Windows 7 Home Premium Microsoft puts an 18-month

Microsoft has gone public with a piece of its Windows 7 to XP downgrade guarantee that it refused to make official until yesterday: The finish date.Volume licensees who purchase Windows are provided automatically with assured downgrade rights to previous versions of Windows. A Windows 7 volume licensee has the proper to downgrade to Vista, Windows XP or other previous variations of Windows, according to Microsoft;s policies.Previously this yr, Microsoft officials refused to verify a report which claimed the company planned to restrict the length of time it could allow customers to downgrade from Windows 7 to XP to 6 months right after Windows seven shipped. The leaked memo pegged that date at April 2010,Office Pro Plus 2010 Key, which each Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (the OEM stated inside the memo) declined to confirm.On June 17, in spite of this, Microsoft officials advised Computerworld that the downgrade period during which consumers will likely be allowed to maneuver from Windows seven to XP will probably finish, at the most recent,Microsoft Office Pro Plus, in April 2011, which is 18 months after the October 22,Office 2010 Key, 2009 common availability date for Windows seven.A Microsoft spokesperson provided the publication together with the following statement:“Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate customers will have the option to downgrade to Windows XP Professional from PCs that ship inside 18 months following the basic availability of Windows 7 or until the release of a Windows seven service pack, whichever is sooner, and if a service pack is developed.”(Oh no! Here we go again using the “when and if a service pack is developed.” Forget the fact that there already have been sightings of what is believed to become early leaked SP 1 builds for Windows 7. Microsoft tried hide the fact that a Vista SP1 was within the wings; sadly, it looks like the same strategy will be in place with Windows 7 — regardless of the fact that many business enterprise customers still use a first SP as a guideline for their deployment plans.)Back to the 18-month cap. While many can;t imagine wanting or needing to downgrade from 7 to XP, for some business consumers,Windows 7 Home Premium, this ability is a necessity. A substantial number of businesses are still running XP and aren;t keen on making an abrupt or wholesale move to a brand-new operating system,Office Professional Plus 2007 Key, especially before their custom line-of-business applications are certified as compatible.I;m curious as to why Microsoft is capping downgrade rights with XP — other than for the obvious reason that it is trying to push consumers to move off of its eight-year-old operating system. I;ve asked the business for further comment and will add it to this post if and when I receive it.