Updated Windows 7 and Vista downgrade rights leaked
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted May 29th 2009 10:23AM
posted May 29th 2009 10:23AM
Are you ready to have your mind blown by some truly incredible gadget news? No, we're not talking about our peek at the Zune HD with none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. In fact, we have spicy hot new Windows licensing details. According to Tech ARP, Microsoft will soon allow end users to downgrade from Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate editions to either Windows Vista Business or Window XP Professional. If that weren't enough, OEMs may now choose to install XP Professional, XP Pro Tablet, or XP Pro X64, instead of Windows Vista Business / Ultimate -- as long as they fulfill a bunch of legalistic requirements regarding activation markers, certificates of authenticity, Windows Vista Logo criteria, and other stuff you probably don't care about. It looks like the repudiation of Windows Vista is continuing apace... and we're guessing that it doesn't stop until it results in a series of war crimes tribunals in The Hague. (We can dream, can't we?)
So here's a question... how much is Windows worth to you? Don't say nothing, don't start arguments about free software or the value of electronic goods, stick with the actual question:
If you wanted to buy a copy of Windows and got to set what you think is a _reasonable price_, what would it be?
$40? $50?
I think the problem with Windows is that the value proposition just isn't there. Yeah I know it costs billions to develop, but that's not my problem. My problem is that the sticker price is higher than what I think the product is worth. This is equally true for OS X, $129?!
Maury
$80 to $130 seems like a good range to me.
But at least with Mac OSX you can get a family pack. With 5 pc's in the house it's going to be a bit expensive to upgrade to W7.
About $100, which conveniently is what OEM Home Premium costs.
$5... it's digital, costs nothing to copy except making the CD.
And the number 1 reason why Win 7 fails is.......... Orb/search/regedit (slapstick drum roll)
and the number 1 reason YOU fail is...WinKey+R, regedit, enter. (slapstick drum roll)
You see, this is why Windows will never catch on. If I have to go to the registry to change a setting, it's too difficult for common people.
Oh, I know. Windows is SUCH a niche product **rolleyes**. If it has to be changed in the registry, then 99% of all users probably don't need to make that change. or there's a tweak app that can. Just because you are an uber-nerd and CAN doesn't mean everyone will want to.
The point was that the registry is still there, still a mess and still sucks.
The Vista experience will go down like the Windows ME experience; let's pretend it never happened. Kind of like when you fool around with your best friends wife.
XP > any thing else released by the shithole company called microsoft
at least xp works fine with everything and has a reasonable interface. then microsoft decided to go out an copy apple's new OS essentially and completely failed with Vista.
if it aint broke...dont fix it microsoft!!! >:(
idiots
You obviously didn't use XP when it was released.
thats why microsoft sucks.
but i've got xp on every computer i have at work/at home/on bootcamp thats not a mac and it runs rather nicely.
faster than vista and 7 and arguably faster at some things than os x
i can see the reason of downgrading from vista to XP. I am one of those who can't live without XP, but opting to use both, but mainly vista. Vista, IMO, is unstable, unfinished product.
However, I can not see the reason of downgrading from 7 to both vista and XP. After 7 go RTM, I plan to give up both vista and XP. 7 is definitely most stable, and a "finished product" even in its Release Candidate stage
I don't get it? Why are we not rejoicing in celebration? For years commenters on Engadget (myself included) have been protesting XP's demise. And now that Microsoft is giving us what we want, you guys are just slapping Balmer right in the face. I have an idea... how about if you don't want to downgrade to XP or Vista then you don't have to. It's your choice now, so grow up and take some initiative.
Yes, Windows 7 is truly awesome. In my casual testing the RC is a stable as XP Pro, but there are still some among us adverse to change. So thank you Microsoft for giving those people a break. As for me, I'll me sticking to Windows 7.
Just wondering... Is Microsoft going to give the poor folks with Vista (like myself) a price break for upgrading to System 7?!
So far Win7 is working better than expected for me. It installed and ran without too many problems on an old compaq laptop. Both the 32 and 64 bit versions work easily in a VM. That's the best experience so far. However, 64 bit in boot camp on an older macbook pro clearly shows there are continued driver issues. That's not surprising considering how new win 7 is and how poor the driver situation for vista are/were. I have yet to try out my oldest programs, but most of the newer programs have no troubles. I'm still not sure if this is a legitimate step up from XP for me, but I like it so far. It really depends on the price to buy/upgrade right now.
Hmm...I posted (I have the email confirmation to prove it) to point out the writer's errant use of the word 'peak' when it should have been 'peek'. It appears that the error has been fixed and my comment subsequently deleted. Way to cover it up. I don't agree with my comment being deleted; it's not my fault there were grammatical errors. Maybe Engadget should had out rewards for found mistakes in articles like textbooks do when you find errors in their text. Just a suggestion.
'should had out rewards'
I think you meant 'hand out rewards', right?
What's MY prize?
Pushed the + for you. How was that?
Phil - Thanks for noticing my misspelling; I will be deleting your post now. Sorry but no prizes from the poor college student, but I can give you a tip...don't eat yellow snow. ;D
Thanks John.
i haven't had any compatibility issues with win 7... even if when i try to install something and it says "known compatibility issues" i still run it and have had zero problems after the initial message... I don't really understand why someone would want to downgrade to XP, if you use vista or 7 then you can clearly see how outdated it is, and those who are still having stability issues with vista, you obviously haven't tried it since sp1 or especially now sp2 since that was released also. People also tend to forgot how shaky XP was until sp2, even after sp1 it was still quite crash-prone and buggy, and vista has improved greatly since sp1
Yeah, my main account for commenting no longer works!!!! WTF is up with that?!
"Are you ready to have your mind blown by some truly incredible gadget news? No, we're not talking about our peek at the Zune HD with none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "
That's some obvious microsoft fap fap fap there....this site is about as balanced as Fox News.
If you don't want to deal with all of this Microsoft downgrade crap, defragmentation, and virus scans, get a Mac. Apple has OSX which is the best because everything is more streamlined and easy to use. Remember, more marketshare != better products.
Especially true in the case of iPods and iPhoneys.
Why would anyone want to downgrade?
Especially with XPM for free?
I can't see anyone doing a fresh install of Win7 ever wanting to go back.
4 out of my five computers at home are running it and it's been great.
I'm probably setting up the last one tonight.
Wow, "repudiation", had to look that one up.
@strider_mt2k
Agreed. I Win7 running on just about all my machines, except for my homeserver that's running Slackware. But overall I've found the speed of Windows 7 to be comparable to XP. I have it running on an old AMD Athlon 3200+ with 512mb of ram and it runs like a champ, Aero and all. I guess all the Mac fanboys are jealous that Microsoft is actually turning around.
long live XP...
this isn't news. they have offered downgrade rights for EVERY version of Windows for YEARS. It was only because people hated Vista that anyone actually cared.
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit is running fine for me now that I've got a clean install with a decent backup.
Of course, I just switched back to PC from Mac... I may be giving Vista too much benefit of the doubt; I have only been running it as my main OS for a couple months now. I'm sure if I give it time it will screw me over.
What I want to know is how much it's going to cost me to upgrade to Windows 7 from my recently-purchased Windows Vista Home Premium? It's not like it's a huge change, and I don't like the idea of spending another $140 so soon.
MS better have a decent upgrade path.
Personally, I very pleased to see this being offered. I would not care if it was just a Vista downgrade, but the XP Pro downgrade gives me just a small peace of mind for the near future. The network I manage runs all XP Pro machines and if I add one in the near future (prior to at least one Windows 7 Service Pack) I am going to want XP, this makes getting it a lot easier.
The text says: If that weren't enough,......
BAD GRAMMAR
It should be either
if that wasn't enough
or
if those weren't enough
the engadget editor has to keep the singular and plural stuff in agreement
Why would anyone want to downgrade to Vi*buzzz*?
I prefer emacs myself.
*sigh*
As soon as I finished adding that I realised someone was guaranteed to take it that way.
Actually I've never used either. I must've used Linux for a grand total of 2 weeks (over the period of my whole life).
To reiterate, this has nothing to do with vi or emacs. It seems that I get buzzed every time I try to say V*bzz* uh, ever time I say Vis*bzzz* V*bzzzzzz*ist*bzz* Vi*bzz*ist*bzzzzzz* V*bzzz*ta. Okay, I give up.