[PCWorld]

Post your comments for No Change in XP Plan Despite Ballmer Comment, Microsoft Says here

[pcguru]

Um, what customers and partners has HE been listening to? All over the 'net I'm reading where users want XP, not Vista. I know Microsoft doesn't want to hear that, but it seems to be a fact. To say they're going ahead with their plans for XP tells me they're trying to force Vista on users. Strangely enough, Ubuntu 8.04 was released today. :-)

[Sarsfield]

I am on a listserv of about 300 economists and it is nearly unanimous that they plan to stay with XP. Fortunately, I just replaced a computer in the office and Dell loaded XP on it for me. My question now is when we buy another computer and are forced to accept Vista, will I be able to take my XP OS disk and replace the Vista OS with XP?

[aussiepunk]

Sarsfield: Your Windows Vista license is downgradeable to Windows XP. You are fully within your rights to install Windows XP and use your Vista Product key to make XP work. The kicker is the computer manufacturer's support for XP. Sony is terrible about supporting XP drivers on a machine that came with Vista. HP/Lenovo(IBM)/Dell are much better about it and tend to have XP/Vista drivers for most of their hardware.

[rickoh]

Mykrosoft knows everyone still wants xp.....thats where the $$$ is.
Im willing to bet my house xp will be available for the next 10 years.
If not....I will fix my own windows xp....Vista hasnt worked since day one...and still dosnt work.
If M$ is really customer dependant....nothing will change....in fact...(I used to be sykick...) I can see windows vista being the OS that gets cancelled....and xp will be the main stay until they build an OS that actually works...

[mphenterprises]

aussiepunk said:

Your Windows Vista license is downgradeable to Windows XP. You are fully within your rights to install Windows XP and use your Vista Product key to
make XP work.

>
>




Hi Aussie and welcome to the PCWorld Communities. :D




I am not sure to what you refer by the quoted statement; however, a Windows Vista license will not work for a Windows XP installation and vice versa. When it comes to Windows Vista, people either hate it or love it. I am within the latter. I have had Windows Vista Ultimate installed within my Dual Boot system since December 22, 2007 and have not one issue. That being said, if I were running a single boot system and wanted to downgrade to Windows XP, I could not just use my Windows Vista license. Each COA (Certificate of Authenticity) is valid for each individual Operating System.

If you would like to see how this forum recommends a downgrade from Windows Vista to Windows XP, please review this WikiDocument: {document:id=1097}.

[Sarsfield]

I did try Vista on one computer and while I could probably live with it, some of my other hardware could not. An example is my Brother multi function printer/scanner/fax/copier among others. It was just too much trouble to wait and hope for new patches to make them work again, so I put XP back on that computer and everything once again works well. That was something MS should have taken care of in the original release.

[aussiepunk]

That's strange. I just read this article

http://www.computerw...18&pageNumber=1

And they swear that you can activate XP over the phone with a Vista License in front of you. I wouldn't even do that. I could SWEAR that I bought a retail HP computer with Vista Business OEM on it, grabbed a holographic Windows XP Pro SP2 disk, then used the Windows Vista Product Key and it worked for XP. This was about 6 months ago so my memory could be serving me incorrectly.

[rconaway]

We have been a Microsoft centric operation for 15 years. Sadly, we are now implementing more Linux based equipment also. I don't understand when a manufacturer has a successful product, why they want to change that and go to another product. For smaller VAR's like myself, the training costs are enormous for little or no benefit. Not to mention that equipment that could easily run my operation for several more years now has to be replaced. If my car works, why should I have to buy a new car that is still limited to 75mph. Most companies have settled in and are very productive by simply using Excel, Word, Explorer, and Outlook. How much horsepower does it take to use these applications?

To Bill, Steve, and the rest of the decision makers at Microsoft, I will eventually get some Vista machines when you can make it stable and convince me that is has some tangible benefit in the real world. Until then, I decide what we use in my company, not you.

[techne]

I began my computer use on Macs, sold Macs on campus and transitioned to PCs after leaving the education world in the mid-90s. From the 98 OS I transitioned to and hated the ME OS. I've shopped for a new computer, comparing Vista PCs and Macs, and I already know that my next will be a Mac.

[mphenterprises]

Okay, let's get some clarification here. First, since you stated that you already had a Windows XP CD, you..at one point...either purchased a separate copy of Windows XP or already had it from a previous installation. In a normal circumstance, how would you propose an average consumer to get a valid and legal copy of Windows XP and not have the Product Key to go with it. Any legal copy of Windows XP already have its own Product Key.

That being said, I read the article you referenced and this stood out to me, "How do I downgrade? Install a copy of Windows XP Professional with the product key that came with the copy, and then when you hit the activation screen -- which is near the end of the installation process -- select the activate by phone option rather than the online method. You'll likely end up talking with a live rep; tell him that you're downgrading from Vista to XP, and give him the Vista product key. The rep is supposed to walk you through the rest."

Now, your initial post said that it was a person's right to downgrade; however, at some point, a person would still have to have a valid and legal copy of Windows XP in order to use the method outlined within the article you referenced. More than likely, the Microsoft representative will ask you to confirm the validity of the Windows XP installation by providing the Product Key that came with Windows XP. If you have a valid copy of Windows XP with its own Product Key, why would you need to use the Vista Product Key downgrade?

I want to thank you for shedding light on this situation and frankly, I had no idea that Microsoft offered this option. Since this particular Discussion is regarding the article of no change in Windows XP plans, and if you feel the need to continue this particular discussion, there are so many other current Discussion to which this discussion can be continued. One that seems most fitting is here:

http://forums.pcworld.com/thread/23951

[msftbitesthebag]

Listen to customers? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha!
In the MSFT worldview, customers are just victims, hapless dogs to be kicked and reviled as slaves to the cult. Choice? Hahahahahhaahahahaha! If MSFT could knife everyone in the world and grab their wallets more easily than they can rob them through the bootloader chokehold they have on the manufacturers, there'd be a run on Ginsu knife sets. MSFT knows Vista is a horror and they don't care. They think they can make the market do what they want like a dog having its faced shoved into rotting meat by a psychotic owner. The dimwit from Duncan Hines will be surprised when the dog spins around and tears off his shriveled gonads.

[mathion]

Unless the money talks to Microsoft, they will go ahead with their plans regardless of the desires of the consumer. This is, was and will continue to be their Modus Operandi. They have never taken the needs of the average consumer into account based on the real world. They don't listen to anyone who has a contrary opinion. Why is this? Because they can.
I won't ever put Vista on my machine or on my client's machines. I don't recommend it to my clients. I expect to be making a lot of money in the next few years making custom XP machines once OEM's stop selling them. Vista has its advocates, but they are almost universally running it on extremely high-end machines. For the average consumer, and Enterprise IT Admin, that is too expensive an alternative. A petition with 100000 signers asking to extend XP's service life was sent to Balmer, but he refused to accept it. He has his goals set and they don't include the rest of the world. More's the pity for them when Linux takes over.

[msftbitesthebag]

The Boy Fuhrer from Duncan Hines knows what you want - and you want to write checks to HIM and THE CULT! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

[netguru1973]

I'd also like to know what "customers" Microsoft received their input from! I know I certainly was not asked for any input.

Microsoft needs to have some accountability brought against them. They released a Windows Millenium which was a flop, had all knids of problems, and their answer upgrade your O/S. No Microsoft! How about you broke it, YOU fix it! Now granted XP has been a significant improvement over earlier O/S's however here again we have another flop of an operating system in Windows Vista...and again Microsoft does NOTHING for it's customers.

This is absolutely ridiculous behavior from a vendor, and I certainly hope that they become the recipient of a class-action lawsuit for their lack of support and availability for fixing the junk that they produce.

You can get support if you want to pay for it; well Microsoft how about you pay me to install your crap operating system?

Microsoft is all about making sales, and lining their own wallets, at the expense of customers

[rconaway]

The nice part is that Ubuntu announced a new release today. Good for them. All I know is that many of the security upgrades in Vista are kind of useless for small businesses. I never thought I would say this before but for the first time in 17 years, we are now setting up a Linux Lab to assess utilization of Linux instead of Windows. By the time they get an operating system stable, they drop it. Unfortunately, I'm not going to hold my company to that type of stupidity and greed. We will now be offering Microsoft and Linux options to our clients. Good job Steve. Way to drive loyal resellers to look for other options to protect their clients from having to spend a whole bunch of wasted money. Even your biggest clients are saying, no way. Arrogance breeds contempt. My loyalty is no longer there.

[RNR19952]

LOL If Microsoft listened to their customers we would all have nothing to write about! And their would be a "classic" view in IE7, Office 2007, and Vista. Have you ever sat down with the technically challenged and tried to show them the "ribbon" in Office 2007. The first question I always get is "where's my toolbar?" How about the lack of one in IE 7? I think the "customers" Microsoft is referring to are HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, etc
They know by forcing customers to Vista their hardware sales will skyrocket.
You can run XP on a $500.00 PC, Vista at least $1500.00 for the same performance, now multiply that by all the people at your office.....

[kwjordan]

If it gets to the point where I can no longer have XP, and Vista is still the newest version of Windows, I swear I will try MacIntosh. If the next thing after Vista sucks like Vista, I will try MacIntosh. Vista Sucks!!! Microsoft is not God, regardless of the fact that they think so!

[coastie65]

I read about this in this morning's paper. Apparantly, Micro$oft is aware of the online blogs and communities ( PCWorld?) as well as at least one online petition. Judging by what they are seeing, they are apparantly reconsidering stopping sales of XP in June and may possibly keep selling XP until the next great OS is released in 2010 ( tentative date). Last I heard, Steve Balmer was at or near the top of the Micro$oft food chain, and for some Micro$oft flunkie to contradict him is a bit ludicrous in my opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt. coastie65

[eldernorm]

""If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter, but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments," Ballmer s"
Yep, they will listen, .... er when they get darn good and ready to. If then.
......... And like they say above, there are plenty of loop holes for MS to use if it wants to.
...... I say force everyone to use Vista .....right now. Lets let Vista sink like a rock or swim like a dead fish, right now.
en ... :-)