Windows XP Mode, one of the most hyped features of Windows 7, was designed to integrate XP with Windows 7 so that you can run XP applications from directly inside Windows 7.
Can your PC handle Windows XP Mode?
Here's the first piece of bad news: Your PC may not be able to handle Windows XP Mode, even if you've just bought a new machine.
XP Mode requires that your CPU be capable of hardware virtualization using either Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) for Intel chips or AMD-V for AMD chips. You might assume that if you've got a multicore PC, it can certainly do that. However, that's not necessarily the case.
Even some quad-core CPUs, such as the Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400, don't have virtualization technology built in. And to make things more confusing, some older, less powerful and less expensive CPUs, such as the Intel Core Duo T2400, do have the technology.
Both Intel and AMD have utilities you can download that will let you know if your PC has that support. You can use either the AMD Virtualization Compatibility Check Utility (which checks whether your processor supports AMD-V) or the Intel Processor Identification Utility (which is a more comprehensive checking tool).
If your processor doesn't support either technology, you can stop reading now -- you're out of luck. However, even if the CPU does support it, you're still not out of the woods.
Hardware virtualization is turned off by default on many PCs. There's no clear reason why that is, although according to Microsoft, there are potential security issues with hardware virtualization.
You'll need to check your system BIOS to find out whether your hardware virtualization is turned on; if it's not, you'll have to turn it on. How you do that varies according to system manufacturer and even model, so check with your manufacturer.
For example, on my Dell, I rebooted and pressed the F12 key as the system restarted to get into the BIOS setup. At first, I couldn't find an option for virtualization support, but after nosing around, I finally discovered it in a very odd place -- in the POST behavior area. I enabled it and let the PC boot.
Make sure to turn off your PC after changing the BIOS, to put the new setting into effect. It's also good idea to get back into the BIOS when you reboot and see whether the new setting took.
Installing and running Windows XP Mode
You're finally ready to install Windows XP Mode.
You need to download and install two (currently beta) apps: Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode. Windows Virtual PC is the newest version of Microsoft's Virtual PC, and Windows XP Mode is essentially a precreated virtual machine for XP designed to run in Windows 7. You won't have to pay for a separate license for XP.
Installation is straightforward: Windows Virtual PC first, and then Windows XP Mode. At the end of the installation process, you'll go through the usual setup routine for a new copy of Windows, including questions such as how to handle Automatic Updates and so on. And you're done.
Integration with Windows 7
Generally, moving between XP and Windows 7 was surprisingly seamless, without the issues that sometime pop up when you run a virtual machine inside an operating system, such as whether your mouse actions and keystrokes take effect in the host operating system or the virtual one. It was perfectly transparent, as if XP were just another application. Click anywhere in the XP window and you're there.
Similarly, you can copy and paste between any window inside XP and any window in Windows 7. The Windows clipboard is shared between the two. You can also use the printer attached to your Windows 7 machine, as long as you install the proper driver inside XP,isn't that great.
You can change this setting, if you wish, by using the Tools menu on top of the Windows XP screen. Select Tools --> Settings and click the Keyboard entry. There you'll have the option of having key combinations be sent to XP when you're in the XP window instead of to Windows 7. You can also have the combinations always sent to Windows 7, even when XP is in full-screen mode. In addition, you can change whether XP and Windows 7 should share the Windows clipboard, printers, drives and smart cards via the Integration Features setting.
Installing and running apps
The real point of XP Mode isn't to run XP by itself, but instead to run XP-specific applications and make them look and act as if they were native to Windows 7. There's nothing special you need to do in XP Mode in order to do this. Install the program as you would normally, and it will then be available on the Windows 7 Start menu, ready to run.
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Windows 7,
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