RSSXP Mode is for real: First 'Windows Virtual PC' beta accompanies Windows 7 RC
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published April 30, 2009, 4:18 PM
Validating the news we received last week of the existence of a virtualization layer, Microsoft this morning unveiled for MSDN and TechNet subscribers the first beta a new and special edition of its virtualization software specifically for Windows 7. Its first release candidate went live to those subscribers also this morning, and will be available to the general public next Tuesday.
Windows Virtual PC already has its own Web site. It's the next edition in the chain whose current version is called "Virtual PC 2007," although this time, the software is specifically geared for Windows 7, and for computers with virtualization support in hardware. That covers nearly all modern CPUs anyway, but specifically Intel-brand CPUs with Intel-VT and AMD-brand CPUs with AMD-V.
Think of the new "Windows Virtual PC" (WVPC) as Hyper-V for the client side. Although the technology credited with this innovation is still being called Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), the new Web site is reporting that WVPC will be supported on all Windows 7 SKUs including Home Basic and Home Premium. "XP Mode," however, will only work on Enterprise, Professional, and Ultimate SKUs.
![A network application that requires Windows XP appears to run fine in Windows 7 under 'XP mode' virtualization. [Photo credit: Microsoft Corp.]](http://images.betanews.com/media/3209.jpg "A network application that requires Windows XP appears to run fine in Windows 7 under 'XP mode' virtualization. [Photo credit: Microsoft Corp.]")
Up to now, Virtual PC users have been accustomed to hosting guest desktops within a hypervisor layer. Betanews uses Virtual PC 2007 (and Sun VirtualBox for hosting 64-bit Windows and Linux systems) almost every day in testing. The new version is very obviously being geared for everyday use by general users rather than testers like us. Borrowing a cue from its application virtualization, sometimes called SoftGrid, the new WVPC will enable some guest environments to seamlessly integrate with the host desktop.
That feature will get the most use in conjunction with what's being called "Windows XP Mode." It will be distributed as a kind of drop-in, apparently containing the XP kernel. Setting up this drop-in with WVPC will apparently be "wizard-ized," with some functions automated -- so it won't be like installing Windows XP on a PC, a process that nobody in his right mind really wants to re-live. Once completed, users should have the ability to run Windows XP programs that have misbehaved in Vista up to now, within an envelope more conducive to XP, but without separating the "XP realm" from the "Windows 7" realm.
That's especially important because typical hosted environments run only from virtual hard drives. XP Mode will be able to coexist with the user's regular physical drive, sharing either or both drive letters and permitted directories, as well as contents of the system clipboard.
One way you will definitely be able to spot an XP program, however, is by looking for that cobalt-blue window frame we all remember...and grew a little tired of.
The new edition of the virtualizer software will also support XP, Vista, and Win7 itself in the traditional hosted desktop. But also according to Microsoft, "applications modes" for Vista and also Win7 (for instance, disabling a tested application's ability to contact the host OS) are also feasible, even though XP Mode will be the only drop-in available at present.
One very big question that Microsoft has not yet addressed -- and which Betanews is pressing the company on right this moment -- concerns licensing. While it appears WVPC itself will remain free just as Virtual PC 2007 has been, the XP Mode drop-in appears to contain the XP kernel. So will users who have already purchased and activated XP at some point in their lives, have to purchase it again? Or will they get a discount? Or can users who have a real XP installation disc use it to validate their ownership? Once Microsoft gets back to us on those questions, we'll let you know the answers.
a question that comes to mind for those who have xp on one machine, an older one and who plans on buying a newer machine for win7 with virtual pc.
most people may not realize that if winxp is installed on virtual pc, it will require activation.
the conundrum is that winxp is already activated on the older machine
and microsoft prohibits that same product key to be re-installed on a different machine.
if winxp is going to be installed via virtual pc on a new win7 machine, one would have to buy a new license - or would they????
what is microsoft expectation for customers who buy win7 and want to use winxp via vpc, to also buy a new license for their winxp?
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|"most people may not realize that if winxp is installed on virtual pc, it will require activation."
The XPM does *not* require a separate purchased license. It comes fully installed and activated.
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|I think it's always important that should Microsoft introduce anything new, that we organize a gang of Linux users to tell all and sundry that it's rubbish. OK gang all over to the Microsoft forums and tell them what we think, and as we'll be in the vicinity lets also drop in on the Opera forum again, tell them if their browser gets any slower it'll be quicker to walk. Chrome rocks, Firefox sucks, are you with me lads ?
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|There's already a strong resistence against what in the words of the European Commision is an "abuse of dominant position in the market". More than 70 % of users have resisted and keep using XP, and many banks, governements and big corporations are already using Linux for their servers or keep using Windows 2000. This time Microsoft has not all cards in their hands.
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|Here goes my 5 cents.
I think this is an illegal and unfair way to compete with other similar products that are older, better and faster.
Do you remember the situations with Java ou IE?
Kind regards
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|How on earth is this illegal or unfair?
???
Wow...
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|@ tontito: "I think this is an illegal and unfair way..."
Not illegal. But not taking into account the wishes of the appalling majority of customers, using all kind of tricks to force them to throw away their present hardware on one side, and to buy a preinstalled and increasingly more and more bloated software to do the same tasks that they are doing now when they buy the needed new hardware on the other side, is not exactly a moral virtue.
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|For the corporate enviroment it may end working (sort of).
The worst (comercial) emulation product I ever saw is MS VPC, integrating the pack deep inside the OS sounds (a lot) like what Apple did with with System 9 years ago. But the difference with Apple is that they make things work as good as possible.
For the rest of the humans which meet the requirements (half brain), Virtualbox will still be the best way.
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|Seriously, Scott M. Fulton, you have got it all wrong when you tell people to think "XP mode" as Hyper-V for the client.
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|I must say that it took them long enough to finally enable USB support. Kudos! :)
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|@pctool
whats up (down) with the votes against your comments..!?
frankly, betanews should dump the voting feature and replace it with multi level threading for "real" discussions - intellectual or otherwise.
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|Methinks the one and only Dave has never truly left us. :)
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|Simple:
Fatty.
He's finally realized he can't discuss anything MSFT related on an intellectual level so he's taken to the last refuge of the criminally ignorant and decided to mod the comments of his enemies down.
What's most amusing is that anyone would spend so much time and effort on people they disagree with (when it's not in an effort to reach agreement). I mean, really...how obsessed with someone do you have to be to pull this kind of stunt on a daily basis?
I feel so loved... ;)
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|@pct
not sure how to interprete your response.
my question / comment was based on an genuine concern because i believe everyone is entitled to make comments and a discussion shouldn't be ranked or scored.
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|*shrug*
I wasn't insulting you or arguing with you, I was explaining who is doing the spam-modding, and why.
Frankly, it really doesn't matter. No-one really places any value on those moderations, and of the few who might...does anyone really care that they do?
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|You can vote on threads? ;-)
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|Look on the bright side, PC_Tool: In RL one actually has to cross the street to avoid the drunken, pee-smelling, ranting hobos. Here they have a red thumb to click on repeatedly while the rest of us get on with our lives.
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|Get on with our lives?
What is this "lives" thing you speak of? I have often heard of such a thing, but believed it to be nothing more than fantasy. Are you now telling me there *is* such a thing??
;-)
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|i think yount is correct.....he is still creeping around here =P
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|IMHO they are paving the way to stop totally the support of XP after building up a new OS to do the same things, but requiring an incompatible hardware.
I've been running XP for many years and it's ages since I don't need any support of Microsoft but the support given by firewall, antivirus and software creators, and of the hardware periphericals, spare parts and driver providers.
The moment they declare that they will not support Windows XP any more all those contributors, who are our real supporters, will stop working for it, forcing us users to buy new computers and periphericals in a short time for the lack of spare parts and drivers, just the same way they did when Microsoft stopped support for Windows 98. This system did not die a natural death but was murdered by the coincidence of interests of many hardware manufacturers, through the signal given to them by Microsoft when the corporation declared the end of its life cycle.
I wonder why should I buy but what I need. Is this a really free market?
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|I am confused, did someone hold a gun to your head and say you MUST upgrade to Windows 7? I know plenty of people running Windows 98 or 2000 and are just happy with it. No, you do not get security updates, but again, no one is FORCING YOU to use other than what works for you. It's called progress, don't hold it up just because you want to stick with an aging operating and computer system.
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|@pcforbes
yeah, sounds interesting.
at this time microsoft's competition is not really the other software developers but it is in competition with itself and the vpc is the tool being marketed as the "cure" or a "referrie"
its likely that the history books will show that winxp was the worlds most popular o.s. while vista will show to be a "disaster".
so win7 will have to work very hard to superceed / compete with winxp.
what vpc will provide microsoft vendors is to remove the existing stock of winxp machines off the shelves and the manufacturers can move on to manufacturing newer products and of course, it will help microsoft move and sell more winxp although people who have already paid for the vista or win7 oem on their new computers.
its is simply a marketing strategy or a con, depending on which side of the fence one is.
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|@FixXXer:
Nobody tried to use a gun against me, of course. Try to buy compatible parts to repair a Windows 98 machine: they dissapeared from most of hardware provider shelves one month after Microsoft declared the end of the lifecycle of the OS. Of course, what is good for the hare is bad for the hound, but both animals deserve to be respected. In this case the hares are we the customers, and we have theoretically the right to decide what is valid for us, because we are the ones who pay and work. But we are not protected at all, just the opposite of what happens with them. We are totally in their hands.
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|Again, if you chose to use Windows 98 or Windows XP, you cannot hold anyone else accountable for that decision. Vendors will support what is current and will only provide drivers for older OS's for a limited time. Motor vehicle companies and other electronics companies do the same thing. You have to cut a product loose after a while. You are at no one's mercy but your own. You can find hardware replacements if you decide to hold on to that aging PC if you are determined enough. One only has to scour the depths of ebay to find replacement cards for older PC's and the internet has a plethora of old drivers for you to find.
Case and point, do not hold Microsoft accountable for the fact that progress has to move forward and you want to stick with something that just works. I moved to Windows Vista and haven't looked back. It runs fantastic, FOR ME, and I will gladly move to Windows 7 on this 4 year old PC. No one is forcing me to move to Windows 7, I am doing this by choice, just like you are choosing to stick with XP. We cannot expect a company like Microsoft to continue supporting the OS forever. They put out a product lifecycle when the product is released as they always have and consumers are free to look for it. Windows XP will be reaching its EOL very shortly.
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|I'm not against progress. I welcome every new Microsoft product, and I will upgrade as soon as I see it convenient for me. I am not stuck to anything. What I consider to be almost a conspiration is the fact that since the very day in which Microsoft says "support is over" hardware spare parts will presumably dissappear from the shelves of all providers in less than one month and not exactly because of the lack of demand for them, but to artificially force the sale of new computers as already happened in the case of Windows 98. This is not a free market normal practice. I may keep using my machine without any support of Microsoft, but not without spare parts, and that's what I mean when I say that we are all in their hands and without legal protection.
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|I can still get parts for my DeLorean. ;-)
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|Just that's what I mean. Computer hardware comes almost totally from asian countries and not from America or Europe, and providers have almost no limits in their commercial practices. I had to change my Windows 98 machine about 40 days after support ended because I could not find new spare parts and did not want to make repairs by using second hand pieces.
For a contrast last week I have renewed the gearbox of my 1991 Ford Sierra made in Germany just in the local Ford Service and using original parts.
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|If you could not find parts then you did not look hard enough. I just found some old 16MB S3 Virge video cards by SEARCHING FOR 25 SECONDS on ebay, amazon marketplace and various listings on other auction or used part sites. If you do not want used parts, that is another story. People stop producing them because, financially, it does not make sense to keep producing and supporting older hardware when a good portion of the users will be moving to newer hardware. Just because YOU might not want used hardware does not mean it does not exist. Especially in these economic times, you surely cannot expect a company to continue to lay down support for an OS that is 10+ years old. The drivers don't disappear off the net nor will the old hardware. You just have to search.
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|According to the rules of free market, as explained by Adam Smith, customers create a demand and afterwards offer is born to satisfy it. Just the opposite happens in Cuba, China, North Corea or in the delivery of new new spare parts to home computer users. This is not in any way a Microsoft fault: any technology improvement is always welcome, they are not hardware providers and home users are far from being the most important part of the market.
The spare parts come almost exclusively from asian countries, just there where almost nobody pays a license to Microsoft for using any of their products because it is there where the champions of piracy and also of virus design are working.
BTW, even when I don't have any evidence of it, I am convinced that viruses come also essentially from the same sources. They use it as a way to increase sales of hardware provided with pirate OS copies in their own densely populated countries while the product is still supported by Microsoft. When the product is not supported any more by Microsoft they use the already described spare parts procedure. Microsoft suffers not only the loss in the product prestige but also in the need to spend a lot of money in the design of security updates to support the owners of paid licenses.
Well, I think I am not descovering anything new, this is a simple comment trying to see things as they really are and sharing it with you.
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|People will b*tch no matter what Microsoft does. If they walked on water you would say LOOK THEY CANT SWIM!!
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|i don't think that "I" was b****ing.
the basis for my comments is based on something called "effeciency"
but the cost to benefit ratio for providing the free vpc is financially gainful for microsoft.
microsoft will stand to earn additional revenue as a result of vpc because consumers who "demand" or are "desperate" to have winxp on their new vista or win7 machines will pay again if they want xp on their vista or soon to be win7 pc's.
further, vpc ensures that there are no compatibility issues between having to different o.s.'s. without vpc, winxp could not be functional as a standalone on the new vista or soon to be win7 machines.
on the other hand, if microsoft were on the side of the consumer and save them money i would simply incorporate the winxp theme and services in vista and win7 pcs to come.
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|"on the other hand, if microsoft were on the side of the consumer and save them money i would simply incorporate the winxp theme and services in vista and win7 pcs to come."
Incompatibilities of having multiple API's?
Bloat from supporting a multitude of outdated (and insecure) programming models?
Security risks from offering API compatibility for API's that have proven to be highly vulnerable?
Yeah...that's all good for the consumer, right?
I think it's far better to offer "compatibility" on an as-needed basis, via download. Far fewer people will put themselves at risk and far fewer people will waste that extra 1.3GB of space...
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|i am not convinced virtual pc should be the only method for virtualizing winxp.
why install two o.s.'s when one is sufficient.
then by the use of themes and enabling/disabling services and features, win7 or vista can be tuned down to mimic a winxp o.s.
perhaps, it is financially accomadating by assuring that customers pay/buy/purchase seperate o.s.'s.
pity on microsoft for making fools of the world.
perhaps, the pity is on the customers who will actually buy a winxp o.s. to install on their paid version of win7 or vista.
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|The reason for this adjunct to Win 7 is that programs that can,will not run properly on on this new O/S will,so in future new O/S,s will not be hampered by trying to to link,emualate in the the new system.So in future versions,they can develop,and not be emelascuated bye older versions?
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|??? Morrig: What??
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|It sounds like they're doing more than just slapping VirtualPC & a copy of XP (I bet it'll be crippled in some way) together. The SoftGrid-like feature will make a big difference in usability. I just hope they'll eventually offer the ability to do the same thing with Linux.
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|Of course it will be crippled. Admins aren't going to want users to be able to access much at all.
About all that will be available in the environment are the legacy apps that the administrators put in the image.
The main focus of it is to simply have the legacy applications show up in the Win 7 start-menu. Nothing really beyond that.
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|the correct link is:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/
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|More screenshots: http://tinyurl.com/XPM-Seven-7100
I'm recommending this one :) Just see
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|Scott: Second link in the article, tied to, "Windows Virtual PC already has its own Web site. " is broken. It drops everything after "virtual-".
Not a huge problem since the download won't be available until the 5th....
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|I feel sorry for the sad little person with 10 alternate logins who votes down most of PC_Tool's posts. Sure, Tool can occasionally be a troll when the mood strikes him, but this is just pathetic.
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|Will this allow me to install old games using 16-bit installers under Windows 7 x64?
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|Will this allow me to install old games using 16-bit installers under Windows 7 x64?
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|Nope. That's more of a processor architecture issue. If I'm not mistaken, when the CPU runs in 64-bit mode, it needs to have a hard reset before it can work in 16-bit mode. I remember reading this somewhere but I can't recall where at the moment.
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|plus, if i understand correctly, XP Mode is geared more for applications, like ones used within a business, not gaming. So you'll still need to have a virtual machine running something like Windows 98 to use 16-bit programs
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|ramday: Google "Dosbox"
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|because some people want to have an updated OS that is not 10 years old. face it the time is coming where software will not support XP just like windows 2000
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|It has already been said that users of 7 Professional, Ulimate and Enterprise will have access to a free and fully activated copy of Windows XP.
Even the FAQ says it http://www.microsoft.com...ual-pc/support/faq.aspx
Does Windows XP come with Windows Virtual PC?
No. Windows XP Mode, a single virtual copy of Windows XP SP3, is available for download free of charge from http://www.microsoft.com...virtual-pc/default.aspx for PCs running Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise.
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|Why?
Add this extra complexity for zero return.
What exacly is the benefit to a user ?
Just stick with XP or switch OS
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|Simple: To allow users to be able to use their legacy applications, which in itself is nothing new, on the newer OS. There's always a demand for using legacy apps, until they are eventually updated or a new one takes it's place. The big difference here than in previous OS compatibility is that instead of coding it in the system, you simply have a plugin with the XP core. As far as the applications are concerned they are running on an XP system so you don't haveto worry about compatibility problems. At least that's my understanding of the concept. This is a good direction with handling applications compatibility in the future.
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|Because there are situations that are outside your realm of experience.
Enterprises can use this to gain the enhanced management and security of Windows 7 (even greater when combined with WS2008) while still delaying the cost of re-tooling their legacy apps for compatibility.
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|This is an easy one. I just bought a new i7 processor system running Vista 64. I have a program that costs $1500 to upgrade that won't run on a 64 bit OS. Why stay behind with just one app.
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|Which app? If it's a graphics app that utilizes DirectX, you'll want to hang back at 32-bit until you have no other options. XPM won't virtualize DirectX.
Ditch Vista x64 for a 32-bit OS (Xp, Vista, Win7, whatever works) for now until they offer a new version of your app you simply can't do without and upgrade then.
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|What complexity? This is the most seamless integration and execution of a virtualization layer I've ever seen.
Virtual PC 2005/2007 / VMware / VirtualBox:
Install (insert preferred virtual machine program here), install guest OS, install guest OS additions (for desktop integration), install and run older application in virtual guest environment (once you've launched one of the aforementioned programs and allowed the guest OS to boot first, of course).
Virtual PC Beta:
Install and run older application. Done.
Wow... really complex.
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|Yes, let's switch operating systems and increase our TCO 3 fold by trying to teach users how to operate a new operating system. I would of course assume you mean *nix since you complain that Windows 7's Virtualization layer is too "complex".
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|Don't know what you're talking about? Here, let me try and fix that for ya:
XPM is *not* "another operating system to buy and support and train users on". XPM is, from the end user standpoint, non-existent. All they will see is an application icon in their start-menu for an application that normally would not work under Win7. That application will *use* XPM to run. That's it.
From an admin/support perspective, one image, one base upon which to install your legacy applications, one push via SMS. No additional training, no additional OS installs. Nadda.
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|