April 7, 2009 by Matt Thomas
Microsoft has announced that customers buying computers with Windows 7, the new version of the world’s most popular operating system, installed will be allowed the option of downgrading the system. Downgrade options are a fairly longstanding feature that Microsoft has allowed as part of their license on particular versions of the OS for years now, though the option only gained notoriety after the release of Vista.
Vista was the first operating system that saw people taking advantage of this option in significant numbers, so many that computer sellers began advertising this option, even going as far as to sell pre downgraded machines to customers. At the time the fact that so many people would choose a former generation of a product was taken as a shocking indictment of the troubled OS and, Microsoft would argue, did a lot of damage to the system’s reputation.
The question for Microsoft will be whether or not that reputation hit will spill over to Windows 7. Has Vista caused enough of a problem for people that they will be wary of a brand new system, or will people be willing to wipe the slate clean with the new Windows? Only time will tell.
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