Microsoft Providing XP Compatibility with Windows 7 By Paul Thurrott
By Paul Thurrott
Over the past year, as I've learned more about Microsoft's enterprise-oriented virtualization solutions--especially Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) tools such as App-V (Application Virtualization) and, now, MED-V (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization)--I've become convinced that the technologies they employ could form the basis of the future of Microsoft's legacy application compatibility efforts. After all, why bother tying down new Windows versions with legacy deadwood when you can seamlessly and effortlessly run older Windows applications inside of a hidden virtualized environment?
To users, these applications simply help them get their job done. They run side-by-side with modern, native Windows applications that are installed locally. To the administrator, these applications are highly manageable and can be deployed just where needed. Clearly, these tools are a hint, a pointer, of what's to come.
That future became clearer last week when my "Windows 7 Secrets" co-author Rafael Rivera and I revealed that Microsoft is indeed building App-V- and MED-V-based technologies into Windows 7. (You can see our blog post about this event at the URL below.)
Dubbed Windows XP Mode (it was originally called Virtual Windows XP), this feature will ship separately from the core OS for antitrust reasons and will be made available for free to customers of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.
If you're familiar with MED-V, you can think of XP Mode as MED-V Lite. But where MED-V is aimed at large companies and requires a volume license agreement with Microsoft, XP Mode is aimed at small and medium businesses that skipped over Windows Vista because that OS wasn't compatible with the legacy or custom applications they're still running on Windows XP. (There are other reasons why customers have skipped over Vista, of course, and Microsoft addresses those concerns—such as performance--elsewhere in Windows 7.