Windows XP fans will get a boost, and many Windows customers are already looking beyond Vista to the upcoming Windows 7. That’s the takeaway from reports this week about Microsoft’s policy and a new survey by industry researcher ChangeWave.
Microsoft has told news media that when Windows 7 is released, it will allow volume-license users to downgrade to either the current Vista operating system or the older XP. There are also news reports that the software giant will allow Hewlett-Packard to continue selling XP on its computers for another year.
Release Candidate From Vista
While some eyebrows are being raised among industry observers, the downgrade policy is in keeping with Microsoft’s approach to big purchasers, whose license gives them the right to use any version of Windows.
Although Vista may not be the only choice if a user wants to move backward from Windows 7, it’s still the launching pad. In a post on its Windows 7 engineering blog, the Microsoft team noted that many of its Windows 7 beta testers are running Windows 7 full-time and are getting ready to upgrade to the release candidate (RC).
But the RC, the team wrote, “is about getting breadth coverage to validate the product in real-world scenarios.” As a result, the team is asking testers to revert to Vista and then upgrade to the RC — or do a clean install of the RC rather than upgrading to the RC from Windows 7 beta.
“The reality is that upgrading from one prerelease build to another is not a scenario we want to focus on because it is not something real-world customers will experience,” the team wrote on the blog.
53 Percent Skipping Vista
However, a new poll from industry research firm ChangeWave indicates that Windows 7 beta testers would prefer not to venture back to Vista. It…