Windows XP mode has been designed for small and medium sized businesses and will ease the migration towards Windows 7. There are still quite some older applications on the market that are not completely compatible with Windows 7. Most of the applications that runs well in Windows Vista will run well on Windows 7. For those applications that don’t work well you can use Windows XP mode. Windows XP mode will come with a pre-defined Windows XP Service Pack 3  virtual machine. On this VM you install your applications that have compatibility issues. Virtual PC for Windows 7 allows you to autopublish the installed applications onto your Windows 7 machine. From here you can that start the (XP) applications embedded into your Windows 7 machine.

For customers that manage several Windows PCs running Windows XP Mode and want to simplify management tasks, we offer Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.


New Features in Windows XP Mode RC

Based on feedback from the Windows XP Mode beta, we’ve made several improvements to the usability of Windows XP Mode for small and medium-sized business users:

  • You can now attach USB devices to Windows XP Mode applications directly from the Windows 7 task-bar. This means your USB devices, such as printers and flash drives, are available to applications running in Windows XP Mode, without the need to go into full screen mode.
  • You can now access Windows XP Mode applications with a “jump-list”. Right click on the Windows XP Mode applications from the Windows 7 task bar to select and open most recently used files.
  • You now have the flexibility of customizing where Windows XP Mode differencing disk files are stored.
  • You can now disable drive sharing between Windows XP Mode and Windows 7 if you do not need that feature.
  • The initial setup now includes a new user tutorial about how to use Windows XP Mode.

Please note: Windows XP Mode RC requires RC or RTM version of Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise. It also requires additional 1 GB of RAM, 15 GB of available disk space, and processor capable of hardware virtualization with AMD-V or Intel VT turned on in the BIOS.

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