Round Rock (TX) - Retail and direct OEM sales of Windows XP will be drying up by the end of this month, so it should not be too surprising that vendors are pushing out their XP inventory this month. Dell has added three final systems to its XP lineup, which customers will be able to order until June 18.

We have received word from the manufacturer that Dell’s last XP systems added will be the Inspiron 530s (from $549) and 530 (from $799), as well as the Inspiron 1520 notebook (from $799). All systems come with Windows XP Home Edition, Intel processors and at least 2 GB of system memory. The models XPS 210 and XPS 630 models also remain available until midnight June 18.

Dell said that the June 18 date has been put in place to meet Microsoft’s June 30 last-day-to-ship OEM Windows XP deadline. After June 18, buyers of certain products can still get Windows XP via detour: Dell will be offering a downgrade service to Windows XP Professional for customers who are purchasing the desktop XPS 630 and 720 H2C or the notebook M1730. However, buyers will need to purchase Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate to be eligible for the downgrade.

Dell currently offers eleven different Latitude and Precision notebooks as well as ten desktops with Windows XP for business users and corporate customers. The June 18 deadline also applies to the business segment and while Dell pitches Vista heavily, the company offers its corporate customers "downgrade rights" that are included with a purchase of Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate licenses. The manufacturer said that it "has the ability to exercise "Windows Vista downgrade rights" on your behalf in the factory if your business is still reliant upon Windows XP and you’d prefer to have Windows XP Professional preinstalled on your PCs.’

According to Microsoft’s life-cycle policy, Windows XP Home Edition, Professional, Tablet PC Edition, Professional x64 Edition and Media Center Edition will no longer be available to the direct OEM and retail channel after June 30, 2008. System builder licenses will be offered until January 31, 2009. Mainstream support for Windows XP willr emain available until April 14, 2009.

Microsoft said will continue to sell Windows XP in a stripped-down version, primarily targeting manufacturers from Far East and their entry level products, such as the Acer One, Asus Eee PC, MSI Wind and others.

Source : Tom's Hardware US