Endless Paradigm

Quote:Over a month ago, wee were briefed about a secret Microsoft technology that wee were told would be announced alongside the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) and would ship in final form simultaneously with the final version of Windows 7. This technology, dubbed Windows XP Mode (XPM, formerly Virtual Windows XP or Virtual XP, VXP), dramatically changes the compatibility story for Windows 7 and, wee believe, has serious implications for Windows development going forward. Here's what's happening.

XPM is built on the next generation Microsoft Virtual PC 7 product line, which requires processor-based virtualization support (Intel and AMD) to be present and enabled on the underlying PC, much like Hyper-V, Microsoft's server-side virtualization platform. However, XPM is not Hyper-V for the client. It is instead a host-based virtualization solution like Virtual PC; the hardware assistance requirement suggests this will be the logical conclusion of this product line from a technological standpoint. That is, wee fully expect future client versions of Windows to include a Hyper-V-based hypervisor.



XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). It will be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft web site. (That is, it will not be included in the box with Windows 7, but is considered an out-of-band update, like Windows Live Essentials.) XPM works much like today's Virtual PC products, but with one important exception: As with the enterprise-based MED-V (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization) product, XPM does not require you to run the virtual environment as a separate Windows desktop. Instead, as you install applications inside the virtual XP environment, they are published to the host (Windows 7) OS as well. (With shortcuts placed in the Start Menu.) That way, users can run Windows XP-based applications (like IE 6) alongside Windows 7 applications under a single desktop.

Obviously, XPM has huge ramifications for Windows going forward. By removing the onus of legacy application compatibility from the OS, Microsoft can strip away deadwood technology from future versions of Windows at a speedier clip, because customers who need to run older applications can simply do so with XPM. For Windows 7 specifically, XPM is a huge convenience, especially for Microsoft's corporate customers, who can of course control XPM behavior via standard Microsoft administration and management technologies like Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GP). And it significantly recasts the Windows 7 compatibility picture. Before, Microsoft could claim that Windows 7 would be at least as compatible as Windows Vista. Now, they can claim almost complete Windows XP compatibility, or almost 100 percent compatibility with all currently running Windows applications.

Wee've both been using and testing Virtual XP for over a month and wee we've been dying to communicate what wee've discovered, as you might imagine. So here's what you can expect. Paul will publish a high-level screenshot gallery on the SuperSite for Windows showing off Windows XP Mode and what it's like to run Windows XP and Windows 7 applications side-by-side. On Within Windows, Rafael will provide a deep technical dive into Windows XP Mode and explain how it works and how you can make it work the way you want. Later, Paul will add a Windows XP Mode article to his Windows 7 Feature Focus series as well. And of course wee'll be covering this feature in-depth in "Windows 7 Secrets," which will be published by Wiley & Sons later this year.

Thanks for reading!

Paul and Rafael

Source


Windows XP Mode running Word 2003 under XP and Word 2007 under Windows 7.

wonder if that includes drivers.. i hope so or im going to mac computers

In all honesty, I don't see why there's so much hype about this, especially at the consumer level.  I mean, you can run Office 2003 natively in Win7, can't you?
What does the virtualisation layer really do?  If all your apps work under Win7, why do you need it?  For drivers, it's rather pointless because there's limited ability for it to pass to the VM (unless MS is changing that) and even then, you're stuck with running everything in the VM to access them anyway (you may as well just run WinXP if that's the case).

Perhaps the only major use I can really see is running 16-bit apps from a 64-bit OS, but at the consumer level, there are really few 16-bit Windows applications that still exist. (DOS = Dosbox)

EDIT: found this too:

Quote:Windows 7's virtual 'XP mode' could mean support nightmares

Microsoft Corp.'s decision to give some Windows 7 users a tool to run Windows XP applications in a virtual machine may have been necessary to convince people to upgrade, but it could create support nightmares, analysts said today.

Last week, Microsoft announced that it would offer an add-on called Windows XP Mode (XPM) to users of Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise when the new operating system ships. Professional and Ultimate are the two highest-priced versions of Windows 7, while Enterprise is sold only through volume licensing agreements.

Microsoft was clear about XPM's purpose. "Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7," Scott Woodgate, director of Windows enterprise and virtualization strategy, said in a blog entry last Friday.

"I think that this will help the uptake for Windows 7, because it removes one more 'gotcha,' and that's never a bad thing to do," said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft.

The idea of using virtualization to provide backward compatibility for older applications is neither novel nor surprising, Cherry continued. He called it a nice "safety net" for users concerned about abandoning XP who don't have access to centrally managed MED-V (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization).

MED-V is available only to organizations that have a Software Assurance plan in place and also purchase Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). Microsoft launched MDOP 2009, which includes MED-V 1.0, earlier this month.

XPM is a smart, if necessary, move, given the reception users gave to Windows Vista, Cherry said. "Because of the way Vista was received -- it's got enough baggage already -- the more they can do to address all those things [Vista was criticized for] upfront with Windows 7, the more likely that people will go to the new OS," he said.

Michael Silver, an analyst at Gartner Inc., echoed Cherry's take on what motivated Microsoft to offer XPM. "It shows the extent to [which] Microsoft wants to get people who use XP onto Windows 7," he said.

But Silver sees some big downsides. "You'll have to support two versions of Windows," he said. "Each needs to be secured, antivirused, firewalled and patched. Businesses don't want to support two instances of Windows on each machine. If a company has 10,000 PCs, that's 20,000 instances of Windows."

The other big problem Silver foresees with XPM is that it may cause some companies to neglect the real task: making sure the software they run is compatible with Windows 7. "This is a great Band-Aid, but companies need to heal their applications," Silver said. "They'll be doing themselves a disservice if, because of XPM, they're not making sure that all their apps support Windows 7."

He also noted that while Microsoft is effectively extending the life span of Windows XP by offering it as a Windows 7 add-on, it hasn't budged on support. Microsoft shifted Windows XP out of mainstream support two weeks ago and will provide what it calls "extended" support only through mid-April 2014.

"[XPM] will give some a false sense of security," Silver warned. "What happens in 2014, when XP isn't supported anymore? I think companies will be much better off if they make all their applications run on Windows 7."

In the end, XPM illustrates a long-standing problem for Microsoft, said Silver: supporting aged applications. Silver and fellow Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald made waves last year when they argued that Windows was "collapsing" under the weight of nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions.

"This sheds some light on Microsoft's compatibility problems," Silver said today, "which slows people down in adopting the newest operating system. They're using this as a way to get Windows out there [on enterprise desktops] quicker, but this isn't the answer. It needs to morph into something that's supportable long-term."

Microsoft has said it will ship a beta of XPM "soon," but it has not pinned a more specific date to its availability. The company will, however, deliver Windows 7 Release Candidate to users of its MSDN and TechNet services on Thursday, and to the general public on May 5.

- Source: [Computerworld.com]

^
well, that makes is sound a lot less fun.

If makes posible to play those few games i can't play on win7, then that would be fine! i nevar could get VMware to run prob,. ;p

See whot the Beta is like!

^ VMs are typically slow so I personally wouldn't expect too much...

VM + games = :(

but...most of the games that don't work on Win7 will hardly need stupid resources


I want Dungeon Keeper 2, and i want Might and Magic 7...nether of which requires anything beyond the most basic tools from 5 years ago

For me, i consider this a win...

Wait Microsoft teamed up with Xzibit?

Yo dawg wee heard you like windows so wee put windows inside your windows so you can enjoy windows while using windows.

Kratosjohn Wrote:Wait Microsoft teamed up with Xzibit?

Yo dawg wee heard you like windows so wee put windows inside your windows so you can enjoy windows while using windows.