Windows 7 - Downgrade plan for Windows 7 PCs

Anyone buying a PC with Windows 7 pre-installed will be able to swap it for XP or Vista.

Microsoft has confirmed that the licence conditions under which the software will be sold will allow people to downgrade.

The conditions will apply to both businesses that buy licences for Windows in bulk and consumers that get the operating system on a PC or laptop.

No firm date has been given for the release of Windows 7's final version.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Downgrade plan for Windows 7 PCs

The worst marketing decision ever by Microsoft?

I wonder who could ever do that. Well 7 to XP is a bit explainable, there are and always be some people who simply don't wanna do anything at least a bit different after they get used to do something in one way. There also might be some kind of rare software that some of the companies use for their own purposes and which somehow doesn't work under comaptibility mode in Vista/Windows 7. But 7 to Vista, that would be simply ridiculous .

wow, this is some piece of strategic decision.... daim it

Microsoft is possibly trying to give back confidence to a lot of the people they lost when they flopped out vista

The thing is with this is that although under the existing agreements customers of suppliers who decide to offer the facility, (possibly for a fee).

Microsoft has not as far as I am aware changed the fact that XP will only covered by security fixes from the 14th of April 2009 (in about 5 days).

Is an unsupported XP OS such a big draw as it was when Vista was released

The only reason I can think of to go back to XP would be for business use.

As for Home users people really need to step up and give something else a try.

I am sure they are getting tired of the countless spyware, malware, viruses etc that Xp seems to so easily get.

Windows 7 at least for me I have noticed a HUGE cut down on the crap I get to almost none with my normal internet browsing. Unless Spybot etc don't scan 7 right lol... Then I am screwed.


But then again I can't remember the last time I got a virus. I guess I am just not retarded and don't download everything that shows up on my screen. To be honest getting viruses should be a thing of the past. I wish people would just learn now to download/click on anything that looks like it is not right.

lol, who the hell would DOWNgrade their PC? )
XP looks a bit too old, while Vista has its problems. if they say that Windows 7 will be all fixed and okay, this announcement has just proven that even they aren't sure about how well it will be. omg, looks that all those unhappy customers who have bad-reviewed vista have scared quite a lot the MS team )

I work for a large corporation. In spite of the high-tech engineering and manufacturing we do, the standard desktop PC, workstation or laptop is running XP Pro SP2, with IE6. My Dell T5400 workstation, which is only a few months old, has a Vista Business OEM license sticker on the top, but came to me with XP Pro SP2 with IE6. My biggest shock was some months ago was when corporate IT pushed down Microsoft Office 2007 onto everyone's machine. They decided they needed some of the cool features of Active Directory that are supported only in Office 2007. I expect to be retired before they switch to Windows 7. That's the way many big companies do things.

Bye.

I agree, it makes good business sense, and it also shows they must be happy with their new OS, this time.

Lets be fair so far, Win 7 has done pretty good compared to previous OS's ?


.