When asked to clarify the situation by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, the Microsoft representative emphasized that this capability was nothing new. Redmond dismissed any attempt to position Windows XP downgrades as a hedge bet against Windows 7 uptake failure as spurious. This 'business as usual' position was reinforced by Microsoft. Volume license customers have long had the ability to use their licenses for any prior equivalent version of Windows-in principle allowing an organization to continue to install NT 4 or even Windows 95 if it preferred-and the continuation of this policy with Windows 7 is just business as usual.
The announcement does not, however, represent any great shift in licensing policy. This latest extension to XP's availability has, inevitably, made the headlines, as if Microsoft's decision to allow users to fall back to the venerable system is a judgment of Windows 7 before it even ships. Customers who purchase a system from a qualifying OEM with a version of Windows 7 that they don't want will be able to fall back to equivalent versions of Vista or XP.
Microsoft has announced this week that it will continue to offer downgrade options to both volume licensing customers and end-users when Windows 7 ships.
