XP Mode for Windows 7 – Good or Bad?

Windows 7

I just saw a posting at Engadget about how XP Mode for Windows 7 will be available as a free download on October 22nd.  While it requires Windows 7 Professional or greater, it will provide a way for you to run legacy apps in a virtualized environment.  What are your thoughts about this?  My personal opinion is that this will be an interesting proposition for Small Businesses that may have software not yet ready for Windows 7.

If you’ve ever played around with the “Compatibility Mode” built into previous versions of Windows (XP and Vista), you’ll know that the reliability of software utilizing compatibility mode is shaky at best.  However, XP Mode takes a completely new stance at “Compatibility Mode.”  XP Mode in Windows 7 is actually a combination of Microsoft’s “Virtual PC” product, and a pre-packaged virtual Windows XP (Service Pack 3) environment that runs in Virtual PC.   Basically, rather than rigging together an emulation of XP, you run the application within an actual installation of Windows XP.

While this may sound all fine and dandy, there are a few “gotcha’s” with the new XP Mode:

• Microsoft recommends you use a beefy system (>2GB RAM, an extra 15GB of disk space, and a beefy processor)
• Your processor needs to virtualization support built into the processor.  I doubt this is something you will be able to easily determine and your something you considered when you recently bought your “ready for Windows 7″ system!
• XP Mode is not a security solution – you will need to run antivirus software in both the “Virtualized” XP environment and on your actual machine.

So the moral of the story:  don’t let your one-off productivity or business app prevent you from taking advantage of Windows 7.   This implementation of compatibility has me far more hopeful that it will work, than any of Microsoft’s past implementations!  If you aren’t sure XP Mode is something you can tackle on your own, feel free to Contact Me for guidance!

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