Editing Downgrade (section)

{{Short description|Reverting software/hardware back to an older version: opposite of upgrade}}
{{About|downgrading computer software|information about downward slopes|grade (slope)|information about downgrading of stocks|securities research}}
{{Refimprove|date=November 2009}}
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{{Wiktionary}}
In computing, '''downgrading''' refers to reverting software (or hardware) back to an older version; '''downgrade''' is the opposite of [[upgrade]].  Programs may need to be downgraded to remove introduced [[software bug|bug]]s, restore useful removed features, and to increase speed and/or ease of use. The same can occur with [[machine]]ry.

An example of a downgraded program is [[Gmax]], a downgraded version of [[3ds max]] used by professional computer graphics artists, free to download and simplified for ease of use.

The term "downgrade" became especially popularized during the days of [[Windows Vista]], with users wanting to return to, or downgrade to (with some even calling it an "upgrade") [[Windows XP]] due to Vista's performance and familiarity issues.<ref>InfoWorld [http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/bursting-vista-sales-bubble-268 Bursting the Vista sales bubble: metrics show 35% of enterprise-class users downgrade from Vista to XP], Retrieved on 2009-12-20</ref>

Another reason could be that the user's applications do not support their new OS and they want to revert to an older version.