Windows 7 to XP Downgrade Details Confirmed

McKenzie | Jun 22, 2009 | Comments

Tip: Click here to run a free scan for common PC errors

Microsoft have confirmed the rumour that it has decided to give a much longer span of time for businesses to choose whether or not they want to downgrade their computers from Windows 7 to Windows XP after purchase. The original deadline was only 6 months, which would have been a disaster for many corporates who haven’t even upgraded to Vista yet, or don’t plan to upgrade to Windows 7 within that period.

The new deadline for companies to roll back their purchases to XP is April 23, 2011. However, if one attempts to downgrade after the April 23 release date, they can scale down only to Vista. It was an unexpected, yet considerable move by the corporate giant to give businesses and consumers a chance to test drive their new operating system with the ability to return to one which they know is stable.

The downgrade only applies to Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate purchases, which is a bit sneaky as corporates will be paying a huge price premium for an OS they won’t be using.

Could this be a bad move by Microsoft? If they do happen to release a version of Windows 7 that is covered in bugs, then this could lose new users right off the bat. The public in general does not want to pay for patience, and the arrival of a service pack to fix the problems that could arise wouldn’t come for months. It seems Microsoft is trying to prepare for the worst by offering this, but they could easily be shooting themselves in the foot. Luckily, however, Windows 7 does appear stable enough for release. But as we all learned from Bill Gates, anything can happen.

Subscribe To RSS Feed Updates