Party's Over, Windows XP: No More on New PCs
News
By
Marcus Yam
Published
Time to go modern like.
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Looking to buy a new PC with Windows XP? Two things:
- Get with the times
- It's too late
Alright, so maybe you prefer your new PCs with Windows XP – that's just a matter of personal preference, but Microsoft's mandated that new PCs from here on must be preloaded with something newer than an OS from 2001.
On the first birthday of Windows 7, PC makers are now no longer allowed to load Windows XP on new PCs – which in this case are mostly comprised of netbooks.
This does not affect the rules for Windows XP downgrade licenses, which will carry on until 2015, according to ZDnet.
Which version of Windows would you prefer to run on a netbook?
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TOPICS
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
93 Comments
Comment from the forums
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LuckyDucky7 And maybe if Windows 7 Starter wasn't so terrible (no changing the desktop wallpaper? Come on!), we'd actually want to switch.Reply -
liveonc Long live XP downgrade! I'd rather have a Vista/XP if I really wanted XP & it's a good way of selling Vista when Windows 7 is what people want.Reply -
mitch074 A free one - so that I don't have to ask for a refund on the OS when I install a Linux distro on it!Reply -
Haserath XP is still better than 7 for netbooks. 7 uses 1.5GB just sitting on the desktop, that is way too much for a netbook.Reply
Linux would be better than both for a netbook anyway.