June 18, 2008 is the last day for you to place a regular order with Dell for a computer to be pre-loaded with Windows XP Pro. After the 18th you’ll have to exercise your “downgrade rights” by purchasing a qualifying machine with a qualifying copy of Vista and specifying that you want to downgrade to XP (and in some instances pay a $20 – $50 fee). Confused? Keep reading for more information that explains the process.

Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate have what Microsoft calls “Downgrade Rights.”
Downgrade Rights means that anyone with a Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate operating system can downgrade to Windows XP Professional provided they have the media for Windows XP Professional. Customers may use one operating system at any single point in time (cannot run both operating systems simultaneously unless an additional license is purchased). For customers who decide to exercise Downgrade Rights on their own, however, please note that Dell will only support the factory-installed operating system. Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Premium do not have this option, as they are not capable of downgrading to Windows XP.

Though Dell states that you must have your own copy of XP to downgrade, they do offer a program where you can pay them to do the downgrade dance for you. As you might be sensing, the process is not without a few twists and turns. More downgrade rights (DGR) info is available from the Dell site as well as an official looking Microsoft PDF.

Dell has a blog entry on their site that does a pretty good job of explaining the different issues concerning your downgrade rights:

You will be able to purchase computers pre-loaded with Windows XP from Dell up until June 18, 2008.

After June 18, 2008 customers can purchase select systems that include a license for Windows Vista Business or Vista Ultimate, and have the OS downgraded to XP Professional, which Dell installs.

EXCLUSIONS: Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Basic are NOT part of the downgrade rights program, NOR is XP Home (which you may not downgrade to).

Dell systems that are part of the downgrade rights program are:
– Latitude laptops, OptiPlex desktops and Dell Precision workstations
– Dell Vostro laptops and desktops
– Dell Gaming systems – the XPS 630 desktop and XPS M1730 laptop
(Note – Vista Ultimate is the only DGR OS option for these systems)

Dell offers the downgrade right program service at no charge on corporate client PCs, and charges a fee ($20-$50) on Vostro and XPS gaming systems.

Microsoft has stated the ability to provide the Windows XP recovery media ends on Jan. 31, 2009. After this PC manufacturers/system builders like Dell cannot send out Windows XP media.

There will be a few exceptions to this date – for example, some Volume License customers who get images installed through custom factory install (CFI) can continue to receive Vista licensed systems with XP installed.

So what does a customer get with Dell’s downgrade rights program service?

For the XP Professional that is installed under DGR:
– A hard drive based solution (software) to restore the Dell system back to the original configuration.
– A physical disk (media) to allow the reinstallation of the original XP Pro OEM operating system on a Dell computer (available until Jan 31, 2009).
– A physical disk (media) to allow the reinstallation of XP drivers, utilities and diagnostics on a Dell computer.

And for the Vista Business or Ultimate that was purchased with DGR:
– A Vista Certificate of Authentication (COA) affixed to the computer
– A physical disk (media) to allow the installation of the purchased Vista Business or Ultimate OEM operating system on a Dell computer.
– A physical disk (media) to allow the installation of Vista drivers, utilities and diagnostics on a Dell computer.

These downgrade rights will end in January 2009.

Different computer manufacturers have their own policies. For example the Microsoft imposed deadline date for sales of XP Pro to stop is June 30, 2008. However many computer retailers (such as Dell) will implement an earlier cutoff date to allow for shipping lead times.

What I’ve outlined here are only those policies as implemented by Dell. Check with your hardware vendor to see what their specific policies are regarding downgrades from Microsoft Vista to Microsoft Windows XP Pro. Note that most of the program rules are dictated by Microsoft’s licensing policies and not those of individual hardware vendors.

Below are links to the Dell site as well as the official Microsoft PDF that spell out the downgrade rights.

Link: Microsoft Downgrade Program PDF
Link: Dell Blog – Life After Windows XP
Link: Dell Vista XP Translation Site