Windows Boss Discusses 'Downgrade Rights' for XP, Windows 7 Compatibility

Published: June 25, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Despite the brouhaha over XP's end-of-life and what some view as a forced marched to a still-green Windows Vista, Microsoft refused to yield, and will end most (but not all) XP sales on Monday. In a letter to Windows users, Bill Veghte, the head of the Windows division, explained that customers can exercise their "downgrade rights" to move back to XP, but stressed that most users should stick with Vista. He also commented on how the episode is affecting developers' ability to address compatibility issues with Windows 7.

The PC industry has been fraught with uncertainty and doubt over the last few months as D-Day for Windows XP approached, which spelled a Vista-only future for most Windows PCs. By yesterday morning, more than 209,000 people had signed the petition to save Windows XP at InfoWorld's www.savexp.com Web site, which was only a few thousand more than had signed it two months ago, perhaps signaling a resignation to the inevitable.

On Monday, Microsoft responded to its not-so adoring fans with an open letter from Veghte, whose official title is corporate vice president of the Windows Business division. In the letter, Veghte explained what's going to happen on June 30, and what rights customers have.

"For businesses small to large, buying Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate provides the option to use Windows XP Professional through a customer benefit known as 'downgrade rights,'" he writes. "Downgrade rights are also available to all business customers that license Windows, such as Windows Vista Enterprise, through our Microsoft Volume Licensing programs. In addition, some of our OEM partners are planning to offer services designed to help business customers that buy these versions of Windows Vista on new PCs to exercise their downgrade rights. This is a great value because it lets you use Windows XP on new PCs today if you need it and then make the move to take advantage of the additional capabilities of Windows Vista when you are ready, without having to pay for an upgrade."

Windows XP will also be available to consumers who buy low-end PCs, called NetBooks or NetTops. XP Home and XP Starter Edition will be available for these PCs, Veghte says. Additionally, Windows XP will be available to the system builders (or "white box" builders) through January 31.

Veghte defended Vista and the security improvements it brought to the Windows platform, while acknowledging it suffered from some application and device driver incompatibility problems. Lots of work has been done to fix those problems, he writes, and today Vista supports about 77,000 components and devices, which is more than twice as many as Vista supported at launch.

"As a result, most devices work on most [Vista] systems," he writes. "With the exception of devices that are very old, the vast majority of compatibility and driver issues have been addressed and customers are seeing a much improved user experience."

Veghte says these types of problems won't happen with Windows 7, the codename for the next version of Windows that Veghte says is on track for delivery in January 2010.

"You've also let us know you don't want to face the kinds of incompatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista," he writes. "As a result, our approach with Windows 7 is to build off the same core architecture as Windows Vista so the investments you and our partners have made in Windows Vista will continue to pay off with Windows 7."

Microsoft has dropped hints about what it might do with Windows, and Veghte's letter only vaguely references them. Obviously, Windows 7 can't be just like Windows Vista--just like Vista wasn't just like XP--or there would be no new features to drive adoption (although it would solve those pesky compatibility problems). They may share the same "core architecture," but that doesn't guarantee compatibility.

Some have suspected that Microsoft will utilize some form of desktop virtualization technology to enable customers to run applications designed for older versions of Windows safely on the new operating system. Microsoft has such a product in the SoftGrid desktop virtualization, which allows Windows client environments--along with all the applications and data--to be streamed out to the user as needed.

One of the primary benefits of SoftGrid is minimizing compatibility problems by creating virtual sandboxes, where DLLs and executables from one environment have no effect on other environments. Unfortunately, Microsoft has kept this product mostly in the lab; it's available only to volume customers through the Desktop Optimization Pack.

While Microsoft succeeded in its primary goal with Vista--beefing up security to quiet the howls of critics--the operating system has been a commercial flop. So far it's failed to attract much attention from developers, which only serves to segment and confuse the market. Hopefully, the smart people in Redmond will find some clever use of virtualization technology to address these related compatibility and developer fragmentation problems before Windows 7 comes to market.

RELATED STORIES

Developers Cool to Vista, Evans Study Finds

Message for Windows XP Fans Seeking to Save OS: Get Over It

                     Post this story to del.icio.us
               Post this story to Digg
    Post this story to Slashdot