As June 30th approaches, are you stocking up on Windows XP licenses?

Microsoft may be cutting off Windows XP sales on June 30th, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to walk into a store and pick up a PC running the venerable operating system over the July 4th holiday weekend. That’s because there are a whole bunch of loopholes in the cutoff date. PC World has a rundown, but here’s an overview:

• If you’re a PC maker with a bunch of Windows XP licenses lying around, nobody’s going to stop you from putting them on any computers you sell from now to eternity
• If you’re a PC maker selling computers with Windows Vista Business or Ultimate, you can offer customers a “downgrade” option
• Microsoft has made an exception through 2010 for PC makers selling low cost desktops and laptops meeting strict requirements (the hard drives can’t be too large, the processor’s can’t be too fast, etc.)

On the other hand, if you want to buy a retail copy of Windows XP, it looks like your time is running out. If you think you might need a usable copy of Windows XP in the future, now might be a good time to buy a copy.

But we’re going to assume that a whole lot of people aren’t paying much attention to the deadline and will wind up downloading bootleg copies of Windows XP if they need to reinstall their PC operating system sometime this fall.