We should be able to request Recovery CD to downgrade Vista

According to
Microsoft Web site,
they said,
"OEM End User License Agreement (LICENSE TERMS)....
Rights to OEM versions of systems software are granted in
the OEM License Terms. The OEM License Terms for most
OEM versions of systems software do not grant downgrade
rights. The exception is the OEM License Terms for the
Windows® XP Professional operating system and the
Windows Vista™ Business and Windows Vista Ultimate
operating systems, which grant downgrade rights. See the
full text of the OEM License Terms for the specific downgrade
rights."


So, We should be able to have Recovery CD to downgrade Vista into XPP

 

That is very interesting, need to read the 'full text of the OEM license' to find out more though.
Considering Lenovo charges $30 more for XP Pro then Vista Home Premium, but Vista Business == XP Pro in price it makes sense.

I bought XP Pro, but if I knew I could have gotten Vista and the downgrade to XP I would have since I may need to move to Vista in the future.

 

It's not quite that straight forward. Read this link:
http://microsoft.blognewschannel.co...-offering-downgrade-options-from-vista-to-xp/

You hold the Vista license on the machine you bought. You must supply the other OS' install media. MS will supply the license. You install the pre-Vista OS, you try to activate, you call the 1-800-# they give you, and explain you are downgrading from Vista.

It's not Lenovo's responsibility at all. It's yours.

 

According to your link (PDF file from Microsoft), it is Lenovo's responsibility at all. They NEED provide the CD to downgrade.

"Q. Where do customers get the CD to install
the downgrade software?
A. End users must use a legally licensed version
of the specifi ed previous version of the Windows
desktop operating system to install the
downgrade software. The downgrade software
may be from the retail, OEM/System Builder, or
volume licensing channels."

Microsoft Downgrade Program File download

 

haha;
Yesterday, I called lenovo regarding this issue and they said "they don't believe you can do this."

I argued......


Finally, today, they posted we do have right to request Recovery XPP DVDs/CDs from them.

Lenovo Link

 

I just called Lenovo and ordered the Windows XP recovery CD's about 15 minutes ago.

Its hard to say what the whole story will be as I received conflicting information from the salesperson and support. The link from the Lenovo site implies you receive a set of XP pro recovery cd's with a preactivated OEM key. The salesperson and the MS document seem to say that the Vista license will be converted to an XP license for your OEM provided media and you will need to call Microsoft to activate XP with your Vista key (?). This also would imply that you will need to purchase an "upgrade" to Vista in the future. Maybe I'm misreading things...

Anyhow, Vista was driving me crazy so I called support and ordered the XP pro recovery CD's for no charge. The support person confirmed that the recovery CD would be for the T61p and would not require activation. The only thing I need to "accept" was that I would have to pay for Vista recovery CD's in the future if I wanted to go back to Vista. This didn't really seem to be a big deal as you can create them before you remove Vista.

The other thing I found out was that the MS office preload is NOT on the recovery cds... and who knows what else isn't. I asked what would happen if I needed to reinstall the application and I was told that I could download another try and buy from MS and use the same license key.

Anyhow... food for thought. I'll follow up once I receive the CD's.

 

How much did you pay?

 

I didn't have to pay anything.