Windows 7, Secret Feature revealed....
Saturday, April 25, 2009 by butch123 | Discussion: Personal Computing
Windows 7, Secret Feature revealed....
Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera have just unveiled a new feature of Windows 7 today that they have been forced to keep a lid on for quite some time. Introducing Windows XP Mode (XPM) for Windows 7!
Over a month ago, we were briefed about a secret Microsoft technology that we 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, we 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, we 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.)
More news - HERE - http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/24/secret-no-more-revealing-virtual-windows-xp-for-windows-7.aspx
Screenshots - HERE - http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/xp_mode_pre_shots.asp
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Reply #42 Thursday, April 30, 2009 12:05 PM
http://gear.ign.com/articles/976/976242p1.html
Intersting that they ommited it can't be done remotely. The hacker has to be physically at your computer! Besides, you can do this in any OS on the market.... 
Reply #43 Thursday, April 30, 2009 12:45 PM
This was exactly what I thought when I read the article in the news the other day. I know from the industry I'm in (medical transcription), that transcription services have a platform built for them for transcriptionists to work on, and when Vista came along, some companies upgraded their platform to be Vista compatible, but others didn't (trying to stay competitive by not spending money on nonprofitable expenses). By including XP mode, they've just opening up the Win7 market for transcriptionists who work for companies with XP-only platforms.
Well see, I don't really have a choice now, do I? If I want to work, i.e., if I want to have an income, eat, have a roof over my head, etc., in the business I'm in, I'm going to have to be a Microsoft borg. None of the platforms of the companies that I know of run off of Apple, Linux, or any of the other alternative OS's out there. I sure would love to get out of this business, it sure doesn't pay what it used to now that automatic speech recognition has come along, but I've got debts, expenses, a family that depends on me to provide for the next year at least until they become independent, and not enough lifespan to make the expensive of going back to college for vocational retraining in a separate field pay off. Yup...they got me all right. Sure beats sleeping on a park bench, though.
Reply #44 Thursday, April 30, 2009 5:27 PM
At my last position we had a few people still running Win3.1 so they could run arcahic mainframe emulation. And many of our clients had custom designed software that practically demanded Win95/98. The same is true for XP in some cases.
Upgrading to Vista (just for the support issues) was near impossible. If Win7 allows for seamless XP emulation then a number of problems could be resolved and the cost of ownership would be reduced significantly.
This is a huge win for MS.
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Reply #41 Saturday, April 25, 2009 9:27 PM
Not trying to flame, but why does this seem typical of these forums?
They are offering this primarily for businesses. If you don't like it, don't use it! 