Major PC makers are offering ways for firms to continue
buyingWindows XPafterMicrosoft officially cans the OS after 30
June.
Dell, HP and other suppliers are allowing firms to buy PCs that
are equipped to run both Windows XP and Windows Vista.
When a company is ready to upgrade to Vista, they are able to
reconfigure a machine to the new OS with software already licensed
with their purchase.
Dell says customers can continue to get Windows XP Professional
by exercising "downgrade rights" that come with Windows Vista
Business or Windows Vista Ultimate licenses with their
machines.
The Dell website says, "Dell has the ability to exercise Windows
Vista downgrade rights on your behalf in the factory if your
business is still reliant upon Windows XP, and you would prefer to
have Windows XP Professional pre-installed on your PCs."
Downgrade rights mean that anyone with a Windows Vista Business
or Windows Vista Ultimate operating system can downgrade to Windows
XP Professional.
Dell is selling machines with XP pre-installed in the factory
and at the same providing a disk equipped with Windows Vista ready
to run on the same machine.
The option comes with technical support for both XP and Vista,
and users are able to revert back to XP if they find the Vista
upgrade does not go smoothly in their business.
Customers may use one operating system at any single time. They
cannot run both operating systems simultaneously unless an
additional license is purchased.
Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium do not
have this option, as they are not capable of downgrading to Windows
XP, said Dell.
The same scheme is being offered by HP and other suppliers.
Microsoft says it might have a re-think on the 30 June cut-off
for the wider availability of XP, but it has already extended the
cut-off by five months after originally planning a January
withdrawal of the OS.