Secret No More: Revealing Windows XP Mode for Windows 7

[aidanjt]

Again, agreed it would be nice if accelerated host hardware were exposed to the VM guest but I'm not aware of any mainstream VM software that does (not sure about stuff like VMware on bare metal/Xen/KVM etc)

VMware Workstation and Player have some weak Direct3D9 support, VirtualBox has some weak OpenGL support. Xen and KVM have VMGL support, a little better performing, but obviously limited to Linux hosts, dunno about guests in that regard. All sub-par solutions so far, unfortunately.

That said, as I said this probably isn't aimed at that market, as that's not Microsoft's core market. It's more likely aimed at Enterprise who has some legacy accounting package or whatever.

Even still, the home user market is as every bit important as Microsoft's enterprise market. If they lose ground on the former, eventually they'll lose ground on the latter. The Home market is more or less where trends are set.

[Zak33]

It'll be interesting to see if this actually materialises in a shipping version, and if so, which versions, and more importantly, how well it lives up to the possibilities.

If it fulfils all that, it'll negate one of the reasons I haven't moved most of my machines to Vista. Not all of the reasons, but some one of them.

you and most of the Motor Trade.

This would be a master stroke

[digit]

Fantastic news, hopefully I can finally make use of my older mp3 players once more and update the tracks thus saving me money

[Singh400]

Rafael Rivera has posted Part 2 of his detailed look at WXPM...

...

As mentioned in that boring overview yesterday, Windows XP Mode (XPM) utilizes some key RDP (6.1+) technologies to enable seamless virtual application use in Windows 7. More specifically, Remote Applications and Application Publishing.

For those not Terminal Services wizards, these technologies may sound new. Application Publishing enables you to “install” an application on a client machine – at least as far as the user is concerned. Shortcuts and file-type associations are set up, just as a local installation would, but when the application is invoked it’s started on a server somewhere within your infrastructure. The Remote Applications piece then kicks in and draws the client UI in a very convincing manner.

...

Video included aswell Microsoft should release this publicly soon...

[Singh400]

Windows Virtual PC Evaluation Guide

Includes instructions on where to get WXPM and how to install/setup and use.

[DeludedGuy]

Is there an official release date for Windows 7 yet?

[badass]

For a business rollout, this is usefull.
As a user, this doesn't excite me at all. Its host based virtualisation rather than hypervisor based. Massive performance hits and compaltely impossible to use all but the simplest of games on.
Of course, say they rewrote DX9 in the XP VM so rather than processing things on the VM then passing them to the VIrtual VGA card which then gets passed to the host OS to be processed again, why not make an accelerated dx9 like the VMware accelerated network and HDD drivers?
DX commands are passed in a wrapper to the Host OS which then deals with them. Still a performance overhead but more like 10 - 50% which won't matter on non 7 compatible games as all modern ones will have W7/Vista patches or run in compatibility mode.
Of course, it would require a lot of work on Directx on the host OS but it's doable.

[Singh400]

So anyone tried this out yet? It's up for download from here.

Can't wait to try it out, just need to wipe my current tri-boot and get 7RC and Vista SP2 up and running.

[mycarsavw]

It'll be absorbing to see if this in fact materialises in a shipment version, and if so, which versions, and added importantly, how able-bodied it lives up to the possibilities.

If it fulfils all that, it'll abate one of the affidavit I haven't confused a lot of of my machines to Vista. Not all of the reasons, but some one of them. Well, this apparently isn't aimed at humans like you, but added action who are afraid to advancement from XP accustomed 1) the amount implications, and 2) affinity concerns. I accept this is declared to abode the closing for that mission analytical bequest appliance a lot of organisation's are abased upon.

Google Translate FTW

[Splash]

Well I had reason to try it out yesterday when I installed vSphere on my VMWare test box - the vSphere management client won't run on Win7 so I setup the Virtual WinXP to use it, and found all kinds of graphical oddities. I'm now running Sun VirtualBox with a Windows XP machine in seamless mode which works far better (ie it works).

Granted, I needed a spare XP license for this when I wouldn't have with VXP, but I can live with that.

[Shaunbarlow]

Good to see how they are thinking ahead by maximising software compatibility, whilst at the same time reducing the requirements in a Hardware sense. W7 could run on my old laptop, whereas vista wouldn't run properly at all on it

[tom.c.3]

this does sound very good...
i too have had trouble running some games in win7 64bit without knowing this mode existed! I will have to check it out....

[Splash]

this does sound very good...
i too have had trouble running some games in win7 64bit without knowing this mode existed! I will have to check it out....

It's not really any use for gaming as it doesn't support hardware acceleration.