Some Intel Chips Don't Support 'XP Mode'

This Windows XP mode for W7 makes me look forward to upgrading from my E2180 even more. I'm a fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, and for nostalgia's sake, I'd like to be able to run all 5 HoMM games on my PC. Unfortunately, Vista 64 can only run HoMM 3 and up, 1 and 2 must be 16 bit programs.
 
Never thought VT would be useful. My CPU has it, but the VT didn't enter into my decision at the time. Seems it's going to become quite important though.
 
The author claims to have an E6600 in an older mac and then in the linked mac article, he states he has it in an iMac...pretty sure the E6600 was never in any mac. Infact, I don't think there has been a LGA 775 mac.
 
ND40oz said:
The author claims to have an E6600 in an older mac and then in the linked mac article, he states he has it in an iMac...pretty sure the E6600 was never in any mac. Infact, I don't think there has been a LGA 775 mac.
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There have been plenty of LGA775 Macs.
 
Dan_D said:
There have been plenty of LGA775 Macs.
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Which ones, the mini and old intel imac were both mobile based and the mac pros were 771 and now 1366 based. Are the latest imacs 775 based? Even if they were, they wouldn't be running a processor that's almost 3 years old would they?
 
I always wondered if the decision to disable VT on so many processor and for so long was going to come back and bite Intel in the ass. I always thought it was a dumb move considering how hard different companies were pushing virtualization. Sure, most people who would gain an immediate benefit from hardware VT support made sure to get processors with it, but there was always the option of it becoming more mainstream. This is a case where it became mainstream and Intel marketing screwed the pooch.

 
Good thing i am amd still. I knew something like this was going to happen.
 
Captain Picard said:
This Windows XP mode for W7 makes me look forward to upgrading from my E2180 even more. I'm a fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic series, and for nostalgia's sake, I'd like to be able to run all 5 HoMM games on my PC. Unfortunately, Vista 64 can only run HoMM 3 and up, 1 and 2 must be 16 bit programs.
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I think there are virtualization programs that do not require hardware support, though? The old version of Virtual PC had a check box where you could turn off hardware assisted virualization.

Yay! My CPU can support emulating a 9 year old operating system!
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For now, that's the only advantage of hardware virtulization in Win7 and it's not very useful for most users. You can always dual boot if you absolutely need XP.

However, I think virtualization is going to become much bigger in the future (Win8 and onward), and be used more heavily. By then, most will probably have replaced their current CPUs anyway, but if you plan on keeping your system for a long time, it's a good idea to check and make sure it supports AMD-V or Intel VT.
 
There is another possibility: VMware Player.

Admittedly, I'm biased, I work at VMware.

Besides the fact that VMware Player is already free, there's also the fact that VMware's products have an excellent software-mode that we actually use in preference over the hardware-virtualization of some models of processors.

Someone else in this thread already mentioned that you could use various desktop virtualization programs with an XP VM on them, but another possibility... the rumor I heard running around the office this morning, was that some of our devs were working on writing something so that we can hijack the hidden "XP Mode" VM, and run it in Player-- essentially making it so that you can use the same mechanism that Microsoft built, but with our more-compatible hypervisor.

I don't know if/when we'd ship that, but it's something to keep in mind if you have an incompatible processor.
 
ND40oz said:
Which ones, the mini and old intel imac were both mobile based and the mac pros were 771 and now 1366 based. Are the latest imacs 775 based? Even if they were, they wouldn't be running a processor that's almost 3 years old would they?
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The tower Macs put out before the Mac Pro using similar chassis were LGA775 based.
 
I tried it on my lappy that uses the T7200 and that was a no go so I am using VirtualBox instead.
 
My overclocked and overworked e2140 doesnt have it, but I happily use virtualbox all the time anyway, so Its not big loss.
 
Bohica69 said:
Thanks for the suggestion, I think I have booth softwares around here somewhere. The only thing I was looking forward to the parallels like zero distinction* of the programs... I'm trying to find a way to phrase it but I'll give you an example.

We JUST wen tot ie7 because supposedly some program required it. We had been holding off because we didn't want to confuse our users with the slightly different interface. When we made the district wide change we got calls about the setup screen for the search provider then the ones for the anti fishing. We set a policy for it not to show it was a big deal, they had like 10 minute long instructions on how to set the things for every class!


With that said I don't even want to think of the horror of getting them to run a virtual host and login to run a program even if we scripted it to run at start full screen to make them think that is their only work environment. Hopefully we can stick with XP or better yet KILL ALL THE LEGACY SOFTWARE! Sorry but it is a baine in my existance.

P.S. I wonder if VMWare server would run better with it (as in is the optimization avaliable for the free product).
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Dan_D said:
The tower Macs put out before the Mac Pro using similar chassis were LGA775 based.
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The tower mac before the Mac Pro (socket 771) was the Power Mac G5 which ran a PowerPC G5. It was retired in Aug of 06, when the 5000X based Mac Pro was released.
 
Yes, I fail to see why this is blamed on MS. When was the last time the average user used VT? oh yeah... never. New tech means new stuff to buy. vicious cycle but its always there.
 
This is just plain stupid. From day 1 of MSFT mentioning this new Virtual XP option they have said it requires hardware virtualization support. Why the hell do people keep on saying this over and over and over again when we've know it from day 1?



Mourge said:
There is another possibility: VMware Player.

Admittedly, I'm biased, I work at VMware.

Besides the fact that VMware Player is already free, there's also the fact that VMware's products have an excellent software-mode that we actually use in preference over the hardware-virtualization of some models of processors.

Someone else in this thread already mentioned that you could use various desktop virtualization programs with an XP VM on them, but another possibility... the rumor I heard running around the office this morning, was that some of our devs were working on writing something so that we can hijack the hidden "XP Mode" VM, and run it in Player-- essentially making it so that you can use the same mechanism that Microsoft built, but with our more-compatible hypervisor.

I don't know if/when we'd ship that, but it's something to keep in mind if you have an incompatible processor.
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VMWare player is nice and all, but where are you going to get the virtual machine setup from in the first place? Unless there is a free way to do that (which I've never seen) you need to purchase VMWare Workstation to actually do anything unless you know of a place to get them pre-setup and just needing a serial number.

Otherwise people can just use the plain old Virtual PC and install it that way like they could in the past.
 
I'm going to make a prediction that, by the time Windows 7 goes gold/RTM, and starts actually shipping on OEM hardware, that - more likely than not - every machine that comes with Windows 7 preinstalled will be using a processor that's got VT-x support. We already know Intel is ramping up producting of newer chips with VT-x support so they'll be ready to be installed in such machines, now it's just a matter of time.

I'd say probably by September/October, every processor that Intel sells in quantity (and probably AMD also) will offer VT-x support, including Celerons and Semprons...

We'll see what happens.
 
EXreaction said:
VMWare player is nice and all, but where are you going to get the virtual machine setup from in the first place? Unless there is a free way to do that (which I've never seen) you need to purchase VMWare Workstation to actually do anything unless you know of a place to get them pre-setup and just needing a serial number.
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Server is free and lets you setup VMs. I just hate the interface on it though. I'm not sure if Workstation went to the same interface or not, but I really miss the older server interface.
 
Could care less if my cpu can handle "XP mode" or not. When I buy 7 I won't give XP a second thought.
 
I haven't touched XP in over 3 years. VT is useful for a lot people but I am not one of them. No loss for me.
 
My CPU supports it, but it didn't work after enabling it in the BIOS. The XP virtual machine kept telling me I didn't have support or needed to enable it. It ended up working though after I completely disconnected the power from my PC and then booted. Weird.
 
Almost all of the newer cpus should be supported, only a few don't have it. Then those targeted for low end like celerons are also lacking it.
 
who cares.. xp sucks... i had to jump on a computer with xp the other day.. the start menu pissed me off and i ended up getting so frustrated... now that im used to the swiftness of vista's layout i can't go back to xp.... it's like owning a lamborghini and trading it in for a 3-legged retarded donkey..
 
i thought when i started using vista that i would always have love for xp... after using it the other day.. i realised all my love was gone and all that was left was a burnt out husk of nostalgia... fuck XP..
 
Why is this an issue? V-XP is intended for the business audience. It's only packaged with Win7 Pro and Ultimate. The vast majority of consumers won't ever see it. It also is too slow for gaming, so most people will have no use for it. It's non issue.
 
bonsai said:
Why is this an issue? V-XP is intended for the business audience. It's only packaged with Win7 Pro and Ultimate. The vast majority of consumers won't ever see it. It also is too slow for gaming, so most people will have no use for it. It's non issue.
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Agreed. Something most non-IT people don't realize or stop to think about is that it also requires a valid XP license in addition to your Windows 7 license. IMO, it's just a sneaky marketing ploy by Microsoft to pull in your average Joe who doesn't know anything about how VM's work. All they see is "all my XP stuff will work perfect in Windows 7...yay!"
 
What's funny is that my $500 compaq laptop supports VT but my q8200 doesn't. How is it that the q8200 is supposed to be higher end than the q6600 but doesn't come with VT support?

I hope AMD exploits the shit out of this in the business sector.
 
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