Windows XP downgrade extend to 2011

As like most IT professionals supporting corporate networks, I was dreading the upgrade path for Windows XP. In 2010 Microsoft was finally going to force people to migrate to Windows Vista. Most IT professionals were dreading this upgrade because if our job wasn’t bad enough it was going to get even harder.

After over six years of delays Vista got a luke-warm reception amongst business users. Most of us in the IT community turn and ran for the hills stocking up on XP Licenses for the cold winter. We saw Vista and didn’t like what we saw one bit. It was the first OS Microsoft released since Windows ME that was actually a downgrade to the current release. The stability issues vista had, and security center made our jobs 10x harder and 10x less efficient.

When Dell announced that they were going to break ranks with Microsoft and continue offering Windows XP to all users Microsoft quickly re-evaluated their stance on Vista licensing. Microsoft agreed to allow users to purchase a Vista license but legally downgrade to Windows XP till 2010. IT professionals like myself jumped for joy, however, we knew we weren’t out of the woods yet.

As 2010 rapidly approached and Microsoft scrambles to launch Windows 7 it looked like we were about to come to an impasse: Upgrade to Vista or don’t upgrade to Windows 7. Microsoft was not going to allow you to buy a Windows 7 license and downgrade to Windows XP. If that wasn’t bad enough, 2010 is coming and you would no longer beable to buy a Vista license to downgrade to XP. It looked like the day we all feared had come. Either a) We upgrade to Vista, or b) upgrade to Windows 7. Windows 7 Beta is actually better than Vista Ultimate retail, much more stable, but nobody wants to be on the bleeding edge when it comes to business.

So just as we all lined up to swallow the bullet that had been bestowed upon his, Microsoft provided yet another stay of execution. You can continue to get XP downgrade till April of 2011 or Windows 7 SP1 release, whichever comes first.