In addition, the program comes pre-installed on all HP computers, and Easybits has just signed a similar deal with a rival computer maker that should see Magic Desktop being pre-installed on 10 million computers by the end of 2008, Mr Jolstad says.

BBC: Magic Desktop browser

At the same time, computer makers such as Dell and HP have been exploiting clauses in the licensing terms that let them rollback machines with Vista pre-installed to the older operating system.

BBC: Downgrade plan for Windows 7 PCs