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Several days ago, on October 3, we reported about a rumor that Microsoft was going to extend the downgrade date to XP from January 31, 2009 to July 31, 2006 - a total of 6 more months.

InformationWeek had e-mailed a Microsoft representative to check if the rumor had any truth in it, and a spokesman replied saying:

“As more customers make the move to Windows Vista, we want to make sure that they are making that transition with confidence and that it is as smooth as possible. Providing downgrade media for a few more months is part of that commitment.“

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The Register seems to have started an interesting little rumor that despite all their recent ads and millions spent to lure users to Vista, Microsoft is actually extending the time OEMs have to sell PCs that come with Vista with the support to downgrade to XP.  The deadline had been January 31, 2009, and it has supposedly been extended by six months to July 31, 2009.

The whole extension hasn’t had any official confirmation by anyone in Microsoft or any OEM, just a “Reg reader” was sourced in the original article.  Guess we’ll see.  In a way, it would make sense if Microsoft is trying to keep XP available for companies until the release of Windows 7, expected to come out sometime in early 2010 or thereabouts.  I’m sure this move (if true), would make several who have been dragging their feet on the transition to Vista very happy.

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Microsoft is offering free support to Vista users who have encountered problems when updating their installations to the recently released Service Pack 1. What was normally offered free by Microsoft to those who purchased the retail product is now also available even for users who have OEM copy installations of the operating system.

The free support was caused by the numerous complaints from users who have installed the Vista SP1 update on their machine and then later on experienced endless reboot cycles and struggled with broken Vista application. Under the support plan, Vista users will have three options to get the free support. Users can either send an email and Vista support staff will reply within one business day, chat online with Vista customer support, or call the customer support hotline. The last option though is applicable only to Vista users who have software assurance agreement, professional contract, TechNet subscription or MSDB subscription or for those who belongs to the Microsoft Partner Program.

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