Run XP Mode on any Win 7 PC

[DarkPhoenix]

Now you can Run XP Mode under Windows 7 with full integration - Even if your Hardware and Processor does not support XP Mode

Note. In order to legally do this you are supposed to own a copy of the OS XP Mode was intended to run on, that is Windows 7 Professional , Enterprise or Ultimate Editions.

Because XP Mode is a fully functioning licensed version of Windows XP that is freely downloadable it is intended for Windows 7 user Only.

EDIT - This statement has been found to be incorrect. See post below. -> If you own both, one of the editions above and Home Premium, then you can still legally download the XP Mode from Microsoft and try this on your Home Premium machine. It should work fine.

A common problem is not having the right hardware is that many processors and bios settings do not support XP Mode.

XP Mode is a fully licensed version of XP that runs in the Microsoft Virtual PC environment. It has full integration with Windows 7. You can transfer files to and from with drag and drop and even run programs through one to the other. For instance, you can run an XP 32 bit program installed in the XP Mode virtual hard drive, right from your Windows 7 start menu.


If you could not run XP Mode before because you lack the right hardware the solution is VMLite - www.vmlite.com

VMLite is a virtual machine emulator based on the Sun Microsystems Virtual Box Open Source edition. It uses software emulation to overcome the problems caused by a lack of proper hardware.

VMLite is made specially to not only run XP in a virtual environment but to retain the ability for full integration with Windows 7.

No need to go to Microsoft and download the XP Mode software. VMLite has a download button that will download the software and install it if you do not already have the XP Mode files downloaded to your hard drive.

If you do already have the XP Mode software downloaded, just point VMLite to this and it will install.

You have to register to download the program and associated help files and documentation from the download page but registration is free.

If you choose to manually download XP Mode from Microsoft and use VM Lite, you do not have to download the Microsoft Virtual PC software that accompanies XP Mode. This is only for people who do meet all of the processor and hardware requirements for XP Mode.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir.../download.aspx

VMLite is very easy to set up and comes with a very good instruction manual in PDF format. (A separate download) Although I remind myself I am talking to a bunch of programmers here so this should be no problem for you anyway.

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I am one of the Win 7 Ultimate (64 bit) users who do not have the correct processor for XP Mode and this software works awesome.

You can set your XP Mode system ram to what ever you are comfortable with ( I have 4 gigabytes of ram on my host system and I set this to 1.5 gigs for the XP Mode) and you can set your emulated video ram to 128 MB's. I find this works well for anything you need to do in a virtual environment.

What I really like about this is I can test my apps for 64 bit or 32 bit compatibility right from the same PC !
I have the 64 bit Visual Studio installed on my windows 7 host and the Virtual Studio 32 bit installed in the XP Mode.

By default this software set up the 32 bit version of XP Mode. I am looking into setting up a virtual 64 bit mode on a 32 bit host system. ( I understand this is possible but may have a few quirks)

Hope this helps someone :-)