After being met with disapproval from analysts and consumers alike, Microsoft has prolonged the availability of its Windows XP downgrade option from Windows 7. Redmond’s plan of abandoning the downgrade 6 months after the new operating system’s release in October has been extended by 12 more months, or until its first service pack is seen. This stretches the availability time-frame until about April of 2011.

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Where would we find an official announcement.
But the download everybody here wants is from VISTA to XP. Do you have any useful information on that?

Other than conversations with Microsoft spokespeople, I'm not aware of any particular "official announcement." Feel free to contact them, I'm sure they'll respond with confirmation.

It's no wonder that everyone on your end wants Vista to XP downgrades - because Windows 7 hasn't even been launched yet ;).

What "useful information" are you looking for?

Yes go buy a copy of windows Xp or wait until Windows 7 and download virtual xp.

They're working on an 8 year old OS and STILL want the transition period up from 6 to 12 months?!

I could never go back to XP from Vista, not to mention from Windows 7. They are just superior OSes.
Sure, they need more juice to run, but didn't all OSes before XP required this?

@Captain828: The new transition period is 18 months long, an effective 12 month extension from the previous 6 month time frame.

Not all people have that additional "juice" and a bulk of the uproar is concerning business-oriented machines, where the leap from Vista to XP (and hardware upgrades) on hundreds or thousands of systems isn't justifiable.

Businesses also didn't want to pay twice (buying Vista machines for access to an XP downgrade license after the 7 downgrade option expired, and then having to pay again for a 7 upgrade later on).

As much as you (and others) prefer Vista, and as old as XP may be, the near-decade old OS is more than enough for the average person and/or company. Up until this last 6 months I had been using XP, and I used Windows 2K until very late in 2007. Can't say I had any problems with either.

Just because MS ends support for an OS doesn't mean you have to stop using it.

And remember, Windows 7 with Virtual XP is the bomb - I have my entire original XP machine in a VM that I can wake up in seconds and use those creaky old apps that I lost the install files for.

Its going to be so funny in 2020 when these same whiny morons that wanted XP bash Microsoft for keeping it around too long and screwing their computers up.

Go to Linux or buy the new Windows and stop playing these stupid games. Apple would never do this with an older version of OSX and their users would never expect it.

Add is funny to read troll-ey ignorants like, gezz, take a break.

This is analogous to the DTV transition...

Im a big fan of the '69 mustang. i think Ford should be required to build me one.....geezus

The fact that Microsoft is being expected to keep a 10yr old OS available for people who don't want to buy the new one is absurd. The fact that Microsoft has provided a virtual machine with Windows XP in it as a free download for Windows 7 users who have legacy applications is unprecedented.

If I were Microsoft, I'd tell people who still want XP to shove it. As stated above, just because Microsoft won't support it or sell it anymore doesn't mean you have to stop using it.

Stop using Lotus 1-2-3. Seriously. Most applications are compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7, and if they are not, it's because they have been out of development since, at the absolute latest, early 2007. If it was released after January 2007 and isn't compatible with Windows Vista, then it's crappy software, and you should consider an alternative.

If your business' proprietary software won't run on Windows 7, then you should probably tell your programmers to fix it, or suck it up and hire some competent ones. If you think it won't work, but haven't tried it because you are a big ***** and are afraid of change, then consider this: It's not Microsoft's fault that you are stuck in 2001.

If you are so happy with your 2001 OS, why don't you buy some 2001 computers to run it on? They are a lot cheaper now, and man, they are some sexy machines. It's okay. You can be honest. You LOVE those old white-box systems. They make your wee-wee hard.

Oh, Guest, you are such a funny person.

help to downgrade my sony vaio cwf16 from windows 7 to Xp

The problem was magnified unnecessarily by Microsoft's requirement that HP, IBM/Lenovo, Compaq, Sony, eMachines, Gateway, Dell, and the rest stop supporting these older versions... Drivers disappeared, computer information disappeared.

As far as I am concerned, forcing the industry to go "modern" was a criminal conspiracy of sorts.... of course those companies no longer wanted to support those old systems.

But a great number of people around the world can get by with a simple, old computer. It can give the means to communicate and to prepare documents and keep their stuff.

We have large numbers of clients on both sides of the border whose old machines we support with Windows 98 and 2000. They cannot afford more or better. Think of what this will eventually do to the millions upon millions of users.

There are 24 language versions of Windows XP used by people who speak 140 languages. the number of WXP machines must be very high.

All for the bottom dollar with little respect for the users.

It would be terrific if Microsoft just stopped punishing users of Windows 98 and 2000 when XP came out for use of illegal software. Let them use it free. Sometime in the future, let them use WXP free. No support. But no punishment either. Think of how this could change the lives of peoples all over the world.

This would work much better than the crummy little machines in African huts that break down within a year, and for which no parts are available.

We have lived in 27 countries. This change in control would change lives all over the globe.