Leaked HP memo details XP reprieve until 2010, report says

Microsoft admits it is 'broadening the options' for Windows downgrades

Microsoft acknowledged Monday that it has "broadened the options" for PC makers to continue offering the eight-year-old Windows XP as a downgrade from Vista, and potentially from the upcoming Windows 7.

However, the company would not confirm specific reports that Hewlett-Packard Co. has been given the green light to sell new PCs with Windows XP Professional preinstalled through the end of April 2010.

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"Based on feedback, Microsoft is further broadening the options provided to Direct OEMs to help customers facilitate End User downgrade rights included in the product license terms of a new system with either Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate," said a Microsoft spokeswoman in an e-mail. "This option is designed to help Direct OEMs further support customers, primarily small business customers, looking for Windows XP Professional due to application compatibility concerns."

On Saturday, AppleInsider reported that Microsoft had given HP the okay to offer Windows XP as a downgrade through April 30, 2010.

"Downgrade" describes the Windows licensing rights that allows users -- and in their stead, computer makers -- to install Windows XP Professional while also providing media for Vista for a possible upgrade later. In effect, the license for the newer Windows -- Vista -- is transferred to the older edition, XP.

Microsoft allows owners of only Vista Business and Vista Ultimate -- the two highest-priced editions -- to downgrade to XP.

Windows XP went into semi-retirement in June 2008 when Microsoft stopped selling it at retail and withdrew Windows XP Home from use on all but netbooks, though it allowed XP Professional to be installed as a Vista downgrade. Since then, Microsoft has extended the final date it would sell XP Professional install media to large-sized computer makers and smaller system builders to July 31, 2009 and May 30, 2009, respectively.

Today, Microsoft denied that it had extended the lifespan of Windows XP, and intimated that those rights were built into the newer OS -- in this case Vista -- and did not expire at some arbitrary date. "End User downgrade rights are a right in the end user license for Windows Vista Business and Ultimate products, and therefore remain in effect for the life of the product, so this change does not represent an extension."

However, the company did not answer questions about whether it was extending the availability of XP media, a crucial factor for OEMs, who must have those installation or restore discs to include with the downgraded PC. When Microsoft said in October 2008 that it had extended media availability another six months, though July 2009, a spokeswoman had stressed the importance of media availability in downgrade scenarios. "The [downgrade] rights don't go away. It's all about having the media on hand," she said then.

The internal HP memo cited by AppleInsider also claimed that Microsoft would also let computer makers downgrade new PCs from the next operating system, Windows 7.