I Just Bought a Vista Machine Can I Legally Downgrade to XP Pro?? Plus Some other MS licensing questions. (ReRun)

HELL YEAH YOU CAN!

Don’t think for a second our favorite monopoly would ever let the competition hone in on unhappy upgraders! We have heard this question many times in one form or another since Vista’s birth – and it usually involves people mentioning torrents and key gens. STOP right there and don’t go that route.

Seriously dude don’t do it to yourself. You don’t want to risk injecting malicious software into your OS before you even use it. There is plenty of time for that afterwards! We know all systems manufacturers and integrators are ONLY shipping Vista now and lot of IT shops have not yet adopted this new OS for one reason or another. You will be happy to know that Microsoft does have a policy regarding this and it keeps it buried pretty well.

Well wouldn’t you if you could sell more licenses because of it?

Microsoft has something called downgrade rights as you can see from the screenshot below and via this link here to the PDF.

So they tell you to install the Windows XP media with WHATEVER VALID key you have and then when activation fails you will need to call in to customer support and splain’ what you’ve done. The big dogs then go ahead and issue you some magic numbers that you punch in and just like that you are back in the game – The XP Game that is!

It seems that MS thinks that the HUGE surge in requests for these licenses are just because of conformity – I can safely say this is not true. Vista and office 2007 have a learning curve and requires end user training. XP is doing just fine for us so this is how we will be doing it for a little bit anyway. I hope there aren’t any 1000 machine roll outs!!! But either way don’t let them bully you into going out and tracking down XP licenses on-line call em’ on it and get what you deserve. We saw this page here geared toward Malaysian partner downgrades here. Questions comments? Hit us up! And read on below to see the 5 answers you didn’t know about licensing!

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From techNet: 3 of The 5 Most Popular Questions About MS Licensing – Click here to read all 5

• What downgrade rights does Windows Vista Business have? We have received this question countless times. We are able to answer this question quickly and accurately based on the OEM Vista Business Microsoft Software Licence Terms which state OEM Vista Business can be downgraded to Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Professional 64-Bit Edition and Windows XP Tablet-PC Edition.

• What media and key can I use when downgrading? Many partners and customers are aware that their MSLT/EULA/PUR permits them to downgrade, however we receive many questions about how customers can take advantage of these downgrade rights. We advise the customer that if their MSLT/EULA/PUR permits downgrade rights then they need to source the media and key themselves. They can use any legitimate Microsoft media that they own including FPP, OEM or Volume Licensing media and will need to use the appropriate key for the appropriate media.

• How are disaster recovery sites licensed? We receive many calls from partners and customers asking whether they need to acquire additional licences to create a disaster recovery site. We advise customers that all Microsoft software being used at a disaster recovery site needs to be licensed appropriately. The only exception to this rule is through the “Cold Back-Up Server for Disaster Recovery” Software Assurance benefit.

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