Guys, Im purchasing dozen of new notebooks that comes with Windows 7 Pro. The problem now is in order for the notebook can be used in my environment is to downgrade the OS to Win XP. MY win 7 is OEM and my XP is OPL. Can I downgrade the OS? is it legal? I tried to ask question at microsoft website but it seems like there is no way to ask them questions. Asking the reseller will take me 2 weeks for an answer.... Anyone can help? tqvm...

Although not really a downgrade, as long as you haven't reached your license limit with XP then you can install it on the laptops; an actual downgrade option would be at the discretion of the Mfg - you could always ask them, they might provide you with the media for a small fee. If the laptops will be identical models you should probably create at least one set of Windows 7 recovery disks for them so that you can go back to it when you're ready to move up. One set of disks can be used for all the laptops, as long as they're from the same Mfg.

Hi Bob, Thanks for the info. I have 2 more question if you could help? 1. Is there a way to unactivate Office 2010 OPL license and windows 7 license which already installed in a PC?

There's no such thing as deactivation really. If they're retail versions, and a volume license is certainly that, just install and activate them again. This is assuming that the original installation is no longer valid - ie. the machine is dead or has been repurposed with a different OS and software. Worst case, you may have to use phone activation instead of the Internet. If they're OEM copies then they're pretty much tied to that particular machine and can't be installed on any other - the exception to this is if you were to install them on the exact same model of computer, Windows would think it's the same PC and would allow you to do this.

On Thu, 7 Apr 2011 01:42:12 +0000, Ross Rock Rost wrote: Guys, Im purchasing dozen of new notebooks that comes with Windows 7 Pro. The problem now is in order for the notebook can be used in my environment is to downgrade the OS to Win XP. MY win 7 is OEM and my XP is OPL. Can I downgrade the OS? is it legal? I tried to ask question at microsoft website but it seems like there is no way to ask them questions. There is no way to downgrade. However you can clean install Windows XP on it. There's no problem with legality, but there may well be a problem (especially with notebooks) with the computer not supporting XP. I strongly recommend that before doing anything else, you check with the notebook's manufacturer as to whether this will work. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP