New feature in Windows 7 (Page 1 of 2)

isn't this just a disguised VirtualPC runtime and XP image?

If so, it could be the basis for more legal wrangling in the EU and US such as we've seen with MSIE.

Agreed
it is more of an extension of 'run program in compatibility mode'
- the "VM" would actually be running real-time as a component of Win7. Not in a window as a separate shell.

It's Brilliant really... If it works then any corporate objections to upgrading cease to be an issue.
XP could successfully be phased out.

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After using Win7 beta for the past few months, I can honestly say that I'll be ditching both XP and Vista for good once it goes final.  I've been tolerating Vista ever since I've built my primary quad-core tower.  Win7 just flies on this!  And Win7 is faster than XP on my aging notebook.
I can't wait!

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200 gig lol

according to Tom's hardware info / testing with Vista there's not much performance gain after 3 gig...

but it does give me crazy thoughts like installing a VM to a ramdisk and picking a sweet snapshot

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Bsed on fresh newsie items this morning, it appears that msft is doing the xp compatibility layer via virtual pc.  I could see how that would speed up win7.  Cut out all of the XP/Win2K compatibility tricks that were (unsuccessfully) crammed into Vista and bury them in an on-demand VM that isolates all the old crap from the new stuff.

It would be pretty easy to tune the XP 'engine' to run very well under a Win7 host.  Also very easy to make the cut and paste and file sharing 'transparent' between the native Win7 OS and the hosted XP layer.  I do this all the time with VirtualBox and it's easy to set up and to run with on a daily basis.

This XP compatibility layer brings some hope for the on-going support of 16 bit apps under Win7.  One of the major problems with Vista is that it broke a whole boatload of 16 bit apps.  If the XP compatibility layer is well done, support for 16 bit apps should remain there.

This could all mean that Vista 'never existed'.  If anyone remembers that old season of Dallas 'who shot bobby' when the high-point of the season was Bobby stepping out of the shower and his wife realizing it was all a bad dream.  Vista could turn out to be that bad dream for MSFT.

Anyway, what I'm hoping we have here in Win7 is a freshly tweaked and updated Server 2008 core with the addition of necessary desktop stuff and a well tuned and isolated (no more bluescreens for bad drivers, divide by zero stuff) XP compatibility engine.

Last edited by newsposter (2009-04-30 09:06:27)

The new XP Compatibility virtual machine is not the stock MSFT Virtual PC.  As I expected above, 'they say' that the new XP VM is 'highly tuned' for perfomance and desktop integration with Win7.

The XP virtual machine will require that the hosting CPU have Intel/AMD hardware virtualization.  There may also be a minimum ram requirement of 3 or 4 Gb.

MSFT could be tossing in a stripped down version of their Hyper-V virtualization manager to support all of this.  Hyper-V does require hardware virtualization where the stock Virtual PC does not.

So two things to check, look in the BIOS for a virtualization on/off/enable/disable setting and then run CPU-Z or that utility from Steve Gibson (www.grc.com) to verify support.

Early C2D and most Pentium Dual Core chips do NOT have this.  Additionally, for those machines that support VT, the option is often turned off in the BIOS (by default).

Methinks that the VM requirement is going to raise the street price of 'upgrade' CPUs (and drive down the price of non-VT chips).  So those of you with Pentium Dual and/or older C2D cpus should probably jump on the upgrade bandwagon sooner rather than later.

I also think that given the amount of integration that MSFT is promising with the new XP VM, VirtualBox (and Xen and the others) will be working very hard on their device driver addons to match the level of integration that MSFT is trying to deliver.

Last edited by newsposter (2009-05-05 05:16:48)

It won't get caughty up with legal wrangling as it isn't going to be integrated into Windows 7, which having IE integrated in Windows XP was the issue before.  The article WinSuperSite says:

By not including it with Windows 7, this would avoid legal issues in the EU for Microsoft.

Wow this is exciting stuff... I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel - and i don't hear a train!

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Unfortunately, it really doesn't look like it as of now.
Nuhi is more or less AWOL so it's unlikely there will be any 7lite around the realease date...

There are some other projects by different folks that look quite promising, though.

In any case, there's always WPI so you won't have to rely on addons.
Been shifting most XP addons over to WPI anyhow, as it's easier to maintain and update.
Plus, you can always run WPI to install stuff, not only during T-13.

Worth checking out, IMO!

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Modify my earlier post

FINAL ROADMAP FOR WINDOWS 7 [CLIENT-SERVER]:
6/1 - 6/19 BUILDING RTM ESCROW - already assembled RTM ESCROW.
6/22 - 7/10 RTM RECALL - assembly and search for candidates to the final RTM release.
7/10 WINDOWS 7 RTM FINAL BUILD TARGET - build day "gold code".
7/13 WINDOWS 7 RTM SIGN-OFF - the date of signing the final RTM release!

The latest RTM branch build is 6.1.7263.0.win7_rtm.090619-1900, and the latest build in the winmain branch is 6.1.7233.0.winmain.090614-1655, and that the next winmain assembly will be the final RTM build.

I am running 7201 - 64 bit and it came from Microsoft.

I certainly agree with you regarding anything from the Torrents, spyware, bots etc.

A couple of sites are saying later builds do not work with the Microsoft key #'s and so timeout after 30 days.
Microsoft of course is not issuing #'s for those releases.

The old thing about you get what you deserve from the Torrents is certainly true.

Stu