Dell Now Charging $150 For XP "Downgrade"

Dell customers wanting to "downgrade" their laptops or PCs from Windows Vista to Windows XP will now be hit with as much as a $150 surcharge, a fee which according to Computerworld.com is three times the maximum amount Dell charged last summer.

After XPs life cycle came to a close last summer Dell began offering XP downgrades to customers that were not ready to upgrade to Vista or were not fully satisfied with the new operating system. At that time the surcharge was $20 to $50 for XP. Today on the Dell site the option to downgrade from Windows Vista Business to Windows XP Professional will cost you anywhere from $120 to $150, depending on the system. For small business users wanting to avoid Vista Dell offers the Windows Vista Business bonus for $99. It should be noted that you do receive licenses for both Operating systems which gives customers the option of running XP now and transitioning to Vista when and if they’re ready.

Back in October we reported that Microsoft gave XP another reprieve allowing OEMs to offer an XP downgrade option for an additional 6 months. Those rights let OEM builders like Dell install Windows XP Professional instead of Vista, or along Vista giving the users the right to use either OS.

According to studies done last summer by market research firm Devil Mountain Software, nearly one third of all PCs purchased over the summer had been downgraded from Vista.