Monday, April 27th 2009
Windows 7 to Pack Virtual Windows XP
Across generations of its Windows operating systems based on the NT architecture, Microsoft has been courteous enough to pack application compatibility layers that let users run applications in compatibility modes for older versions of the OS. The company seems to be taking this to the next level with Windows 7. The release candidate of the OS slated for April 30, will pack an "XP mode" virtualization feature. The feature quite literally runs a Windows XP environment inside a sandbox complete with support for applications such as Internet Explorer 6, etc.
The environment will work on a virtual machine created by Windows 7. Native Windows XP applications you install in the environment, along with your documents and settings will further be accessible from the host OS. Client variants of Windows 7 may feature a Hyper-V hypervisor that handles applications such as these. The feature makes Windows 7 especially something to look forward to, for those complaining lack of Windows XP features. In short, it's the OS some probably clung onto, and refused to move to Vista, running as an application.
Sources:
CrunchGear, betanews
The environment will work on a virtual machine created by Windows 7. Native Windows XP applications you install in the environment, along with your documents and settings will further be accessible from the host OS. Client variants of Windows 7 may feature a Hyper-V hypervisor that handles applications such as these. The feature makes Windows 7 especially something to look forward to, for those complaining lack of Windows XP features. In short, it's the OS some probably clung onto, and refused to move to Vista, running as an application.
75 Comments on Windows 7 to Pack Virtual Windows XP
I don't believe that Windows 7 has the same problem running on older hardware. I've successfully gotten 7077 to run better on my old pentium m 2.13 w/ ati x300 / 2gb ram than it did on Vista. Aero works fine as well (just turn off fading and animate maximise/minimise windows).
Just need to get the driver ATI driver properly modded, since the one that came with is 8.12 has performance issues with running in VMR9, so I'm running media in vmr7.
No tweaks, other than disabling superfetch, readyboost and indexing (cause the HDD noise was annoying me, mostly) and its running very happily as an internet machine/torrent box. Full aero, if anyone cares.
Vistas only problem is running less than 1GB of ram for 2D/office use, or less than 2GB for gaming use. When i started using XP (when it was NEW) it was the same thing, only the numbers were 256MB and 512MB.
When I look at netbooks, I tend to look for an xp system. I just think since it's an older os, it'll run better on the lighter specs of a netbook.
I remember one of the Mac guys at apple insider told me XP needed the latest and most powerful hardware to run smoothly, and I linked him to a video of a guy running xp just fine on his phone lol.
And remember, Vista Ultimate has all the features from every version of Vista, so if something is in Business it is in Ultimate.You would think this, but surprisingly this isn't the case. Vista actually runs better on netbooks than XP does, at least that was my experience, and many of the articles that talk about the subject agree.
There you go, free from Microsoft since 2006.
It seems all they are doing with Win7 is including this software standard, and a pre-setup Windows XP install. The screenshot even says "Microsoft Virtual PC" at the top. Perhaps they have update Virtual PC to a newer version, hopefully with better hardware integration, but the current version is great for software compatibility issue.
It'll make a nice, virus safe little virtual netbox