Downgrade Rights To Windows XP Until 2020

Microsoft announced that it will extend the life of Windows XP by offering “downgrade rights” to companies who buy copies of Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate Editions for another 10 years or until 2020. Downgrade rights allow a user who has bought a later version of the Windows operating system to remove it and install the older version in its stead without paying for a second license. With seventy-four (74%) percent of businesses still running Windows XP, the software giant decided on downgrade rights to let them bide their time until they’re ready to upgrade their hardware and use the Windows 7 operating system (OS).

While Windows 7 has been generally well received, business enterprises like i-cafés prefer to standardize computers on a single operating system to make maintenance and training easier, and if the business still has older hardware installed, that usually means an older OS, Windows XP in current cases, is required. Once the computer units get upgraded, then the Windows 7 that they purchased will be used. It must also be noted that these downgrade rights are intended only for enterprise customers and include the i-café owners that availed of the Microsoft i-Café Program.

Microsoft’s offering multiple years of downgrade rights to Windows 7 buyers all at once is unprecedented. The company has extended downgrade rights for XP repeatedly since Windows Vista was released years ago, usually for a few months at a time. Details about the downgrade rights can be found on Microsoft’s official Windows blog. Basically, downgrade rights to Windows XP will be extended through the full life cycle of Windows 7. This means you’ll be able to downgrade to XP for as long as Windows 7 is supported by Microsoft which for now means until January 2020 for Windows 7 Professional and January 2015 for Windows 7 Ultimate.