Windows XP lives! The aging but still popular operating system remains a hot topic for Microsoft, which this week announced yet another extension for its “downgrade rights” program.
The idea is that the buyer of a PC with Windows would have the right to install an older OS — say, ditching Windows Vista for XP. And while Windows 7 is proving more palatable than Vista, some IT buyers may still be hankering for systems running XP instead of the latest and greatest edition of Windows, and those are the ones likely to be most pleased by the news. Datamation has the story.
For Microsoft, having to repeatedly extend the date at which PC OEMs will no longer be able to sell a Windows 7 PC “downgraded” to run the almost ten-year-old Windows XP must seem eerily like the return of the undead.
That must be especially true this week when a company spokesperson explained that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has again extended that date, a shift likely to be important to PC managers if they still want the ability to downgrade to XP.