Guess what, you do have certain downgrade rights from Vista to Windows XP

[patteo]

I have been playing around with Vista for a few days now and my conclusion is that there's still a bunch of software I almost cannot live without that still would not run properly on Vista.

I was googling around and found this :

For more information on Microsoft downgrade rights, please visit the following URL:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/2/3/d23b9533-169d-4996-b198-7b9d3fe15611/downgrade_chart.doc

I have not had a chance to call the Laptop manufacturers to find out how many arms and legs do they want.

One issue of downgrading a new Vista based laptop is to make sure you can obtain the right drivers for the hardware.

[patteo]

Here's some additional stuff

Vista – XP Downgrade Rights – Hot Microsoft Subject - Microsoft wants Vista upgrades, customers want Vista downgrades - Softpedia
"Vista – XP Downgrade Rights – Hot Microsoft Subject
- Microsoft wants Vista upgrades, customers want Vista downgrades
By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor "
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Vista-XP-Downgrade-Rights-Hot-Microsoft-Subject-57931.shtml

[Josh]

This only applies to people owning a legitimate OEM copy of vista business or ultimate or a license obtained through one of microsoft's licensing programs. This does not apply to FPP (Full Packaged Product) purchases. You have no rights to downgrade with a consumer purchased edition. This is aimed at businesses wanting to maintain XP while evaluating vista

[Carol Haynes]

It's not clear at all how you downgrade if you don't already have a copy of Windows XP media and an XP key??? If you have the media and the key why do you need to ask permission to use it?

[mwb1100]

If you have the media and the key why do you need to ask permission to use it?

Some OEM versions of XP do not need a key or activation.  For example, Dell machines can have the Dell OEM version of WinXP installed without activation (I'm not sure if this is true 100% of the time, but it's been true for my experience so far).  So if you bought a Dell with Vista Business or Ultimate on it and decide you'd rather have WinXP, it's perfectly legal to use a Dell OEM WinXP installation CD if you happen to have one laying around from a previous purchase.

I wish I had known about the downgrade option before - I bought a Dell a couple months ago and opted for WinXP - if I had known about the downgrade option, I might have gone for Vista to give it a whirl.

[Darwin]

mwb1100 - this is true of many OEM installations of XP, on notebooks anyway. I've been wondering about this myself as my OEM discs are for Compaq (and HP?) and Gateway so I have a wee bit of choice. I've been considering going this route as I think it advisable to actually get a machine with Vista preinstalled (all too soon XP is going to be old news, whether we like it or not, and newer software packages/updates will increasingly optimized for Vista) and to take advantage of some of the new hardware that's available. However, I'd still like to be able to downgrade to XP without having to spend mone on a copy and I'm *hoping* that this will work. I'm just waiting to find out if there are any curveballs that might crop up - BIOS level changes that might render the BIOS recognition feature in XP incompatible with a machine designed for Vista. Yes, I am paranoid (and it shows!).

PS I've been looking at DELL because I can still order a machine with XP preinstalled. However, I would rather have a copy of Vista AND a copy of XP, even if I don't intend to run Vista for a while yet.

[Carol Haynes]

You may well find that the OEM discs you have will only install on the original hardware supplied with the CDs - sometimes the OEM company modifies Windows to check the hardware as windows starts so that it can't be installed elsewhere.

[f0dder]

And you may find that the license key on the back of your machine can't actually be used as a working license key - I got that when I tried installing a *clean* version of Vista Business instead of the preloaded Lenovo version which had so much shit preloaded that it would have taken days to get rid of.

[Wordzilla]

I got that when I tried installing a *clean* version of Vista Business instead of the preloaded Lenovo version which had so much shit preloaded that it would have taken days to get rid of.

ROFL. True, and it happens to every Thinkpad.

[f0dder]

And the other thinkpad (or whatever ibm/lenovo/whatever calls them now) (that I didn't try to reinstall, after the mess with the first) after a windows update suddenly tells me that the product activation key is invalid. Great. Good thing I purchased two XP OEM copies so I can rid of that piece of shit.