In a move that was very expected, but is very unexpectedly early, Microsoft have today announced that they’ve removed the barrier that has been preventing many people from installing and using the new XP Mode feature in Windows 7 Professional and higher.
As of today it will run without requiring this hardware support. This is excellent news for Windows going forward and is finally a clear sign that Windows 8 could drop all legacy support completely in favour of a virtualised solution like this.
In an interview this week, the General manager of Microsoft’s Windows Commercial Product Management (how do they fit these titles on business cards?) Gavriella Schuster, admitted that Microsoft have found a way to eliminate the need for hardware virtualisation at the BIOS level.
An updated version of XP Mode is being released today, though Microsoft have stressed that anybody already running it has no need to upgrade.
XP Mode is a virtualisation solution that allows you to run older, incompatible software, in a virtual machine as though they were installed in your current Windows 7 installation. This means they will appear in your Windows 7 Start Menu and run in normal windows on your Windows 7 desktop. There is no need to have your own licence for XP, as it comes will a full licence for XP Professional, and you don’t need to boot into Windows 7 and then also boot into XP in the VM.
This is excellent news for all Windows 7 users, especially businesses. Virtualisation offers a way to truly aid in maintaining a stable and reliable operating system. XP Mode is a huge advance in this area now that the physical hardware barrier has been eliminated.
It was widely expected that this move would come in time for the launch of Windows 8 in 2012. Clearly the general availability of it already paves the way for a smaller, leaner Windows in two years time that business users will embrace.
You can download XP Mode here.
Source : ZD Net
Hey.. I’m from Venezuela, but I think “Virtualization” is with a ‘z’ .. Or am I wrong? :S
It is British English. I would wrote the same way as the writer because I prefer the use of British English (virtualisation, favour, colour, etc). Both American English and British Oxford English will use Virtualization. American will use color, favor, but British and British Oxford spelling would be colour and favour. rather complicated
Absolutely, British English… otherwise known as English
There were never any barriers preventing XP Mode from working without VT-X capable processors, just like you can easily virtualise any 32-bit operating system using Sun Virtualbox, VMware workstation, and even the regular Virtual PC.
As far as I know, the decision to prevent XPM working on systems without VT-x was primarily for performance – but since XP itself in many organisations already runs on hardware that doesn’t support VT-x, this ommision was clearly going to cost some sales (or, at least, delay them). I guess Microsoft decided that they are happy with a lower performing version of XPM (on some hardware, of course – I presume VT-x capable hardware will still be able to run it with lower overhead) if it helps drive up early sales of Windows 7.
I’m glad they removed this restriction, as it means we can (finally) tell at a glance exactly which systems can run XPM if required – Any, the short answer is, as long as it’s using Professional/ultimate/enterprise.
I decided to give this a try and it made me have to install the dreaded WAT update in order to do so. So, I quit halfway (it reported as FAILED in my Windows Update log), but it was still there under “Installed Updates” in Programs & Features folder. So, I uninstalled it there. But now I can’t hide the update from Windows Update like I used to, because it doesn’t show up anymore (and is no longer listed as hidden), even though I don’t have it installed (I also did a system restore, on top of all of that other stuff, just to be sure). Bummer. I have a legit copy but I don’t like the idea of my OS phoning home to Microsoft any time they please. I’m sure the WAT update will be built in to SP1, anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. We’ll all have it, soon enough.
quick question:
does running xp mode fix my problem with my webcam being inverted when i installed windows 7? it used to be working fine with windows xp, but the display suddenly inverted as soon as i changed my os to windows 7. sorry if the question sounds newbie or what not.