Microsoft Quitely Lets Vista Users Reverts Back To Xp

[Thaising]

Hate Vista? If your PC is running Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Windows Ultimate and you're fed up with the OS you may be able to ditch Vista for XP Pro. Microsoft is quietly allowing you to downgrade to Windows XP Pro.

Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo are just a few of the system manufacturers offering downgrades. Each of these PC makers offer an XP Pro recovery disc to those who request one that can be used to revert a Vista machine to XP Pro.

Dell, HP, and Lenovo customers can request a Windows XP Pro recovery disc to be included with their purchase of a Vista machine - should they want to revert in the future. Customers who already have purchased a Vista-PC can request an XP Pro recovery CD for between $15 to $20 by calling technical support.

Different Policies for Different Vendors

A Lenovo Website for downgrading to XP Pro states: "For a limited time only Lenovo customers that have Windows Vista Business or Ultimate installed on their machines will have the chance to purchase a Windows XP Recovery CD."

Dell small business sales told me if I purchased a system with either the Vista Business or Ultimate operating system I could pay an extra $20 to have XP Pro recovery discs shipped with the machine. Dell told me I wouldn't need an extra Windows license for the XP Pro software.

HP business sale's staff described a near identical downgrade plan, except for the fact the XP Pro recovery discs would not include a license to activate the OS.

The desire to revert to XP Pro from Vista is a business trend, not a consumer trend, says Chris Swenson, director, software industry analysis, for market research firm NPD Group.

"Retail consumers are not requesting to go back to XP," Swenson says. Businesses are more sensitive to upgrades because Vista requires a more robust computer to run programs at peak performance. Vista's requires better graphics and memory than XP, forcing companies to spend more on systems, he says.

Additionally some customers and businesses have complained about Vista's lack of support for software and hardware designed originally for XP.

[Guest Reimar]

The article was published at: http://www.news.com and should be read completly.

The XP alternative for Vista PCs

Microsoft is quietly telling PC makers they can offer a Windows XP "downgrade" to customers buying systems preloaded with Vista.

Image: Lenovo's XP 'downgrade' program By Ina Fried

Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: September 21, 2007, 12:11 PM PDTLast modified: September 21, 2007, 3:51 PM PDT While Microsoft is still pushing Vista hard, the company is quietly allowing PC makers to offer a "downgrade" option to buyers that get machines with the new operating system but want to switch to Windows XP.

The program applies only to Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions, and it is up to PC makers to decide how, if at all, they want to make XP available. Fujitsu has been among the most aggressive, starting last month to include an XP disc in the box with its laptops and tablets.

"That's going to help out small- and medium-size businesses," Fujitsu marketing manager Brandon Farris told CNET News.com.

Hewlett-Packard also started a program in August for many of its business models. "For business desktops, workstations and select business notebooks and tablet PCs, customers can configure their systems to include the XP Pro restore disc for little or no charge," HP spokeswoman Tiffany Smith said in an e-mail. She said it was too soon to gauge how high customer interest has been. "Since we've only been offering (it) for about a month, we don't really have anything to share on demand."

A Microsoft representative confirmed there were changes made over the summer to make it easier for customers to downgrade to XP. Under Microsoft's licensing terms for Vista, buyers of Vista Business and Vista Ultimate Edition have always had the right to downgrade to XP, but in practice this could be challenging. In June, Microsoft changed its practices to allow computer makers that sell pre-activated Vista machines to order Windows XP discs that could be included inside the box with PCs, or shipped to customers without requiring additional activation. Microsoft noted in a statement that neither it nor the PC makers are "obligated to supply earlier versions to end users under the end user licensing terms."

While there is always resistance by some to move to a new operating system, there appears to be particularly strong demand, especially from businesses, to stick with XP.

One of the challenges, for both businesses and consumers are Vista's hefty graphics and memory needs.

Lenovo, for its part, has details for its downgrade program on its IBM ThinkPad Web site.

Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said Dell has been offering businesses that have a Premier Page set up the option to order systems with XP, Vista or Vista with XP downgrade rights. There is no extra charge for the downgrade rights.

"We've been offering it and we're still offering it," she said.

HP, Gateway and others also still sell machines with XP on them, nearly a year after Microsoft first started offering Vista to businesses. Vista went on sale broadly to consumers in January, at which point XP largely disappeared from retail shelves.

However, demand for XP has remained. In April, Dell brought XP back as an option even on consumer PCs.

There is an issue, though, over how long PC makers can keep selling machines with Windows XP as the preloaded operating system. Microsoft is requiring large PC makers to stop selling XP-based systems as of January 31, though some PC makers would like to sell XP machines for longer.

"We're all lobbying for it," Farris said.

[technocracy]

Hilarious! Thankfully I have stop myself from 'upgrading' to Vista as personally I really do not see a problem with XP. XP in my eyes is the best operating system MS have ever produced all they needed to do was continue refining it via Service Packs however SP3 seems to be never forthcoming!

[nikster]

I read somewhere that SP3 is coming... forgot where, sorry

[Guest Reimar]

SP3 should be released at same time as SP1 for Vista according to MS!

[britmaveric]

I love Vista and I would never go back to XP. Not once crash - can't say that about XP.

[Gumballl]

Too bad you didn't name your thread "Hasta la Vista, Baby."

[cdnvic]

Typical FUD taken out of context. The program is designed for corporate users who wish to keep continuity in the OS and not have to support two of them until they are ready to upgrade them all. They did the exact same thing when XP was shipped and corporate users were running 95, 98 and 2000. They actually still sold 3.11 to legacy operators as late as 1998.

[gzu88bv]

Typical FUD taken out of context. The program is designed for corporate users who wish to keep continuity in the OS and not have to support two of them until they are ready to upgrade them all. They did the exact same thing when XP was shipped and corporate users were running 95, 98 and 2000. They actually still sold 3.11 to legacy operators as late as 1998.

I do not want to argue with you, but I think this is not quite true. Home users were/are running 95, 98 and 2000 and the corporate world runs/ran NT.

I read somewhere that SP3 for Vista will not be shipped before next year.

[cdnvic]

2000 was actually NT5 and didn't get a lot of desktop use. 3/95/98 got plenty of use in the corporate world, and it's XP SP3 that will be out late this year or early next, along with Vista SP1.

[gzu88bv]

cdnvic, one point for you, because wanted to say that SP1 for Vista will not be shipped until next year....