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Windows 7 Will Include 'Windows XP Mode'

By Fabio on Monday April 27th 2009 04:23 | Category: Software

Windows 7 wants to be your trusted upgrade from Windows XP so much so that the Redmond giant will offer a virtualized "Windows XP Mode" in Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions when they drop.

It won't be baked directly into the Windows 7 Release Candidate, the free download officially due out May 5 but already circulating on BitTorrent. Instead, an XP Mode plugin will be made available as a free download for Release Candidate users and, eventually, paid Professional and Ultimate users.

What's XP mode? According to Windows watcher Paul Thurrott, it's a licensed, virtualized copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 running inside Microsoft's own Virtual PC framework, customized and framed to allow anyone who needs a picky XP application to run to simply install it while XP Mode is enabled, then have it run as a virtualized app in the future without thinking about it.It is, in a way, a 100% compatibility promise, but it remains to be seen how smoothly Virtual PC can be integrated into Windows 7 itself.

Also unknown is just how XP Mode will be licensed and provided. It's a certain no-go on the Starter and Home editions of Windows 7 meant for notebooks and lower-end PCs, but there's now word on whether XP Mode will be restricted to corporate licenses or available for retail and new PC customers.

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Windows 7 Will Include 'Windows XP Mode'

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