Fran Foo | July 02, 2008
CONSUMERS will have to pay between $21 and $83 to downgrade from Windows Vista to Microsoft's older operating system, XP.
Microsoft has been struggling to convince Windows XP users to embrace Vista and PC makers have shunned the new operating system as well due to negative feedback from customers. The new platform, they claim, is too bloated and slow when compared with its predecessor.Microsoft unveiled the corporate edition of Vista on November 30, 2006 and the consumer equivalent on January 29, 2007.
In a bid to boost Vista's sales, Microsoft had set June 30, 2008 as the last day for PC makers to sell machines preloaded with Windows XP - with the exception of low-cost systems such as the Asus Eee PC.
Microsoft decides which operating systems run on specific hardware. As a result, business and home users will be subject to different rules, and most corporate clients wanting to ditch Vista can do so for free.
The country's largest PC supplier, Hewlett-Packard, will offer Windows XP free to its business clients.
"HP will be offering the downgrade to Windows XP from Windows Vista on our business desktops, notebooks and workstations until July 30 next year," Rob Kingston, HP Australia's PSG Commercial Products manager, said. "We won't be charging our customers for this."
But HP's home users will have to fend for themselves, as all consumer machines come with Vista. Should they choose to install Windows XP instead, they would have to bear the cost.
At Dell Australia, the purchase of a Vostro desktop, laptop or XPS gaming system will incur a downgrade fee of between $US20 ($21) and $US50.
Lenovo Australia says select Vista models will ship with an XP CD.
"Microsoft will allow us to continue putting these CDs in the box until January 31, 2009," a Lenovo spokesman said. "However, the majority of PCs we ship don't have the CD. If a customer purchases a Vista system and wishes to downgrade, they can contact our help centre."
Lenovo customers will have to pay $82.50 for the XP CD.
Asus Australia has no plans to charge customers to switch from Vista to XP. "XP is not included in the package so this is based on customers sourcing their own valid XP CD and licence," the company's notebook product manager, Albert Liang, said.
"The licensing agreement for the Eee PC is separate to the standard Windows PCs and notebooks agreement, therefore the June 30 deadline does not affect the Eee PC."
According to Microsoft Australia, customers will receive mainstream support for Windows XP until April 2009. "They will be able to receive extended support under Microsoft's extended support policy until April 2014," a spokesperson said.