[German]A brief information for users who want or need to downgrade from Windows 10 to a previous version of Windows. I have received a newsletter from an Swiss OEM with various information that might be of interest to administrators.
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At this point I would like to thank blog reader Uwe K., who sent me a note about the bluechip-TECHnews newsletter. In the (deleted) (German) bluechip discusses the Windows 10 support extension. I had discussed this in the blog post Windows 10 Support extended to 30 months (sometimes).
Costs for Windows 7 Extended Security Updates
I also mentioned the offer of extended support for Windows 7 to 2023 in the blog post Wow! Windows 7 get extended support until January 2023. What's new for me is the cost statement. Here's what the Swiss OEM wrote:
For Windows 7 users, there are … security updates available until January 2023. The Extended Security Updates (ESU) fee is 75% of the original license price and is available only to customers who have purchased Pro or Enterprise Edition through a volume program.
This information may be of interest to one or another administrator who must run Windows 7 SP1 from January 2020 in an enterprise environment.
Windows 10 downgrade right
The second information from the newsletter, which may be of interest to some blog readers, addresses the right to downgrade a machine with a Windows 10 license to an earlier version of Windows. Microsoft's downgrade right allows customers to use an older version of Windows instead of the current operating system on a machine with a Windows 10 license. This makes it possible to avoid compatibility problems. The newsletter says:
This applies not only to corporate customers, but also to private customers.
However, the prerequisite is that the Windows 10 license also includes this downgrade right, which is not the case for Windows 10 Home (this SKU is not downgradeable). A Windows 10 Pro on the other hand is downgradeable to Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1 Pro.
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Windows 10 Downgrade Right Deadlines
Swiss OEM bluechip points out in its newsletter that this downgrade right is limited in time according to the Microsoft license conditions. It expires at the end of Extended Support for the Windows version used.
- For Windows 7 Professional, the downgrade right ends on 01/14/2020.
- However, a downgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro is possible until 01/14/2023.
bluechip also writes that OEMs are only entitled to preload Windows 7 Professional on delivered machines until October 31, 2018.
However, a customer may still downgrade to an earlier version of Windows after this date under licensing law. However, he requires both a data carrier and a key for this. These are provided by the respective OEMs. Further details can be read directly in the (German) (deleted).
Similar articles:
Windows 10 Support extended to 30 months (sometimes)
Wow! Windows 7 get extended support until January 2023
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