It’s been a week since Windows XP disappeared from store shelves in favour of Windows Vista, but system builders and OEMs will still be able to offer pre-installs of Microsoft‘s (NYSE: MSFT)older OS for another six months.
XP pre-installs will be permitted until January 30, 2009 says Mike Nash, corporate vice-president of Windows product management at Microsoft, and consumers will be able to obtain XP through a special downgrade benefit that’s available on select Vista business editions.
When Vista launched on January 30, 2007, Nash says Microsoft’s priority was to solve the issues that customers previously had around working with Windows. That’s why, Nash says, there were more added features around security and user account controls to help make Vista more reliable when it came out.
“With Windows XP, most users were usually set up as the administrator,” Nash said. “In order to really stop malware and to make the system more reliable in Vista, we had to make changes. The key thing with Vista was we invested in user account control settings.”
Nash says Microsoft has noted that machines running on Vista are 60 per cent less likely to be infected with malware than a machine that’s running XP. Even though security features were added to Vista, some users still hesitated in making the move towards the operating system because they found the security prompts to be an annoyance, or simply because of compatibility issues.
“Adobe Reader and iTunes didn’t work before with Vista, but today they do,” Nash said. “Where compatibility’s concerned, we’ve made a great deal of progress with it.”
While Microsoft has been pushing hard to move users to the new operating system, users have been slow to fall into line. A ComputerWorld Canada petition to save XP generated widespread attention and support, and an online survey of 372 IT professionals conducted by Sanford C. Bernstein in May indicated companies expect just 26 per cent of their PCs to be running Vista by the beginning of 2011, down from an estimate of nearly 68 per cent of computers based on a similar survey a year ago. Among the major vendors Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Sony have all said they plan to continue offering users XP on new PCs through the downgrade right option.
Those that don’t want to make the move yet to Vista can purchase Vista Business or Vista Ultimate and will have the option to use XP Professional through a customer benefit, known as a downgrade right. What’s great about this benefit, Nash says, is that customers will be able to use XP on their computers and can then upgrade to Vista when they’re ready, since they’ve already purchased the operating system.
XP Home and XP Starter editions will also be available in low-end personal computers, which are also being referred to as “netbooks,” Nash adds. Current XP users will also enjoy Microsoft support for the operating system until April 2014.
Up next for Microsoft is the upcoming release of Windows 7, the successor to Vista. Nash says Microsoft’s goal now is to have a better plan and a more predictable roadmap regarding future Windows releases. While a release date for Windows 7 has not yet been confirmed, Nash says the goal is to have it available three years following the launch of Vista.
“We’re building on the foundations of Vista for Windows 7 and we’re making sure the security model in the system is an evolution,” said Nash. “It’s safe to say there will be a consumer and business edition of Windows 7 because our commitment to customers lies in various segments with consumers, and small and large enterprises.”
And while it’s still early to talk about partner plans around the new Windows release, Nash did say Microsoft will be focused on making sure partners are given the proper guidance so they can help out with the roll out of the finished product.
