Here's why you won't use XP Mode

[dhilipkumar]

Here's why you won't use XP Mode


Windows 7's XP Mode mode got a great deal of hype when it was introduced. But I've spent a good deal of time with it and can safely say that unless you're one of the rare few, you'll never use it. Here's why.

As I explain in my review, "Hands on: Windows XP Mode works -- but is it worth the trouble?" there's a chance that XP Mode won't even work on your PC, even if you've just bought a quad-core screamer. That's because XP Mode requires that the CPU be capable of hardware virtualization using either Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) for Intel chips or AMD-V for AMD chips. Even the newest CPUs might not support that, while older CPUs might.

Worse yet, even if your CPU supports hardware virtualization, it's probably turned off, so you'll have to muck around in the BIOS to turn it on.The next problem is that the file systems of XP Mode and Windows 7 aren't well-integrated. So you'll likely find yourself using separate file systems, and not sharing data between them. There are also issues with sharing USB devices.If you think you want XP Mode for running a game that works on XP but not on Windows 7, think again -- XP Mode wasn't designed for games.

So who will use XP mode? Small and medium-sized companies that have XP applications that won't run in Windows 7, but want to make the move to Windows 7. That's a very small number of people -- and it most likely doesn't include you.


Preston Gralla
computerworld