Full XP inside Windows 7
One of the big talk tickets in recent months has been the ability to run applications in the so-called "XP mode" in Windows 7 In practice, we are talking about a version of Windows XP Professional, running in a virtual PC.
It is not, however, not particularly remarkable in itself. There are namely, many virtualization solutions on the market.
What primarily distinguishes Windows Virtual PC from the others is that the integration with Windows 7 is virtually seamless, and that a full Windows XP license is included with the solution.
This means that if you purchase the Professional, Business or Ultimate editions of Windows 7 when the time comes, you will get an XP license on the purchase.
Be downloaded separately
The virtual version of XP be downloaded separately. The same must be whit the virtual PC, which is a windows program that emulates a real PC, with hardware and all. This program is called Windows Virtual PC, and is based on Virtual PC 2007 and 2004, which has been available as free downloads from Microsoft for several years.
Then you will find Windows XP as an option on the Start menu, and when you first start it prompts you to define your username and password, before, after a few minutes, get up an application window, where the operating system is running - in parallel with Windows 7
You can maximize the window and work directly in the virtual PC, but it is not what is the main purpose. There are in fact the programs that are important, and they can run as if they were standard Windows 7 applications.
Confused? It's really not that complicated.
Run applications directly
In the Virtual PC with Windows XP you can install the programs that do not work or who have trouble running seamlessly in Windows 7 These programs fall directly on the Start menu in Windows 7! Thus, the user need not relate to the virtual PC at all, everything happens in the background.
Not impressed with the performance
It requires a lot of your computer to run programs virtually. Not only must you have a processor that supports virtualization (that you can forget if your PC has a Sempron, Pentium, Atom or Celeron processor), you also need lots of memory and a good graphics card. And even with this in place, will not experience to be near what it would have been if the programs were run directly in Windows 7
Another limitation is the sound quality. To run the programs, which provide sound, is no fuss as long as they run through the Windows Virtual PC. Audio streams are clearly compressed, and artifacts reminiscent of terrible heavily compressed MP3 files.
Video playback was not a great experience, even lavoppløst material had a tendency to pick - the relatively powerful hardware, a PC with Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor (2 x 3 GHz) and 4 GB of memory. Support for virtualization, we had pre-activated in the PC's BIOS setup.
But as to the essential question: What programs are there really that can not be run in Windows 7? It is primarily older programs that do not require all the world's electricity, and such may work just great in Windows Virtual PC.
Preliminary conclusion
I have tried a variety of virtualization solutions in the past, and the feel of Windows Virtual PC is not impressive compared to what I had to with VirtualBox from SUN, which is also free and can run applications seamlessly - in Windows 7
The advantage of the Windows Virtual PC is first and foremost, as we have mentioned, a little closer integration with the "mother system" and the start menu, and of course that you do not need a separate Windows XP license to use the solution.
And so I rush to add that Windows Virtual PC is still in beta phase, and that much can be corrected before the final version is ready in the autumn.
