MS unveils "Virtual XP Mode" in Windows 7

[Blighter]

Microsoft Corp. will unveil an add-on to Windows 7 that lets users run applications designed for Windows XP in a virtual machine, the company confirmed Friday — the first time Microsoft has relied on virtualization to provide backward compatibility.Dubbed “Windows XP Mode,” the add-on creates an XP virtual environment running under Virtual PC, Microsoft’s client virtualization technology, within Windows 7, said Scott Woodgate, the director of Windows enterprise and virtualization strategy. In a post to a company blog, Woodgate said the add-on is part of the pitch to convince businesses to migrate to Windows 7. “All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode,” said Woodgate. “The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7.”

Details of Windows XP Mode (XPM) were first reported Friday afternoon by Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, two prominent bloggers who are also collaborating on a book, Windows 7 Secrets, due out this fall. Windows 7 Enterprise is available only to companies with volume licensing agreements. Windows XP Mode (XPM) requires processor-based virtualization support and is based on the next-generation Microsoft Virtual PC 7 virtualization technology, said Rivera, who also disclosed that Microsoft will include a fully licensed copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) with the add-on. That, in effect, gives Windows 7 users a way to run older applications without having to pay for another operating system license. Rivera also touted, as had Woodgate, the ability to run Windows XP applications directly from the Windows 7 desktop without having to first open a separate virtual machine window.

This looks VERY promising.

I love Windows 7 as it is at the moment, this will just make it better

[Feek]

That's very clever.

[iCraig]

So far so good for 7. Looks like Microsoft might be finally learning what users need/want after the whole Vista shambles.

[Daz]

I bet there's a measurable overhead on that though. Mind you, power is cheap these days. Waiting to hear if we can test that in the RC.

[Haly]

Sounds very handy! Rather looking forward to Windows 7. If I had a spare box, I'd have tried it out by now.

[Briggykins]

Anyone else think this just might make some of the lazier or greedy devs just rehash old XP code? I can see for compatibility it's a good thing, but running under a VM is always a lot slower than using native software.
Mind you, I'm a complete Vista lover. 7 does look promising, but I'm hoping there'll be some sort of upgrade path for it, otherwise I'm going to hang on to little unloved Vista.

[Mark]

It's not that much slower on modern kit. It is an utter memory hog though.

I'd assume this is primarily aimed at software that was sufficiently badly written that it just doesn't work on Vista/Windows 7, or requires old drivers or other stuff that just don't work any more.

Not a bad solution to that particular problem IMO. Most well-written software should work without emulation, especially now that Vista has been around a few years.

[iCraig]

Originally Posted by Haly

Sounds very handy! Rather looking forward to Windows 7. If I had a spare box, I'd have tried it out by now.

You could always stick it on a seperate drive or partition and have it as a dual boot. It's how I've got it setup on my laptop.

[Haly]

Originally Posted by iCraig

You could always stick it on a seperate drive or partition and have it as a dual boot. It's how I've got it setup on my laptop.

True, forgot about partitioning I've only got a laptop now but partitioning could be a plan. Might see if I can find some time spare to get it set up.

[Mark]

Tempted to have a go at that myself. I have a 20GB partition set aside for OS testing on the laptop - hopefully that's enough.