MSFT extends XP for life of Windows 7

Windows XP, which debuted in 2001, will continue to be with us for yet another decade. MSFT announced it would allow some Windows 7 customers to buy Windows XP "downgrade" licenses until January 2020. Initially the company planned to let Windows 7 customers downgrade to Windows XP only through April 2010, but that end-date was quickly extended until October 2011. Now, the company says it will extend the downgrade option through the entire Windows 7 support cycle, which is scheduled to last until January 2020.

The move is intended to appease business customers, many of whom skipped an upgrade cycle by ignoring the widely panned Windows Vista. Though the software giant said its customers are moving quickly to adopt the newest Windows version, it acknowledged that some still want the option to downgrade. A full 74% of Microsoft's business customers are still using the outdated Windows XP, Windows marketing head Tami Reller said this week at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C.

The extension means that Windows XP will live for 19 years -- about four times longer than most computers last. For context, downgrading to XP at the end of this decade would be like a current Windows user downgrading to Windows 3.1, which went on sale in 1992.

MSFT will cease supporting XP in April 2014.

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