Vista to XP Downgrades - Downgrading Offers Much More than Upgrading
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The advent of Windows Vista brought to center stage the issue of downgrades. In mid 2007, Lisa Michigan from the Microsoft U.K. licensing team revealed that Vista to XP downgrades were one of the hottest subjects on the company's top five list of licensing questions, occupying both the first and the second positions.
But while, as far as Microsoft is concerned, downgrade rights are by no means anything new, for customers the information was indeed fresh, and the company continues to be hit with a range of inquiries from the public. In this context, there are of course some misconceptions floating around the concept of downgrades, including the fact that it is a new offering accompanying Vista, or that they are some sort of reverse upgrades. Although the Redmond company introduced downgrade rights quite some time ago, concomitantly with Windows XP all the way back in 2001, Vista to XP downgrades have only come into play with the availability of the latest Windows client.
Windows Vista to Windows XP downgrades – Why?
"There are some misconceptions about downgrade rights and some have a perception that downgrade rights are something new or that we suddenly made a shift in policy to add them in lately. I am not sure where these misconceptions started at; however, I hope this helps set the record straight. Remember that when you purchase software, what you are purchasing is a license to use the software under the terms of the license you are purchasing. You are not actually buying the software itself. Downgrade rights are merely one of those rights that you choose to purchase or not based on the type of license you purchase", explained Eric Ligman, Microsoft US Senior Manager Small Business Community Engagement.
But are downgrades at the opposite spectrum of upgrades? The general user perception is that indeed Windows Vista to Windows XP downgrades situate themselves at the opposite pole of the upgrade process. This could not be further from the truth. Via software upgrades, Microsoft (I'll use the two latest Windows clients for examples) is allowing XP licensed users to acquire a Vista license at a discounted price. But after the upgrading is done, namely you have installed Vista in place of XP, you lose the right to run the software you have upgraded from.
Downgrades, on the other hand, are an added right aimed at business consumers. "Because business users are the ones who are most likely to utilize downgrade rights (due to standardizing on an image, or automated installs based on departments, or use of an older line of business application, etc.), it is in the business licenses that you will generally find downgrade rights included", Ligman said. And while it might not sound as a benefit, downgrading simply offers much more than upgrading. Yes, I have said it. I am ready to illustrate it with an example.
Let's say that you are a business customer still running Windows 2000. According to statistics from Net Applications, no less than 2.66% of operating system users have managed to stick with Windows 2000, even one year after Windows Vista was made available. Obviously, it's right about the due time to upgrade. But what do you upgrade to when you have both Windows XP and Windows Vista to choose from? Well, theoretically you could upgrade to XP or to Vista. Upgrading is also a contextual process, and one intimately connected with your IT infrastructure. And as Vista comes with demanding resources for any infrastructure, the case could be that with your hardware, or hardware upgrade, you can only afford to move to Windows XP. The worst solution for you is to license Windows XP exclusively.
More so, since Microsoft is offering you the possibility to hit two birds with one stone. Downgrade rights mean that you buy a single license but get to use TWO OPERATING SYSTEMS, in this case both XP and Vista. Not simultaneously, mind you, but still... So, from Windows 2000, by buying Windows Vista, you can use Windows XP on your current infrastructure, and then deploy and run Windows Vista at no additional licensing costs! So, for the price of a single Vista license, you actually get the rights to use both Vista and its predecessor Windows XP. While the term downgrade is thrown around rather largely, and erroneously, as a reference of going back from Vista to XP, the actual rights offer you the possibility to deploy both platforms while paying for just one, in this case Vista. Downgrading simply offers much more than upgrading. Ligman does a great job at explaining this in the following video:
"So what are the benefits of downgrade rights for a customer? It provides them the flexibility to adopt technology as they wish in addition to saving them money.
Windows Vista to Windows XP downgrades – What?
Having established the multiple benefits of Vista to XP downgrades, from added flexibility synonymous with the possibility of choosing which operating system to run, and to the lack of additional licensing costs while moving from one platform to the other, the issue is, of course, to what editions of the two products do downgrade rights apply? Well, downgrade rights are an offering addressed at the corporate environment and, as such, the Home Basic and Home Premium SKUs of Vista are excluded. In the adjacent image, you will be able to see that in terms of Vista editions, Microsoft is allowing Ultimate and Business users to downgrade to Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Tablet PC and Windows XP x64 Professional.
"End users can use the following media for their downgrade: Volume Licensing media (provided the end user has a Volume Licensing agreement), retail (FPP), or system builder hologram CD (provided the software is acquired in accordance with the Microsoft OEM System Builder License). Use of the downgraded operating system is governed by the Windows Vista Business License Terms, and the end user cannot use both the downgrade operating system and Windows Vista Business. There are no downgrade rights granted for Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium", Microsoft revealed in a resource detailing the Select License, Open License, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) License, and Full Packaged Product (FPP) License downgrade rights.
