Beware of Windows 7 downgrade/upgrade mess

Summary: According to Gartner analyst Michael Silver, businesses looking to migrate to Windows 7 could find the whole process much harder and more expensive than it needs to be ... thanks to Microsoft.

According to Gartner analyst Michael Silver, businesses looking to migrate to Windows 7 could find the whole process much harder and more expensive than it needs to be ... thanks to Microsoft.

Here's what Silver had to say to Infoworld:

"Under Microsoft's planned enterprise licensing rules, businesses that buy PCs before April 23, 2010, with Windows 7 pre-installed can downgrade them to Windows XP, then later upgrade them to Windows 7 when they're ready to migrate their users. But PCs bought on or after April 23 can only be downgraded to Vista - which is of no help for XP-based organizations, Silver notes - and could cause major headaches and add more costs to the Windows 7 migration effort."

So, the upshot is that after April 23, 2010 you could end up with a pot-luck stew of systems running XP and Vista. That's bad news if you've been planning on skipping Vista. If you wanted to avoid this kind of mess, there are options open to you, but none of them are particularly attractive:

  • Take the Software Assurance (SA) route which costs some $90 extra per PC per year. This allows you to install any OS you want. However, most go for SA as a way to future-proof systems rather than to get downgrade rights, and even then you can end up paying for air (for example, if you had bought SA in October 2003 with an eye to getting the next version of Windows in the deal, you'd have been out of luck since Vista didn't make an appearance until November 2006).
  • Buy more PCs before April 23, 2010 and hold onto them until you need them.
  • Try finding someone willing to sell XP licenses.
  • Rush to adopt Vista or 7.

None of these options are particularly attractive. Maybe the best route for companies tied to XP is to look at PC replacements over the past few years and stock up on spare XP licenses, just in case. If you're confident of your numbers you could buy these as part of new systems before the deadline. Remember though, that buying a PC that you aren't going to use for many months is not being sensible with your money.

[UPDATE: Microsoft has finally clarified the XP to 7 downgrade rights, extending the period to 18 months following general availability ... or until SP1 is released.

So, once SP1 is around the corner, you'll need to be ready to roll with 7 or have a contingency plan in place.]

Decisions, decisions ...

Topics: Hardware, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Software, Windows

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307 comments
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  • XP is dead guys....

    Let it go. Vista works, and contrary to popular belief, is quite stable, and ready to carry your business.

    If you still need XP, you can always run it in a VM...
    The one and only, Cylon Centurion
    • So is Vista

      Actually, if XP's dead, Vista had died sooner.
      kitko
      • What I forgot to add was...

        By the time most companies upgrade to 7, XP will be 9 almost 10 years old!

        No wonder Microsoft wants to do away with it!
        The one and only, Cylon Centurion
        • RE: No wonder Microsoft wants to do away with it!

          Im sure Vista will be going long time before
          XP. Vista is not ready nor has it ever been
          ready for real world business work. IMO, it's
          the worst OS ever produced by MS since 95, I
          feel it makes 95 look good. I've played with
          all OS's and hoping Windows 7 makes the jump
          from XP worth while, seems much better than
          Vista and is more productive and less annoying
          and hampering while using it. I think MS
          listened to some of the complaints about Vista
          and hopefully will release a good OS for Home
          and Business alike. Yes, I'm a Mac and Linux
          user too. I give some preferences to some over
          others but these are my needs and not others. I
          like the flexibility and diversity of knowing
          using different platforms. I just know more
          than the average MS user. I must say, MS has
          been the worst. I deal with it just as everyone
          else does. So on to new adventures with Windows
          7, woo hoo.
          djzoey
          • Ed Bott

            had written a few months back that Vista would be supported for some time yet. They have to support it yet, despite Windows 7's excellent reviews, alot of people still seem to be making the jump to Vista. My college being one of them.


            Microsoft is really itching to let go of XP, and honestly, I don't understand why anyone would want to downgrade to a 9 year old operating system. Especially one that is very open to malware and frequent crashes.


            Anyone still needing XP can obtain a free license with XP mode in Windows 7. That right there I feel is the killer app that will signal the death knell of XP.
            The one and only, Cylon Centurion
          • The reason for downgrade

            "I don't understand why anyone would want to downgrade to a 9 year old operating system. Especially one that is very open to malware and frequent crashes."

            Crashes aren't that frequent for most systems but more importantly is the issue of enterprise deployment. There are always issues with the first release of any new OS, especially for Windows, and enterprises with potentially hundreds of systems to upgrade are definitely not early adopters of new OS's. Therefore they need to maintain the existing network, which for most is XP Pro, until the initial issues with the new OS are resolved. Many enterprises will move to Win 7 and some of those before the first SP is released but at the same time not for 4 to 6 months after the official release of Win 7 which is not until late next year.
            tmsassoc
          • Next Year?

            Win7 release date is October 22, 2009!

            jemd@...
          • Why downgrade

            When you can do a full Windows <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu" title="Upgrade Windows">upgrade?</a>
            T1Oracle
          • Frequest crashes?

            I prefer Vista to XP, but I find it odd that you frequently crashed with XP (I assume you mean BSOD or OS lock that requires a reboot).

            Both of those were extremely rare, IME, in XP.

            notsofast
          • Yeah... BSOD

            Most often it was my dammed Creative card. Crashed Vista too when I first got it. Since getting rid of it Vista has been fine...
            The one and only, Cylon Centurion
          • No frequent crashes for me

            I had XP for several years and still dual-boot with Vista and XP since some of my favorite software cannot run in Vista.

            I rarely had a XP crash in those years. Vista has crashed on me a few times in less than a year.

            Do plan to ditch Vista and go with Win 7 when it is released. I have the RC on my laptop and it is faster at almost everything than Vista Home Premium.
            mjnelson99
          • Yep

            It happened to me frequently for a period of a week, seemingly with a different driver every time. I updated all of my drivers first. Then I started looking at hardware. I ran memtest and found a bunch of errors on a stick of RAM.

            Another time I had a bad drive and sectors where system files were, were getting errors. That was a long time ago.

            Not XP's fault ;) I'm fairly confident that if an xp install is crashing it's going to be either a driver, disk, or hardware problem because it's a very stable OS.

            It may be a steaming pile, but stability is definitely not on the list of what's wrong with xp.

            -Viz
            pwn0tr0n
          • XP mode in 7 not always an option.

            [i]Anyone still needing XP can obtain a free license with XP mode in Windows 7. That right there I feel is the killer app that will signal the death knell of XP.[/i]

            But you have to buy the most expensive version of Windows 7 to get that ability. Also the VM will not run all hardware. This is an issue. For example: the place I work has a $300,000 metal press using NETBUI networking and Windows 98 software. It does not function reliably on XP and won't run on Vista.

            By reliably I mean we really are not excited about putting a $30,000 sheet of aluminum in the press and have it cut wrong due to a network error.

            I am sure there applications where people don't want to replace $300,000 hardware. Will need to replace the PC. And Microsoft is making it easier to get a copy from some Warez website than buying it from them.
            fwarren
          • XP mode in 7 not always an option.

            It's not always needed. The majority of software works perfectly fine in Vista, some you may need to "run as admin" but that's just a single tick box.
            bradavon
          • WOW

            You're problem isn't with microsoft!! It's with the vendor of your metal press!!
            medezark@...
          • you metal press vendor has problems

            He's the problem tell him to upgrade the networking or USB link?
            amasys
          • Just curious, but...

            Seems like updating the software for the $300,000 press just might be a worthwhile investment. How long will your company be able to continue to find reliable hardware that will run Windows 98 and NETBUI? I seem to remember an old business addage..."pay me now or pay me later". Either way, you'll have to pony up eventually.
            HAFox
          • XP Crashes...what about Vista?

            XP doesn't crash that often and when it does, there are usually fixes available -- many in fact.

            When Vista breaks and the Startup repair feature isn't the solution, it usually means a backup and reload. It has, I believe, five times the code of XP.

            When it comes to the ability to fix the OS, I'll take XP any day. That said, you are quite right that Vista is much more secure than XP and if Vista does get infected, it is much easier to clean-up.

            I like Vista, it's just a bear to repair and I don't find it all that stable. If it were, we wouldn't be talking Win 7 already.
            Aragorn7
          • XP Crashes...what about Vista?

            Vista's rapair options are significantly stronger, all you get in XP is that dodgy Recovery Console, that doesn't even understand DOS commands in the same way.

            Check out all the tools on the DVD.

            Vista is also significantly less likely to crash in the first place. From my experience of 2 years of Vista, I've not seen one BSOD and have had to use System Restore once. This is much reduced from how often I'd see them on XP (which in itself wasn't often).
            bradavon
          • Vista Crashes

            I'm currently running Vista 64bit on a system with 8gigs of ram, ATI Crossfire graphics, 2 optical drives and 3 terabytes of hard drive space,and last but not least a tv turner card. My cpu is a quade core by Intel at 2.83 ghz. The reason I'm going into so much detail is that I have never shut the systm down, only a reboot as needed. VISTA 64 is one of the best Micosoft has come out to date. So why upgrade to the unknown or downgrade to an inferior OS'S
            gmtiii