Microsoft to offer full Windows XP VM to select Windows 7 versions

Robert Hallock 25 Apr, 2009 at 2:28pm ET Article published in Tech

Microsoft has repeatedly cited a “major announcement” that would coincide with the introduction of the Windows 7 release candidate, and it appears that we now know what that big announcement is. Microsoft plans to kill any and all concerns over Windows XP application compatability by offering a free Windows XP VM for owners of Windows 7 Professional, Business and Enterprise editions.

Unlike normal VMs which present a second desktop, the new VM known as “XPM” can offer virtualized applications without the appearance of a host environment. The icons for any software installed to XPM are simultaneously published inside Windows 7 as though it were a native application. As a wild example of the possibilities, you can see this screenshot below which demonstrates Office 2003 running on XP and Office 2007 running on Windows 7:

Image courtesy of Withinwindows.com

XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). It will be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft web site. (That is, it will not be included in the box with Windows 7, but is considered an out-of-band update, like Windows Live Essentials.) XPM works much like today’s Virtual PC products, but with one important exception: As with the enterprise-based MED-V (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization) product, XPM does not require you to run the virtual environment as a separate Windows desktop.

By introducing Windows XP application support to the new generation of Windows 7-only applications, Windows 7’s application compatability profile now exceeds that of any prior Microsoft OS.

Comments

25 Apr 2009 ~ 11:00pm mas0n Well played, MS.
26 Apr 2009 ~ 9:26am Cyclonite Fantastic!
26 Apr 2009 ~ 9:59am MiracleManS Well, it looks like theres no reason for businesses not to switch.
26 Apr 2009 ~ 11:50am Winfrey Very cool!
27 Apr 2009 ~ 8:19am kryyst There's still a reason for business not to switch - time, effort, still lack of need for windows 7, need to test software on 7 and then if it doesn't work you need to deal with the VM version of it etc... The cushion will be that when business have to switch, this will help to soften the blow.
27 Apr 2009 ~ 10:49am AlexDeGruven Can't wait to try this out. We, as an institution, skipped Vista, partially for compatibility issues. If XPM works as advertised, then we'll finally get our systems off of XP and into the modern age.
23 May 2009 ~ 3:51am Broozm This means they will be COMPELLED to continue supporting XP - and bugfixing!?!?! Even for those us dedicated to hang on to XP till our fingers bleed (whilst we cut our teeth on Linux) ;\
23 May 2009 ~ 4:30am Butters

Broozm wrote:

This means they will be COMPELLED to continue supporting XP - and bugfixing!?!?! Even for those us dedicated to hang on to XP till our fingers bleed (whilst we cut our teeth on Linux) ;\

I don't think Microsoft would continue to support XP the way you'd want them to. They may continue to support XPM, but not the real XP OS. I would have hung on to XP till my hand needed to be cut off, but Windows 7 is the Samurai Sword.
19 Nov 2009 ~ 9:16am photodude The unanswered question If you have 64bit-Win7 is the VM XP 64bit as well or do you have the option of 64bit and 32bit?

I wonder if the VM could be used to have VM-versions of all the old Windows OS....if it's possible I could see someone building a set up with everything from 3.1 to vista for kicks and giggles
19 Nov 2009 ~ 9:21am AlexDeGruven The XP in Win7 XPM is 32-bit. One of the purposes of providing the environment is for people using 16-bit software, which cannot run on a 64-bit system (well, Win64 is not designed to run 16-bit).

YOu should be able to run a 64-bit XP environment, but you probably won't have the integration and seamless features that you get via XPM. Why would you want to run 64-bit XP anyway, when you're already running the far superior Win7?
19 Nov 2009 ~ 9:44am photodude I don't want to run 64bit-XP, I don't know why someone would want to run 64bit-xp unless they had an app that was trapped in 64bit-XP land. I was just wondering if the 64bit-win7 would have 64bit-XPM. It made more sense that it would be 32bit.

I would want to run win95 or win98se, maybe even win3.1 ...I have a few programs trapped in those OS that will not run in higher versions.
19 Nov 2009 ~ 10:05am Thrax You would need to use a third-party emulation tool like VMWare or VirtualBox.
19 Nov 2009 ~ 11:07am Cyclonite Or buy new apps. :-p
19 Nov 2009 ~ 11:24am photodude So the virtualPC for XPM is specific to just XPM and is not a platform that will allow other virtual-OS to be installed.

I worked with a company once that is still using a DOS based program for their business. Now in 2009 they are still using the program. Something with the program version prevented it from working in XP so the company still works in win98se. the issue with the program was related to the FCB in dos which was removed in XP; I found a work around but it didn't work when their other IT guy tried it. DOSbox also failed to run it.

As for my old programs I would love to get new programs, but so far I have just lived without them. Some like the classic game pandora, there is just no new version. So you either: live without the nostalgia, try emulating, or use a virtualOS. I can live with any of these courses of action.
19 Nov 2009 ~ 11:33am AlexDeGruven You can create other VMs within the VPC install. You just can't to the seamless integration and publishing to the Win7 start menu outside of the provided XPM environment.
19 Nov 2009 ~ 11:40am photodude So it can be done and you don't need any third party VM tools.....It's just not as cool, clean and "ooh something shiny" as XPM
19 Nov 2009 ~ 11:44am AlexDeGruven Pretty much. Though MS has made it pretty clear that XPM is for customers who MUST run either 16-bit code, or code that for some reason cannot handle the 6.x kernel in Vista/7, and is not necessarily a panacea for compatibility.

To Be Honest, it's not really all that 'ooh shiny!', either. It's basic, still uses XP window decoration, etc. I use it primarily for some of the work software we have here that craps up the system (Novell Client, GroupWise Client (NT Mail? In 2009? Really?), and our VPN client), moreso than for compatibility.
19 Nov 2009 ~ 1:47pm photodude I love how companies don't plan to continually invest in infrastructure and then try to get every last drop of blood from the stone that they can. In the short term, they make a little more money; but in the long term they typically incur greater costs in labor and huge costs in converting or rebuilding.

Good to know where XPM really stands and some good uses for it.