, just like in the commercials, while I (the forward-planning business life cycle man that I am) will downgrade to Windows XP. Don't make fun of me.
In contrast, in 2020, the iPeople of all the Apples, will run out of cat-species to name each of their new OS patch updates. They will argue that their latest 256-bit OS (which mostly contains 32-bit libraries) is superior to anything else (meaning the other one) and that being backward compatible is a non-issue.
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