An interesting feature of the soon-to-be-released Windows 7 is the inclusion of Windows XP Mode. This is basically a virtual machine running Windows XP and it's provided to enable you to run applications in Windows 7 that cannot be run normally. There aren't actually that many XP programs that won't run in in Vista, but if you do have one and it's prevented you from upgrading, you can upgrade to Windows 7 safe in the knowledge that you can still run them using the Windows XP Mode feature.
Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to use XP Mode in Windows 7 because there are some specific system requirements. For a start it is only for Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, and Windows 7 Enterprise. (The most popular version, at least among consumers, is likely to be Windows 7 Home Premium.) In addition to this it requires a CPU with the Intel Virtualization Technology or AMD-V feature turned on and enabled in the system BIOS.
Some people (Apple Mac fanatics are the worst) have criticised Microsoft and are saying that they've shot themselves in the foot with this feature because no-one knows whether the processor in their PC has Intel Virtualization Technology or AMD-V. They say that many Windows 7 users won't be able to use it and therefore the feature is pointless. Of course, some people won't be able to use it, but there are good alternatives. XP Mode is actually Windows Virtual PC, which is a new version of the old Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 utility. Virtual PC 2007 has been given away free for ages by Microsoft. It runs Windows XP just fine and the hardware requirements are minimal - an x64-based or an x86-based computer with a 400 MHz or faster (1 GHz recommended) processor with L2 cache. So anyone can run XP using Virtual PC 2007, provided, of course, you have a Windows CD to install it from.
Windows Virtual PC is the 2009 edition of Virtual PC 2007 and naturally it makes use of the advanced virtualisation features of modern microprocessors. You can use it to run various versions of Windows in Windows 7 and it's not limited to just XP. However, for those people that don't have the right version of Windows 7 or the right hardware, there is always the older 2007 edition or VirtualBox. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X and you can run any version of Windows on any operating system. XP in vista, Vista in XP, 7 in Vista, Vista in 7, and Windows 7 on an Apple Mac or Linux machine. It's a great program and it's free. So don't worry about XP Mode because there are lots of other options available.
Sunday, 17 May 2009
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