Revealing Windows XP Mode for Windows 7

EXreaction said:
Personally, I am not sure if I'll ever need it, but running a virtual application is extremely appealing.
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You know, I really hate not having an edit button here...

I should rephrase that. I am not sure if I'll ever be required to use the XP compatibility mode since Vista/7 support is usually extremely good, but with this I can just run other applications like web browsers in a virtual system to keep the host OS as protected as possible (although Vista/7 do have some pretty rock solid security, I've not had an issue yet with Vista since I keep UAC on and know I would have been infected with it off already).
 
This is pretty bangin' of MS to include this.

I think I'll buy W7, the first worthwhile upgrade from XP IMO. Vista as an expensive side-step, offering no more functionality than XP (with a few addons) had. I don't care if there are other solutions to sandbox XP in W7, this is still pretty nice.
 
so why don't they just put the luna theme as an option for win 7, the release candidate (and possibly earlier) have the "windows boredom" grey theme. but i didn't see luna. Not that i dont like the default aero look. but i know when we move to it in the office it will cause apocalyptic level panic to our senior members on staff.

I mean damn, I had to write up a proposal to switch from "kill myself grey" theme to luna in the office, now everyone prefers it, but it was a PITA to get it implemented without bitching.
 
R0N1 said:
It's always good to have some kind of backwards compatibility for applications or especially older games. And when it's a built-in feature, it's much easier and less hassle to use. I hope this is implemented well. Virtual machines can really be useful.
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The major thing about this feature, while most seem to overlook that laugh at it, is this is a first step to start removing the legacy code from the current OS. That is the number one thing that will both improve performance and stability in all future windows iterations, removing the legacy bloat. Apple does this sometimes with an OS release but leaves people out to dry, windows moving forward will be able to leave the last gen behind in terms of core OS support, but also be able to support them via these virtualized application installs.

It's a win / win for pretty much everything but GPU intensive programs (at this point)
 
Lebowski said:
If you are running mission critical apps on outdated and antiquated software hardware you deserve the eventual flogging you'll get when it craps the bed on you.
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You've never worked in a large scale business, have you? You do realize that large scale business is MS's core revenue streams, right?

Just because the latest and greatest is released, doesn't mean businesses jump to the gun to upgrade. Almost always this means spending hundreds of thousands of dollars at minimum, and if you're like many that have to go full version rollout upgrades that can start to hit the millions very quickly.
 
Themes have been kinda a mess to deal with in Vista (not sure how they are on Win7). In Vista there is another mode that is kinda like the luna theme, just without those big ugly buttons min/max/exit buttons and with the vista version instead.
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
Virtual Box has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to 3d support and performance. You can't say this is worthless untill you see how it performs. And you don't have to pirate or buy a copy of XP to do it, which is a big plus for some.
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err... yes.. the 3d is something NONE of the others even had... and it keeps getting better. I can too say VirtualPC is worthless. I used VirtualPC before. I have a copy of XP for this, but seriously, what does not work in Win7? God... I have software going back to win95 days that runs on win7. In fact I have stuff running in win7 I could not even get to run in xp. The compatibility while not flawless, is very good.

I would have to ask what software are you talking about? Hell, the only issue I had was with WHS. And that was fixed in pp2.
 
Bone_Enterprise said:
I do not know, but I am sure the EU will find some things.
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"The EU" doesn't prefer XP. "They" prefer stripped down versions of Windows, regardless of what version it is.

Doctor X said:
give me a break... all this is is VirtualPC... and big woopdedo on the virtual desktop... Virtualbox has been able to do that for a long time. It is free and guess what? It supports OpenGL and some Direct3d. None of the others do that. I have ran OpenArena and Diablo 2 in XP on Virtualbox. Thanks, but no thanks.
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I wish there was a big enough ":rolleyes:" to respond to this ^ post with.

tacosareveryyummy said:
Doesn't this just add extra bloat to the os to begin with? I don't ever see myself using "xp mode." It's an obsolete os, get over it.
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I, too, think you should continue making decisions based on ignorant assumptions.

Lebowski said:
If you are running mission critical apps on outdated and antiquated software hardware you deserve the eventual flogging you'll get when it craps the bed on you.
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There is no such thing as "antiquated software hardware". There is only "hardware" and "software", they are separate things, and hardware can be replaced. Guess what? I can install Windows 98 or XP on brand new computers and continue using my shitty old business applications when the antique hardware craps out! (and save a couple million/hundred thousand dollars :rolleyes:

Manaknight said:
so why don't they just put the luna theme as an option for win 7, the release candidate (and possibly earlier) have the "windows boredom" grey theme. but i didn't see luna. Not that i dont like the default aero look. but i know when we move to it in the office it will cause apocalyptic level panic to our senior members on staff.

I mean damn, I had to write up a proposal to switch from "kill myself grey" theme to luna in the office, now everyone prefers it, but it was a PITA to get it implemented without bitching.
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There is a bigger difference than just colors/rounded window edges/icon placement between Windows XP and Windows Vista/7.
 
Lebowski said:
For gGod's sake why? Just let XP go. I can't stand all the whiney bitches that won't let go of XP. They're cheap asses plain and simple. They don't want to pay for a new OS. Vista was OK, about the same as XP for me, Windows 7 is simply a far better product than XP/Vista ever could hope to be.
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What are you whining about? Considering that XP is the most widely used OS, perhaps MS thought might be a good idea to include this feature.

Personally, I don't give a rats freakin' ass about fukin' operating systems. All I care about is the applications (mostly games) that run on the damned thing.

...but while we're on the subject of whining. XP users don't whine. They just don't give a fuk. Unless we're teasing Vista users into a temper tantrum. :p
 
well... according to maximumpc... i may have to change my tune... apparently, virtualpc does not use hw virtualization... but this vxp does. If it truely hw accellerated, that would be a big improvement, even though Virtualbox has been doing this for a while.

And Krissoft... what ARE you rolling your eyes about? Something that is free that does something better than pay stuff? Whatever!
 
Doctor X said:
well... according to maximumpc... i may have to change my tune... apparently, virtualpc does not use hw virtualization... but this vxp does. If it truely hw accellerated, that would be a big improvement, even though Virtualbox has been doing this for a while.

And Krissoft... what ARE you rolling your eyes about? Something that is free that does something better than pay stuff? Whatever!
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Since when has virtual pc costed anything? I have a feeling you've never even looked at VPC.
 
Bone_Enterprise said:
I do not know, but I am sure the EU will find some things.
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Microsoft will get sued for anti-competitive practices against itself. How dare they package WinXP virtualization with Win7. That's not fair to their discontinued WinXP product, and Europe must stand up and fight for Windows XP!
 
I don't need xp. However, can I have it so that when I click the start -> all programs, I get this massive popup that lists all the items pop (and every subpopup after when I highlight an item in the popup)?

That's all I want. I'm tired of having to scroll up/down to see the entire list of items in vista/7.
 
qkool said:
I don't need xp. However, can I have it so that when I click the start -> all programs, I get this massive popup that lists all the items pop (and every subpopup after when I highlight an item in the popup)?

That's all I want. I'm tired of having to scroll up/down to see the entire list of items in vista/7.
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I agree, having to scroll within the start menu is just asinine.
 
russnuck said:
This is already proven to work(Med-V and App-V). It is simply a free implementation of something that you normally only get with Software Assurance. It is well beyond compatibility mode, it actually creates a thin VOS, wherein the application runs.


Neat thing is, you can make these virtual bubbles available for download to your users. How many apps out there wont work out of the box with Win 7 / IE8? Not a problem now, just run virtual IE6 and put a shortcut with a URL to the old app on the users desktop.

It actually eliminates our one big concern about moving to Windows7. Now we don't have to spend $100+ / PC just to make sure some of our legacy apps will run under Windows7 :D
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Which is precisely what I was hoping would come about. I have some games that I'm afraid won't work under Vista, and I still play them. I'd like to continue playing them. But if a new OS won't let me do that, and the game maker isn't around anymore or won't do a patch update to make it play nice (which is unlikely if the game is no longer being sold or supported) then I'm SOL, and I'd rather not be.
 
[QUOTEBut will my XP viruses still work with XP mode?] [/QUOTE]
lol could be the beers but i thought that was funny...Anyone?

I think the xp mode sounds good. It will help sell it to all the people still on xp anyhow. Havent used windows 7 in a couple months but i did for a few on another drive and i must say i like it. I also like vista. I have yet to find anything wrong with it. I waited till about 6 months ago to go to vista and that could be why i like it lol. Windows 7 played my games with more fps on the same pc i noticed and thats with the beta nvisia drivers.
 
Mr. Bluntman said:
I agree, having to scroll within the start menu is just asinine.
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People actually do this? My god, I haven't "clicked" or searched for anything on the Start Menu since the first build I installed of Windows 7 last fall... Click the Start Button, type 2-3 letters tops... there it is.

And that's a rarity as I have most every app I use mapped to a keyboard shortcut.

Point and click... what a quaint and quickly becoming outdated mode of operation... ;)
 
Yup, the main reason this is useful is for businesses that have software that require XP. It makes for a much smoother transition, similar to the OS 9 emulation in earlier versions os OS X. Took a little bit of the curse off of migrating platforms. There are lots of specialized pieces of software that still won't run on Vista, just on XP (specialized business, CAD, etc).

Otherwise I agree with those that are for everyone moving forward. Windows 7 is such a massive leap forward for Windows, just superb. The sooner people get over that piece of crap OS Windows XP, the better.

Joe Average said:
People actually do this? My god, I haven't "clicked" or searched for anything on the Start Menu since the first build I installed of Windows 7 last fall... Click the Start Button, type 2-3 letters tops... there it is.
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Same here, except I've been using it for years with Spotlight. ;)

And totally agreed, it is so much faster than going through the Start menu. In the last few years my use of keyboard shortcuts has gone way way up. So much faster than pointing and clicking for everything, ditto mouse and trackpad gestures over taskbar or menu buttons.
 
I stick to XP because it works. And I don't have the time to twiddle with vLite.

I tried installing my Vista 64 the other day.... it works until I get in to the OS, the next reboot is a guaranteed SOL and screws up any XP partition I have/had... needless to say I experienced this three times before I said "screw it" and went back to XP.

Windows 7 64 worked fine for me in the old February builds, but I don't want to bother with a beta/RC product until its retail.

So XP for me until August/September if people are calling it right at when MS will release 7.
 
Wow, now you have two OS's to support one on desktop.
I think this is a terrible idea. For those who HAVE to have XP, either dual boot or setup your own virtualization. Forcing people to upgrade and then giving them XP within Win7 is just stupid. Everything Microsoft does seems to be the antithesis of "keep it simple stupid."
 
Monkey God said:
Wow, now you have two OS's to support one on desktop.
I think this is a terrible idea. For those who HAVE to have XP, either dual boot or setup your own virtualization. Forcing people to upgrade and then giving them XP within Win7 is just stupid. Everything Microsoft does seems to be the antithesis of "keep it simple stupid."
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1. VXP isn't coming with Win7. You have to download it and install it if you want or need it.

2. Businesses would love to have the security of Vista/Win7 and yet be able to use their business app that doesn't work on Vista/Win7 by using VXP.

3. Why are we still riding the old "forcing people to upgrade" wagon? Nobody's forcing anyone to do anything!
 
This is great news. Hopefully we will be able to play/run games/apps that work only in XP and not Vista or Win7.
 
Azhar said:
1. VXP isn't coming with Win7. You have to download it and install it if you want or need it.
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I get that

2. Businesses would love to have the security of Vista/Win7 and yet be able to use their business app that doesn't work on Vista/Win7 by using VXP.
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just leave them on XP or dual boost or virtualize. How does this bring anything new to the table? Whats the added value besides added complexity?

3. Why are we still riding the old "forcing people to upgrade" wagon? Nobody's forcing anyone to do anything!
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....right....
Thats why when we buy our new laptops and desktops, we have to pay for vista licenses we dont use, and then re-install XP on each and every one. No additional cost or labor there.
 
Monkey God said:
just leave them on XP or dual boost or virtualize. How does this bring anything new to the table? Whats the added value besides added complexity?
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I buy new laptops for incoming employees all the time and I loathe to tell my vendors to give me the downgrade deal to XP because it's a waste of a perfectly good laptop capability. Vista's an awesome OS. But on some employee's computer, they have to continue using XP because some of them use older versions of Primavera which only supports MSDE (desktop SQL 2000) instead of SQL 2005 Express. MSDE doesn't work in Vista.

But employees using Primavera 6.0 and greater can enjoy Vista and SQL 2005 Express.

There's no reason to keep businesses in the stone age. Slow progression is better than none at all. This VXP idea is a stroke of genius. When we buy new laptops, we can use the latest and greatest OS and be able to use older software on it, and yet be able to use other newer software as they come.

I don't see any complexity involved. In fact I think this promotes simplicity. Everyone would be using the same OS instead of XP for some, Vista for some, and so forth.

Besides, my selections of laptops from my vendors become limited when I have to go with XP for an employee. Not all of their laptops will sell with a downgrade. They'll have hundreds of configurations and brands and types of laptops, but maybe 10 are marked as downgrade-able.
 
Monkey God said:
Forcing people to upgrade...
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This has got to be the most ridiculous point ever made in discussions about Windows... will it ever end? Since when has someone held a gun to your head and forced you to buy or use Windows? Can anyone out there provide some tangible proof of said forced coercion? Please?
 
Joe Average said:
This has got to be the most ridiculous point ever made in discussions about Windows... will it ever end? Since when has someone held a gun to your head and forced you to buy or use Windows? Can anyone out there provide some tangible proof of said forced coercion? Please?
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You missed the point.
 
Monkey God said:
You missed the point.
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Nah I think he's spot on. There are vendors out there that offers XP downgrade for free. So even if you did get a copy of Vista and not use it, at least you got XP free. Think of it as paying for XP and getting Vista free.

My company's vendors are B2B Computers (b2bcomp.com) and Digerati Groups (buytech.com) in Chicago. They're awesome about downgrade deals.

But like I said, while downgrade is available, my choices of laptops are limited to a few. I don't think it's forced at all.
 
lol oy vey how many times do we have to repeat ourselves before people go "oooh I see".
 
DarkStryke said:
The major thing about this feature, while most seem to overlook that laugh at it, is this is a first step to start removing the legacy code from the current OS. That is the number one thing that will both improve performance and stability in all future windows iterations, removing the legacy bloat. Apple does this sometimes with an OS release but leaves people out to dry, windows moving forward will be able to leave the last gen behind in terms of core OS support, but also be able to support them via these virtualized application installs.

It's a win / win for pretty much everything but GPU intensive programs (at this point)
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Exactly, this will allow them to get rid of more of the older crap code from windows.

Monkey God said:
I get that


just leave them on XP or dual boost or virtualize. How does this bring anything new to the table? Whats the added value besides added complexity?
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If you only need to run 1 or 2 programs why make the user have to reboot just to use it real quick? I have 1 program that I can't use under Vista. However it works fine under XP. For me it would be easier for me to install this feature and be able to run it from inside of windows 7 instead of having to stop, close all my programs, reboot into xp, run what I need to run, then reboot back into windows 7 and go about my work again.

htpc_user said:
If you want to use Windows XP, then why don't you just install Windows XP?
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As people said, they want windows 7 and it functionality but still want to run an older program or two.


Like people said, if you don't like this feature then do use it. You don't have to download it, you don't have to install it and you don't have to use it.
 
Since this is a separate download anyone consider that this might work with Vista, this would be a sweet program. LOL, I for one would use it to get back my image viewer or play Quake III...I know Quake Live, but I know people who still play it.
 
DarkStryke said:
The major thing about this feature, while most seem to overlook that laugh at it, is this is a first step to start removing the legacy code from the current OS. That is the number one thing that will both improve performance and stability in all future windows iterations, removing the legacy bloat.
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Bingo. While I don't think this was necessarily the primary focus of this feature, it (hopefully) will allow a better approach for legacy support from Microsoft moving forward.
 
Sounds like a great feature; I'll certainly use it for some of my programs. It'll be far more convenient than the VirtualBox VM that I have to fire up for legacy programs. I wonder if it'll work with programs that install their own drivers (I'm looking at you Cisco 32-bit-only VPN software)?

It's good that something like XP Mode was not included or offered with Vista (even though I probably would've loved it). Otherwise some programmers may never feel the need to update their software to be truly Vista/Win7 compatible.
 
RangerXML said:
Since this is a separate download anyone consider that this might work with Vista, this would be a sweet program. LOL, I for one would use it to get back my image viewer or play Quake III...I know Quake Live, but I know people who still play it.
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Huh, that is a good question.

I think I'm gonna give it a try when it's ready on my home Vista Ultimate 64 PC
 
You should be able to install that VPN software just fine on the virtual machine. But it'll only affect the virtual machine and not Windows 7.
 
Monkey God said:
Wow, now you have two OS's to support one on desktop.
I think this is a terrible idea. For those who HAVE to have XP, either dual boot or setup your own virtualization. Forcing people to upgrade and then giving them XP within Win7 is just stupid. Everything Microsoft does seems to be the antithesis of "keep it simple stupid."
Click to expand...

Probably because that saying is stupid itself?Why the hell wouldn't "Micirosoft giving you free, and awesomely improved, virtualization if you need it for programs that don't work in Vista" be a good thing?
 
Monkey God said:
just leave them on XP or dual boost or virtualize. How does this bring anything new to the table? Whats the added value besides added complexity?
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Dual booting is fucking stupid if all it is used for is old programs when you need them. Why not have them all run on teh same desktop?

Or did you not read the article and think its just a regular Virtual OS with no improvements?

Monkey God said:
....right....
Thats why when we buy our new laptops and desktops, we have to pay for vista licenses we dont use, and then re-install XP on each and every one. No additional cost or labor there.
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Can't you order it with no OS if you really want to use a license for an old OS you already have and custom install anyways? You're not gonna buy new licenses if you already have them.
 
Monkey God said:
For those who HAVE to have XP, either dual boot or setup your own virtualization. Forcing people to upgrade and then giving them XP within Win7 is just stupid. Everything Microsoft does seems to be the antithesis of "keep it simple stupid."
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I think I'd have to somewhat agree with the keep it simple stupid part. However, I do know that a lot of companies and businesses wish to stick as close to Microsoft native as possible. That meaning they do not want to have to go outside of MS for a solution to a problem. It puts the burden of support directly on MS. With this built in, I can only guess they're going to have to offer support for it as well. A lot of administrators will feel a "security" blanket by recommending 7 knowing they can call MS for any XP virtualization that might not work.
 
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