Virtualized Windows XP coming to Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate users

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/24/virtualized-windows-xp-coming-to-windows-7-professional-and-ulti/

 

Swweeeeettt!

 

lol, i love how there was only one responce here xD

 

I posted this in the official Win 7 thread.

 

o <10char>

 

Just 'cause I'm both ignorant and lazy - are the differences between this (i.e., virtualization of XP) and the various "compatibility" modes prior versions of WinOS have been dogged with that the "compatibility" modes basically required that, for example, 16-bit support be hard-coded into XP in order to support those 16-bit apps for which compatilibity was necessary, whereas virtualization basically allows a pure 64-bit system to create a phantom 32-bit system within itself, but without having to muck up the 64-bit system with hardcoded 32-bit sections here and there?

 

this is just a virtual machine with the ability to take out the windows out of the machine. similar solutions exist for windows-on-mac (with parallels), or virtualbox can do that, too.

but it's nice to see it as a default-solution. stopps any crybabies about compatibilities before they have a chance

 

I can take that as a "yes," then?

 

Stop assuming, try and see.
16-bit application works under XP 32-bit under Virtual PC 64-bit, so I it makes sense that 16-bit application can work this way. Of course, we don't know for sure, until Win7 is OFFICIALLY released (as things can change) and now decide. Either way, let go you old 16-bit DOS games. You'll probably not even seriously play them.

 

if you want really old stuff, why not just install dosbox or some dos or win98 in a virtual machine?

i guess yes, the virtual xp will work, too. but it's not like all of the dos games worked on xp at all. i had quite some that didn't. a virtual win98 or dos helped, then. back then i used vmware for such stuff.

 

One question - do you need a Windows XP license key to use this feature, or does it come free with 7 Pro/Ultimate?

 

It is a free download for Pro/Ultimate users. If it needs a key, Microsoft will provide you it.

 

Nice.

This (virtualizing XP) is nothing you can't already do today, of course, but they're making it easy and providing a free copy and license of XP to use virtualized under Win 7.

Here's the original article on WinSuperSite: http://community.winsupersite.com/b...vealing-virtual-windows-xp-for-windows-7.aspx

I think the significance of this is nicely summarized in that article in this quote:

 

No you can't do this today. All you can do is have Virtual PC... not have window extracted out of the virtual PC, and easy startup of these application under that mode from your Win7 start menu.

 

yes, you can. virtualbox f.e. can do that, vmware can do it, too. sort of, at least. haven't looked at it for a long time.

no clue about the shortcuts exactly, but it is doable.

check "thinapp" vor vmware, or virtualbox "seamless integration". it's not like 100% the same afaik, but easily doable (and every vm solution will provide it, i'd say).

still it's a nice solution, and a simple out of the box working the way you want-solution. so it's cool to have. espencially cool to not require a licence to buy, then (not that we do have to, depending on guest and host os, according to EULA..)

 

and vmware fusion, for mac, does it, too..

 

Seamless mode in Virtualbox run under Fedora 10.

http://www.silverlakesandduners.com/pics/albums/misc/seamless_mode.jpg

 

It's good to see MS putting a lot of efforts to satisfy wider range of users. I can't wait to get it when it comes out!

 

That's not seamless. Can you move one of the Fedora apps into XP?

 

That is just what I wanted to hear. I'm officially adopting Win7 ASAP.

 

While I like it and see a business need for it, I'm interested in what home user, like TehSuigi, actually gains from it.

what apps do you need to have that way? this is no bashing, this is interest. I'd like to see a list of apps that need a virtual machine to run, apps that are important to you, too. my list is 0 apps long, else i'd use virtualbox or so to solve it. so i'm interested.

 

I thought the tile said it all.
Don't think many home users will buy ultimate or professional version.

 

I run a whole bunch of applications/games that have sloppy/patchy Vista support, if this virtualized XP works better than XP compatibility mode then many of those applications can possibly be run "on" XP for better performance/stability.

Planetside is a shining example of a game that runs on Vista, but requires you to jump through hoops to get it to do so and runs about 50% slower than it does under XP on the same machine.

 

The key reason I'd be using it is for the Action Replay DS software I have - the driver only works in XP/Vista 32-bit. And since VPC can't capture the USB ports, this is a far better solution.

 

My question was more in the spirit of I-hope-this-means-the-end-of-hard-coded-compatibility and not in the spirit of Can-I-still-run-my-copy-of-Wordstar.

I don't give a fig about 16-bit apps, and it p.o.'s me no end that there's still 16-bit crud lurking around in a 32-bit OS (or even the 64-bit versions of XP and _Vista) just because some big(ger) enterprise customers couldn't bring themselves to get rid of/replace some silly, esoteric little business app some dorky intern wrote for them in COBOL back in the 70s.

The ability to provide virtual compatibility for those few fools who insist on running ancient crud, and nothing but clean 64-bit goodness to the rest of us, rather than kludging up that 64-bit goodness with 16-bit crud, is music to my ears, provided that I'm really hearing what I think I'm hearing.

 

hm, right. good point. yeah, i like that, too. and win7 will be a good start for that. they have measurement points for each windows component to measure who uses it, and how much (well, not, who, per se.. of course, privacy alert ).

this will then get fed into win8, 9 etc. so they can remove components no one uses. and maybe provide a vm for the ones that still need it.

sort of a "pure mode" and "compatibility mode". isn't that what servers provide since they exist? first 2000 domain was compatibility, once you removed all nt4 from the net, you could go pure. then again, 2003, compatibility, till every server was 2003, then go pure. and again, and again.

i hope for something similar (with several compatibility providers like win7,vista,xp,98 if one cares) for consumers, too.

i'd take the pure os, then, thanks

 

I'll take the pure OS, too. I'm not exactly on the forefront of technology adoption (exhibit 1 being by 6 y.o. VAIO ); however, when I get the next step up, I go whole hog - no half-steps or legacy apps for me.

 

So, will programs that work in XP, but don't work in Vista's compatibility mode work under this new design? I feel like its being implied that it will, but no firm answers.

 

Yes, that's the point of it.

 

I am seeing reports that to use the virtual Win XP in Win7 you will have to have a machine which supports hardware virtualization. Most newer chips do this but sadly some manufacturers disable it in the BIOS. (Hello SONY are you listening you freakin' morons. Arrrrrrgggggghhhhh!) This really stinks, because I run Win XP as a virtual machine every day under Vista, without hardware virtualization.

Gary