Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
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Windows XP Mode is a new benefit of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate and provides additional application compatibility. It allows you to install and run many of your productivity applications for Windows XP directly from your Windows 7-based PC. It utilizes virtualization technology, such as Windows Virtual PC, to provide a virtual Windows XP environment for Windows 7.
What is Windows Virtual PC?
Windows Virtual PC is the latest Microsoft virtualization technology designed for Windows 7. It is the runtime engine for Windows XP Mode to provide a virtual Windows environment for Windows 7. With Windows Virtual PC, Windows XP Mode applications can be seen and accessed from a Windows 7-based PC.
How does Windows Virtual PC work with Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V)?
Windows Virtual PC provides the runtime virtualization engine for MED-V, a product of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. Built on Windows Virtual PC, MED-V is designed to provide information technology (IT) professionals the capability to centrally manage and deploy virtual Windows environments to reduce complexity, maintain control, and keep costs low. Currently MED-V works on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and will add support to Windows Virtual PC. See additional details at www.microsoft.com/med-v.
Is hardware virtualization better?
For Windows XP Mode the performance will be more than acceptable with or without hardware virtualization. For developers using Virtual PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 virtual machines we recommend HAV as the non-HAV is only tuned for XP Mode.
Why is Windows XP Mode not available in Windows 7 Home Premium?
Windows XP Mode is best suited for older business and productivity applications such as accounting, inventory, and similar applications. Windows XP Mode is not aimed at consumers because many consumer applications require extensive use of hardware interfaces, such as 3-D graphics, audio, and TV tuners, that do not work well under virtualization today.
Does Windows XP Mode offer any benefits for larger businesses?
Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC as stand-alone features are specifically designed for small businesses and provide an unmanaged IT experience. For larger businesses looking to reduce the cost of ownership of deploying Windows Virtual PCs across hundreds of users, Microsoft provides Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V). MED-V is the management tool for Windows Virtual PC; it builds on top of Windows Virtual PC to run two operating systems on one device. Basically, by adding virtual image delivery and policy-based provisioning, it facilitates centralized management. This is a great tool for IT pros who want to reduce the cost of managing and deploying Windows Virtual PC.
How do small businesses handle these management tasks?
An important consideration of working with virtualization technology is the fact that the user has both the physical and the virtual PC to maintain. Every PC requires a degree of maintenance, including but not limited to, keeping the operating system and applications up to date with patches, virus and malware protection, and backup. Windows XP Mode is pre-configured with the Windows XP firewall to apply updates automatically from Windows Update. It is not pre-configured with anti-virus or anti-malware software, which is recommended. Because of the need to maintain the virtual machine, we recommend making the best effort to upgrade applications to run natively in Windows 7 and use Windows XP Mode only when necessary.