Microsoft has announced that it will be extending the life of Windows XP yet again, offering “downgrade rights” to companies who buy copies of Windows 7 for another 10 years. 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. And, as Computerworld notes, with 74 percent of businesses still running Windows XP, the OS isn’t going away anytime soon.It’s not really Microsoft’s fault: While Windows 7 has been generally well received, large enterprises like to standardize computers on a single operating system to make maintenance and training easier, and if a business still has older hardware installed, that usually means an older OS is required. When those businesses do get upgraded, it will likely be all at once.
Downgrade rights let them bide their time until they’re ready to do that.
Microsoft has extended downgrade rights for XP repeatedly since Windows Vista was released years ago, usually for a few months at a time, but the latest move — offering multiple years of downgrade rights all at once — is unprecedented.
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