Rumors are flying that Microsoft is extending the date to downgrade to XP

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.