OEMs are no longer likely to offer PCs that, on first boot, give the user a one-time choice of Microsoft operating systems (OSs). Known as "dual install," the practice typically gives users the option of selecting Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 Professional when they start up a new machine for the first time. The end of dual installs could make it somewhat more complicated for companies that have standardized on an older OS to set up new PCs.

OEM Licensing Change

Dual installs are likely to disappear because of a change in Windows licensing for OEMs. Microsoft formerly allowed OEMs that configured a PC for dual install to pay for only a single version of the OS, even though two were installed on the PC. Now, however, OEMs that want to offer a choice of Microsoft OSs will need to license each copy on a PC. Since few OEMs are likely to do so, customers who want to use Windows 2000 Professional will have to either special order Windows 2000 Professional or delete Windows XP and install Windows 2000 on new PCs. (OEMs remain free to ship Windows and a non-Microsoft OS as a result of the consent decree that ended the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust action against the company.)

Kurt Kolb, general manager of Microsoft’s OEM business group, says few OEMs offered dual installs because it delayed OS installation until the customer actually started the computer, resulting in a more complex out-of-the-box experience. In addition, the end-user license agreement for OEM versions of Windows XP Professional permits customers to downgrade the OS supplied by the OEM to an earlier business desktop OS. (Previous license agreements did not allow this.) As a result, Microsoft decided to stop licensing dual installs.

The change means that any customer who purchases a new PC and wants to use Windows 2000 Professional will have to ask the OEM for a special configuration, possibly at a higher price: most OEMs offer only Windows XP as the standard configuration on new PCs. Alternatively, the customer can start up Windows XP, then format the hard disk and install their own copy of Windows 2000 on the machine, but that option will be more time consuming than selecting Windows 2000 from a startup screen and loading it from setup files already present on the PC’s hard drive.