Dell reinstates Windows XP

After announcing in January that it was ditching XP in favour of supplying Windows Vista with all of its new machines, Dell has caved in to customer demand and agreed to once begin offering Microsoft’s older OS with its new hardware.

The BBC reports that Dell says that its feedback site had been ‘swamped with calls’ demanding XP’s reinstatement. New customers will now be able to choose between the Home and Professional versions of XP on six of Dell’s machines.

Analysts have speculated that the reason consumers were keen on XP was because it was familiar and it worked well with many of the digital peripherals they owned.

In response to the move, Microsoft said that Dell was responding to a ‘small minority’ of customers who had a very ‘specific’ request.