Windows 7 Will Include "Windows XP Mode" – windows 7
It has been reported that Windows 7 will offer a virtualpc “Windows XP 7 Mode” when it releases on May 5, 2009. You will have to download a plugin, free of course for Release Candidate users and for pay by Ultimate and Professional users, in order to take advantage of this.According to Windows watcher Paul as quoted on Lifehacker
What’s XP mode? Thurrott, it’s a licensed, virtualized copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 running inside Microsoft’s own Virtual PC framework, customized and framed to allow anyone who needs a picky XP application to run to simply install it while XP Mode is enabled, then have it run as a virtualized app in the future without thinking about it.It is, in a way, a 100% compatibility promise, but it remains to be seen how smoothly Virtual PC can be integrated into Windows 7 itself.
I do not know how convenient this will be for many. I do know that I can currently run many of my XP programs in Winows 7 (unlike the many fails on Vista). It also recognizes my printers,speakers and other peripherals(also unlike Vista). There are a few XP based programs that I have that are not Windows Vista (or therefore 7) compatible that i would love to be able to run, even if temporarily, on a virtual pc until the 3rd party software companies catch up. We shall see.
