Microsoft extends XP for Windows 7 users

Windows XP arguably has been one of the most efficient and popular operating systems by Microsoft. Windows Vista was a let down after which Windows 7 has been quite a hit. Now Microsoft has once again extended the support to Win XP. Microsoft has announced that users running some of the editions of Win 7 would be allowed to downgrade to Win XP for another 10 years that is till 2020. According to the release users running Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate will now be able to `downgrade’ to Windows XP Professional up to the year 2020 (Windows 7’s entire lifecycle). Microsoft seess this as a means to maintain consistency for downgrade rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle. Thus, OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional. Downgrade rights primarily allow users to replace a newer version of Windows with an older edition without paying for two copies. Micrososft has always followe a policy of terminating downgrade rights within months of introducing a new OS but ut has taken exception with Windows XP. This is the second extension for Windows XP downgrade rights. Earlier the downgrade was limited to within 6 months of release of Won 7. It had then increase the rights period to 18 months from the release. Ironically the company has dropped support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).