Home > News > Operating Systems > Microsoft grants XP another stay

Microsoft grants XP another stay

Microsoft is planning to further extend the retail life of Windows XP.

The company said that it will be adding another six months to the time in which vendors will be allowed to offer the legacy operating system as an option with new systems.

Though the company had cut off sales of XP to OEMs earlier this year, Microsoft had allowed some vendors to ship copies of Windows XP as "downgrade" options or as bundles with computers running Windows Vista.

That program had been set to expire on January 31 of 2009. However, the company has now decided to push back the deadline to the end of July, affording vendors another six months to offer XP with their systems.

The decision does not affect the sale of Windows XP on low-end models ill-suited for running Windows Vista, which Microsoft currently grants to system builders.

Microsoft's latest move could be seen as another blemish on Windows Vista, which has seen slow adoption since its introduction, particularly in the business space.

Microsoft has had trouble weaning many users off of XP, and the lingering demand for the operating system has put the company at odds with major PC vendors who have sought to extend XP's life beyond Microsoft's plans.

Ads by Google

Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.

Comments: 4

Well i wonder why? perhaps it could be that Vista wastes so much of a user's time, its not economical using it? and its not consistent either - i've had to reinstall THREE times, and each time certain siftware is ok in one install, and not in another - its the buggiest piece of rubbish since ME - or maybe even 98!!

Posted by Bob, Oct 4, 2008 11:43 PM

Report

I think this is a good idea, they (Microsoft) finally understand what customer requirements is all about.

Please MS just stuck to the KISS (Keep it simple) principle.

Posted by gerson, Oct 5, 2008 12:12 AM

Report

Windows 98 was bad indeed.

So meany reinstalls and aeeor messages everyday.

Vista is a resource hog and needs a powerful cpu plus a min 2gig ram to run half decently.

Give the customer what they want does not apply to microsoft because of their massive world monopoloy.

Microsoft calls the tunes and we are forced to dance unfortunately

Posted by lucky john, Oct 6, 2008 9:10 AM

Report

I tried Windows Vista as an evaluation on a medium performance notebook. I wanted to see if it was worth deploying it on the new desktop PCs we purchased a little while after. MS Outlook (2003) running via Vista froze about 8 times a day during 6 month evaluation. I have never rebooted my computer so often. Downgraded the notebook to XP and Outlook ran fine. Needless to say, we did not put Vista on the new desktops. Steer clear of it - hopefully MS will come up with a better alternative in a year or so

Posted by Chris Dowding, Oct 18, 2008 11:59 AM

Report

Report this comment as offensive:

* Indicates information we require to process your submission.

Name: *
Email: *
Reason for offense: *
Your report will not be displayed.

Name:

Email:

(will not be displayed)

Comment:

(HTML not permitted)

Validation

Enter the code you see below:

Microsoft grants XP another stay

Related Articles

Tags

Sponsored Links