XP Mode is ready, will be a free download on October 22
By Vlad Savov 
posted October 2nd 2009 6:29AM
posted October 2nd 2009 6:29AM
[Via Ars Technica; Thanks, Eugen]
posted October 2nd 2009 6:29AM
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First with an actual comment. When will XP die?
When people stop developing for it, and/or a more stable and functional alternative is offered.
7 is more stable as is Vista. My XP PC at work crashes every day without doubt.
"When people stop developing for it, and/or a more stable and functional alternative is offered."
Vista post-SP1 was a more stable/functional alternative. Now it's just silly.
With this virtual XP mode, it will definitely drive a nail down xp's coffin. M$ has also "silently" admitted vista is a DUD.
Win 7 is the way to go
When companies can afford it and it's secure enough to deploy on military hardware. Considering that many DoD components still use XP, it'll be a while.
Seeing as how we still use COBOL and DOS my guess is right after the next apocalypse.
"Vista post-SP1 was a more stable/functional alternative."
Thats hilarious. You obviously need to do other things with your computer than play games. If Vista post SP1 was in fact more stable, people would be using it in work environments more and they just arent. I know that i would not dare to subject anyone of my 100+ users to vista, you would have office shootings within a day.
Keep making stuff up though, good show.
@Tsing Tao
I have a handful of friends and acquaintances that are running Vista successfully and with out major issues at their companies. Which most of those are support more than just 100+ users, with one around 10,000.
Vista hasn't gotten a bad stigma, sure it had some issues out of the gate, but in reality, it isn't nearly as bad of an OS as people make it out to be.
I know for us, we just weren't ready to do a major OS upgrade to our 4,000+ PCs when SP1 came out. Now with 7 being hot on the heals of Vista, and that we are now ready, there obviously is no point for us to go to Vista.
Vista is terrible. End of story. Every Vista computer I used, even ones fresh out of a box, were slow, buggy, and incompatible with everything. It brought nothing to the table except misery. Anyone who says their XP computer at work crashes everyday has no business maintaining a computer's health.
That said, I am quite happy with Windows 7.
XP is kind of like a zombie. You can shoot it as much as it wants but it just needs more BRAAAAAAINNNNNNNNS.
omg YOU ARE AWESOME
I know
FAIL!
Lol at "party-pooping measure"
XP what? iPhone is the flavour of the day. Apple should release iPhone mode for Mac. No multitasking, no unauthorized apps, no copying of music without iTunes...
wow... just wow...
*sarcasm*
If they could pull it off, they likely would. A truly restrictive, truly 'trusted platform' setup would basically be Apple's ultimate dream. We've all seen the rumors about the tablet which point to that kind of environment. They want it.
Just when you think M$ does something good by adding XP mode to 7, they find a way to boych things up by adding "only for windows 7 professional or higher"...
"Windows XP Mode is designed to provide small business and mid-sized businesses"
Whether it's for Pro and up is not really the hurdle, owning a CPU and Mobo that supports virtualization is.
Updating your software for the new OS is always the best option. Running in a virtualised mode is always going to have disadvantages than running natively.
This move is just to appease businesses - the quicker they update their software or move to newer software - the better for them.
Home users shouldn't really care.
That new i5 CPU doesn't support visualization right? Sucks to be an i750 users I guess.
virtualization I mean to say.
The i5 750 does support virtualization:
http://ark.intel.com/VTList.aspx
Thanks for the update and link johnfrum.
XPee is just rancid.
Yeah, funny how it managed to survive so many years, huh.
...it opened a hole in my pants.
Awesome. I'll be totally be not running this in Virtual PC but Virtualbox because I don't have processor visualization.
Screw you Microsoft and Intel >.
Processor visualisation? What?
Have fun trying to extract the virtual HDD from the setup and get it all working.
only certain processors have Intel Virtualization Technology. for example:
Intel Core 2 Quad:
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=28398
Intel Core 2 Duo:
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=26547
or if you want to look at another processor family, check out their info page:
http://ark.intel.com/
Dont forget AMD's ADM-v virtualisation technology that has been in around since Athlon 64 was introduced I believe.
Woah! My spelling a grammar sucked when I wrote this –.–
@Akinwale I meant processor 'virtualisation', not 'visualisation', which mbentley and poke explained :)
@richb93 I've done it on the beta, which was simple process. Getting the virtual hard drive is as easy as extracting the installer like a zip, importing the virtual hard drive into new virtual machine, and installing Virtualbox tools for all the drivers ;)
It's a shame Intel disabled virtualization even on some of their quad core processors.
I blame sony.
Good plan kingu, direct that anger!
@wWhat: I almost spit coffee out of my nose at that one. Good stuff.
I'm currently running XP mode on Windows 7 RTM. It works really nicely! 16-bit games FTW!
I couldn't find a way to run the x32 Windows XP mode in 64 bit Windows 7; so I just use VMWare Workstation with Ghost mode on, same effect. I can enjoy my 16 bit games as well!
Or you could just use Virtualbox, wmware or other.
But then you need an XP license if you don't have one for your VMware, if we stay legal.
XPMode provides you with an XP license.
The "pay for something new that you paid for before" seems to be the model here.
Just to clarify, It wont work on anything else than win7, whereas the others will.
Why did Microsoft have to bother with CPU vitualization at all, yes if you have a CPU and Mobo that can do it then fine but if you don't it should just run in a virtual box.
The lack of systems supporting virtualization was been greatly exaggerated. Granted its probably not turned on by default at the factory, the option should still be their if the chip supports it. It just isn't supported on the cheapest Intel lines in desktop and mobile CPU's, but is supported on almost every AMD chip for the last 3 or so years. I have 2 HP laptops, one Intel based and one AMD based and 2 Lenovo laptops both Intel based that all support it but it had to be turned on. If you bought a cheap machine, don't be surprised its missing some features.
As for the requirement of hardware virtualization, its probably a usability/stability thing. Get Virtual PC 2007 or some other VM host that allows you to run hardware VM support off and on. Run the VM with it turned on, then shut it down and turn off hardware VM support. You will notice a huge difference in VM responsiveness.
The only thing I am not liking about the WinXP mode in Win 7 is that they have completely dumbed down the interface from even Virtual PC 2007 which is even more dumbed down from something like VM Ware 2 server, ESXi, or Hyper-V. Hopefully the RTM version of Virtual PC for Win7 has an advanced mode that the beta was sorely lacking.
@ivanotter:
Win9x still booted from DOS 7. It was cut down yes, but it was still DOS. Press ESC when the clouds come up and there it was in all it's glory. You don't remember "command prompt only" and ""Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode"? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138996
OK, that came out in completely the wrong place. This is what happens when you combine replied split over two two pages with a nigh-on invisible downvoted root comment :\