Microsoft unveils Virtual XP mode in Windows 7
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.
Source: Computerworld
Comments(48)
smart move
This is a great leap forward in thinking.
Businesses will now be able to adopt without fear.
Software is not the problem, but the drivers are. The one thing I have to buy, if I choose Win7, is new TV Tuner card. Cause this one doesn't have Vista or Win 7 drivers.
is there actually xp only programs anymore, man someone been slow updating to vista..
Great stuff!
Now why didn't they think of this before….
But why upgrade at all? With WinXP Pro for 64-bit, what would you need a new windows for?
Giiizmo, pull your head out of the sand.
I was reluctant to move, now I have a much better "experience" with vista.
It's quicker, got a better UI, the search indexing tool and other accessories are great.
If you're building a new computer / need a format, there's no reason NOT to get vista / windows 7 (when it's available)
Why upgrade from Win95? Same argument.
winXP pro 64-bit is not really that good compared to other 64-bit OS
This move is basically meant to appease enterprise/business level users,for whom upgrading or changing platforms is never an easy task.
One question that's playing on my mind right now is–won't running a Virtual Environment(or Virtual PC) side-by-side with Windows 7 hog up your memory?Won't it be like running Windows7 and Windows XP on the same processor,at the same time?
I know MS isn't that foolish not to think of it.But was just curious how this new thing works.
The cool part though is this–>Quote:"the ability to run Windows XP applications directly from the Windows 7 desktop without having to first open a separate virtual machine window"
…and they need a Virtual PC for THAT? Can't they just integrate everything that applications designed for XP need and run it via Windows 7?…
from what I could tell…
@9
as the virtualization is processor based, running XPM should scale back processor use going to Win 7.
@10
the ultimate flaw of backward compatibility is that it requires you to keep the same processing logic as previous versions. this is (IMO) one of the many reasons that Vista fails. If you change the basis of a design, sometimes the old ideas no longer work. You can't fuel a gas car by using steam…
#7 Has to be a troll its been proven over and over again Vistas trash and is slower than XP, theres no way to validly argue that its faster.
Also, #9 Thats what im thinking, seems like itd slow things down
And #10 seems like since XP is made by same company they should have came up with a way to just direct install instead doing all this virtual crap. =/
I was never into all this virtual OS and stuff and I def wont be in future, I hope software I use just upgrades to Windows 7 so I can avoid this all.
Nice move for the MSh
microsoft will be proven wrong once again.
one of the the best moves apple made in its OSX evolution is the scrap classic mode a couple of releases ago. peopel needs to look into the future, not living in the past.
Good news
I will stick with OSX thanks but no thanks!
This virtualization is not good as #9 & #12 has already said.
@9 I don't care about processing, with a fast multi-core processor you can just keep it minimized and it shouldn't really be a problem. #9 is right is this case, you could have a lot of memory and it will all but sucked away by running 2 os's (given one is virtual but it still uses real memory) and the virtualization process.
@7 Have you even compared vista with a real operating system before? It really is garbage. I tried to stick with it again for the 3rd time 2 months ago and the UAC drove me absolutely crazy, even after I disabled it – THIS is even with the elevated administer rights and this is just one problem out of hundreds when it comes to vista.
I will stick with Ubuntu linux .Thanks but no thanks!
I will stick with Windows. Thanks but no thanks! (Just felt like I'd be the many people to post something useless here)
Is this features included on the last leeked RC build 7100?
@12, 17
Wake up because Virtualized Computing IS the future. Virtualization enables the holy grail of computing for enterprise customers, commodity computing. If you think this is a passign phase think again because there is massive demand for it in the enterprise base (I know I work in with such customers).
Another cool feature in Windows 7 will be Remote Desktop which has enhancements now that enable it to playback full HD video over RDP by leveraging local hardware and codecs (if installed) for rendering. I've seen it in action at the last PDP and it was impressive.
Vista is not as bad as all these people make out. Most of the bad experience with Vista is down to badly written drivers or third party apps. The OS itself is very stable and fast, and is even better with the service packs.
And for anyone doubting the adoption of Windows 7, there are major financial instituiotns that are already planning to deploy next year (again, I know because I work in that industry).
@20 its not included at least I havent found it.
—
Also the there is the problem have you ever actually found any decent vista compatible firewall for example. I havent. That wont auto assume things that would get to net.
all of you whom not believe in virtualization are morons living in the cave! Obviously you have no first hand information about technology and you judging by my good friend told me..
virtualization is the way forward, new way, secure way, easy way, of course its still pretty newish concept, but it is getting better every day. Nobody takes your right to not use virtual machines, but then your choice not to, gives the idea what you use pc for, and that would be some media, games and emails perhaps. Personally, i would use VM even for those tasks..
God , i hate these LINUX lovers. If you love linux , and hell yeah , most of us LOVE LINUX , keep your mouth shut. This post is about windows so stick to damn windows, damn kids.
And as anyone said this is a cool feature , but this virtualisation process is someway weird but it`s welcomed so MS for the win.
Linux has its other ways , don't compare.
@psicho: *yawn*
virtualization is the way to go, but not everyone in a company is a power user and needs a quad-core box. with the economy as it is, and probably will be for the next 4 years, which 150000 employee company will budget the associated expenses necessary to upgrade all its employee's machines to run this (not my employer)?
I suspect the more attractive and affordable solution for large corporations will be to run something like VMware or Citrix virtualization with users running a remote virtual machine on their current hardware.
as usual Microsoft is out of step with reality.
Glad to see Microsoft is trying to add a compatibility layer for older software that didn't have Vista/7 in mind, but very disappointed with their implementation. After all this time developing, all they could come up with is a virtual machine? You can achieve the same results with VirtualBox in Vista for free.
I'm not bashing 7, as I'm very excited to get the RTM build when it's released, but this was a cop-out on Microsoft's part. Personally, I'd rather see a side-by-side compatibility layer, something similar to how Wine works in Linux than a full blown second operating system running. It would give better performance and take a lot less resources to pull it off.
The future is virtulization of the common computing resources from an end user perspective (storage, compute capacity and applications). Most servers in enterprise data center are heavily under utilized in the current model. Virtualization will put future data centers to higher utiliztion thus reducing infrastructure costs (and possibly help reduce CO2 also).
@23 Virtualization is actually not that new
We're now simply going back to the old days of shared computing resources.
@26 I know of one swiss investment bank with 80,000+ employees that will be rolling out Windows 7 next year and they took a pretty bad knock in the economy. Bottom line is that business continues and successful businesses know when to adopt advancing technology to leverage cost effiencies in the long term. Microsoft *IS* in step with the business customers, because business customers are the main revenue stream. As always, business technology will trickle down to the consumer customers.
@27 Yes you can use Virtual PC standalone or other virtualization solutions. There point with VPC7 is that is integrates with host OS for better performance. It also enables Application Virtualization as opposed to full OS virtualization.
@22 Try these 2 free firewalls for Visata:
Online Armor free version 3.5 (32bit only)
and Vista Firewall Control (32bit and 64 bit).
Note that Vista FW Control is not a firewall per se, but an easy to use interface to control
incoming and outgoing connections and rules of Vista's built-in firewall.
As far as virtualization is concerned,
what they are forgetting to say is that not all processors support hardware virtualization.
And that MS is implementing this feature only
in Enterprise and Professional versions of Windows 7.
If we consider the above facts, and if we consider the reason why businesses resisted the upgrade to Vista and stuck to Xp ( the costs of upgrading hardware as well as the cost of Windows itself),
it is clear that MS will not be as successful in making businesses and corporations switch to a newer OS as they are hoping to, cause what if the businesses that are still using XP or even Windows 2000 do not the hardware to support virtualization. That means that in order to utilize this Virtual XP mode in Win 7, they still have to spend money to upgrade the coputers, which is exactly what they did not want to do when Vista came out.
@21 – "And for anyone doubting the adoption of Windows 7, there are major financial institutions that are already planning to deploy next year (again, I know because I work in that industry)."
So i guess that's where all of that US federal bailout money is going to, huh?
@21 yes Virtualization is the future (and the past), however to run 2 modern day operating systems side by side on a typical household computer without taking a huge hit in performance is next to impossible.
consider this – 1.2 gigs of memory just to run the windows 7 & windows xp together. If you only have 1.5 gigs of memory try running a top notch modern game or app that needs at least 1 gig of ram that only supports xp if your o.s. takes up most of your ram.
Even if Application Virtualization is utilized there is still the foot print of the virtualization software in the memory which was another thing I hated about about vista…..It was too bloated and memory hungry!
For virtualization you really need a computer thats about 8 – 10 times better than what your emulating.
@30 'there are major financial institutions that are already planning to deploy next year' – Isn't that similar to what they did with vista? Its all hype!
I've got the 7100 build on my dell laptop… easiest install yet…no need to try and find any of the drivers (webcam, wifi, modem, sound.. etc) windows 7 finds and installs them automatically… New windows is very comparable to xp already very fast… almost no processes running… start up time is a c-hair longer than xp. This build doesn't have the virtual version of xp obviously but I can't wait to try it out…. Vista is Dead (just another ME or 2000)….. Windows 7 is the future….
@29 Large corporations refresh their end user computing platforms every 18 to 24 months. In my experience I've seen nothing older than a Dual-Core in current enterprise environments. The power users (traders, for example) have quad core machines. Also you are forgetting the enterprise customers get massive site discounts for licenses and also have the scale of economy to reduce costs further when buying from Microsoft.
@30 No it's not hype. BMW, to name one large company, deployed Vista last year.
@30 You're actually right, some bail out money may well be used for infrastructure upgrades. The bail out money is in fact intended to sustain banking operations, i.e. BAU (business as usual) which would include IT Operations. Certainly, I would not condone using the bail out money for bonus payments, but IT Operations is BAU.
For months now, I have been running the Free version of FortKnox Personal Firewall 2008 on my Vista x64 install. No problems here…
I agree with the earlier poster who said that drivers play an important part in this. As a user of Cubase SX3, for instance, I have many, many apps that require drivers that have to run under XP, and won't run under say, Vista. The cost of upgrading all those music production apps would soar into the thousands of dollars if I was forced to migrate. If they can make it so all my Cubase related apps still run on 7- with the drivers, I'll be happy to buy 7. Seriously. Yes, I'll even buy it. The advantage would be in the amount of RAM I could use when not in XP mode. Pretty soon, I believe 16gb of RAM will be the norm.
smart move indeed
@37 Indeed it will be interesting to see how apps like Cubase cope; personally I wouldn't be too hopeful. The virtualization is aimed more at business apps which are not typically driver dependent but more dependent on DLL compatibilities and OS level APIs. 4Gb of RAM is already becoming the entry level. By the end of the year 1 terabyte of local storage will be the minimum for entry level PCs.
I smell a law suite coming…
Get ready VMware!
@40 ??? You make no sense at all with that comment ???
VM's are never perfect, but I got a better idea. Run XP until 2014 and be done with it.
@ 42 No, no, no.
XP Pro was by far the best OS, I agree, but it is now dated and it is time to move on. Xp for Vms is fine, but the primary host OS needs to move with the times. With the exception of gaming and HTPC platforms, a hypervisored PC makes more sense. I migrated Office to Virtual XP-PC about two years ago to save having to reinstall Office each time I upgraded hardware. I can copy/move the Office VPC image to any PC which makes life much easier and if I use the VM on only one computer at a time I'm not breaking the EULA either. I have done the same for my .Net and Java development environments.
if it's gonna make dungeon keeper 1 work, why the hell not?
Yo dawg, I put windows in your windows so you can use windows.. while you use windows
Or maybe LinuxInsideWindows developers will developer a Linux layer that runs inside of windows, that can run a Windows7 Virtual Machine inside of itself that then emulates WindowsXP functionality?
Told you this six months ago and was laughed at. Care to guess who is laughing now?
Upgraded my Dell XPS m1330 to Build 7100. Bloody hell, it's fast.