Windows 7 SP1 means end of XP downgrade rights

Last year, Microsoft said that customers could downgrade new machines purchased with Windows 7 Professional to the older Windows XP Professional for a limited period. The deal ends 18 months after the introduction of Windows 7 -- in other words, in late April 2011 -- or when Microsoft launches Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), whichever comes first.

Nearly two months ago, Microsoft acknowledged it's working on Windows 7 SP1. It has not yet set a release timetable, however.

"So the clock is ticking down on that offer, after which time the only option for non-Software Assurance customers to deploy Windows XP is to use Windows XP Mode," said Al Gillen, an analyst with IDC, referring to Windows 7 Professional's built-in virtualized version of Windows XP.

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Corporations that subscribe to Software Assurance (SA) -- MIcrosoft's annuity-like upgrade guarantee program -- or purchase Windows through volume licensing plans have downgrade rights from any edition, including Windows 7, to any previous version going as far back as Windows 95.

Calling SP1 an "important milestone for customers" because of the impending end of downgrade-to-XP rights, Gillen noted that the service pack will have relatively little impact on enterprise plans to deploy the new operating system.

"Historically, classic customer deployment behavior for new Windows client operating systems was to wait for the first service pack to arrive," Gillen said in a research note published yesterday.

That's no longer the case, he said, echoing opinions expressed earlier by other analysts, including Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft and Diane Hagglund of Dimensional Research.

"The Windows patching process ... has changed the rules of the game for many customers," Gillen argued. "The continuous stream of patches, over time, delivers a significant portion of service pack content."

Recent surveys conducted by IDC with IT professionals and end users showed that budget limitations and application compatibility were the biggest concerns about migrating to Windows 7, not the lack of a service pack.

Although Microsoft originally wanted to limit Windows 7-to-Windows XP downgrade rights to just six months after the release of the former, it quickly backtracked last June after another analyst, Michael Silver of Gartner Research, called the plan a "real mess." Instead, said Microsoft, it would allow downgrades to Windows XP until 18 months went by, or until it released Windows 7 SP1.

Although consumers may have little reason to want to downgrade Windows 7 -- the operating system has received favorable reviews and by all accounts has been a huge success -- businesses often want to standardize on a single operating system edition to simplify machine management.

Several major computer makers continue to sell new PCs with a factory-installed downgrade to Windows XP from Windows 7. Dell, for example, offers downgrades on some Latitude notebooks as well as its Vostro line of business desktops.

Once Microsoft releases Windows 7 SP1, customers will be able to downgrade only to Vista Business.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address isgkeizer@ix.netcom.com.

Ensure 90% of Windows 7 security by Eliminating admin rights

According to BeyondTrust, a provider of Privileged Access Lifecycle Management solutions. The removal of administrator rights from Windows users is a mitigating factor for 90 per cent of Critical Windows 7 Vulnerabilities,

Companies migrating to Windows 7 will have to implement a desktop Privileged Identity Management solution in order to lower the risks from un-patched Microsoft vulnerabilities without affecting their users' ability to operate smoothly.

BeyondTrust aids in the elimination of the risk of intentional, accidental and indirect misuse of privileges on desktops and servers. The company offers globally proven solutions that can enhance security and compliance without impacting productivityProtection from exploitation

BeyondTrust research clearly indicates that companies removing administrator rights can protect against the exploitation of 90 per cent of critical Windows 7 vulnerabilities reported to date; 100 per cent of Microsoft Office vulnerabilities reported in 2009; 94 per cent of Internet Explorer and 100 per cent of Internet Explorer 8 vulnerabilities reported in 2009; and about 64 per cent of all Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in 2009.

Steve Kelley, EVP of corporate development, noted the increasing danger faced by enterprises with respect to zero-day attacks. Cyber criminal are always trying to exploit new vulnerabilities and don't give much chance to companies for developing and deploying the patches.

Adequate protection

The report indicates the importance of restricting administrator rights in protecting against all these types of threats. Kelley added that all those companies looking to migrate to Windows 7 should know that despite enhanced security features on the new operating systems, better controls for administrative rights are required to provide adequate protection.

Readers of BeyondTrust 2009 Microsoft Vulnerability Analysis report will get useful insight about all the published vulnerabilities of Microsoft in 2009 and Windows 7 to date.

The report quantifies the effectiveness of removing administrator rights for mitigating Microsoft vulnerabilities and indicates that the vast majority of these share the same best practice advice in the "Mitigating Factors" portion of Microsoft's security bulletins.

According to Microsoft, users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.