[_Mark2]

I was fascinated to learn that Windows 7 Pro would support XP Mode. This is a Godsend to someone like me who is too tight to upgrade Photoshop 6 to the latest version. It also provides a feeling of security for all those other XP programs that may not run on the new OS.

Imagine my chagrin when I tried to find a PC or Laptop that would therefore support this technology. It has to have a processor that supports VM. It also needs a chipset/BIOS that supports the enabling of this feature.

Can I find one? Well, what you can do is open a chat with a chappy in Dell's India office for a start. Having had no success on their website, I thought they might be able to point me in the right direction.

Unfortunately, after a brief hunt, they were unable to offer me a solution. They also told me their PCs did not ship with XP Mode although they were looking at it. When I pointed out the various downloads and OS versions supported, they went a bit evasive. I got the feeling it wasn't top of their list of priorities. Or perhaps they didn't know much about XP Mode and the possibilities.

It is not just Dell; I've scoured Google for manufacturers who offer machines that are up to the job. It seems the only way to tell is to cross reference the processor with Intel or AMD to see whether it is capable. However, it is still difficult to work out whether the chipset supports that feature.

Would it be possible to run an article on machines that can do this out of the box? Or create a list of machines at least capable of running XP Mode? Or cajole the manufacturers into providing a label that says something like "Supports XP Mode". I would have thought that the manufacturers would be queuing up to create an additional revenue/marketing stream by annotating their machines in such a way.

Failing that, would it be possible to send some pills that reduce blood pressure to my registered address?

[Bluespider]

I may be wrong but iirc, no Win7 install natively supports xp mode, it requires a download from MS to install and run it.

Will I use it, probably not, but I have other methods at my disposal and already have a vm infrastructure available for me to use.

Can I see it being useful? definately and an extra safety net to get over those who resist upgrade because of that app they use all the time, paid good money for back in the day and can no longer upgrade.

Most dual core processors will support vm mode, I know all recent dell optiplexes do. But I agree that this function should be clearly stated somewhere in the manufacturers spec for the components, its becoming a defacto standard, there will be more and more people embracing vm technology in the coming years and hardware manufacturers are going to have to acknowledge this!
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System Error... Please reboot universe.

[simbr]

Something to bear in mind is that some PC vendors disable the processor's virtualisation features - Sony is one of them.

[stokegabriel]

Thankfully my PC only supports XP mode, I'll leave all you unpaid beta testers to sort everything out with Vista and win7 and join you when it all works properly, maybe, however at the moment I can't think of a compelling reason to spend time and money to make my computer run 20% slower!

Surely if Sony advertise a computer as having a certain processor then that processor should conform to the Intel specification for that processor, otherwise the product is not as described (sale of goods act) unless any changes are clearly stated before purchase.

[WhiskyFudge]

As a web developer the ability to run IE6 through XP mode is an absolute God send. Whilst I can do this with a normal VM, to be able to call it up from the start menu and have it as a normal window just makes the whole IE6 web development scenario just the little bit more pleasant. It gets my vote in this single feature alone.

Talking to some of my customers, it seems XP mode is going to be highly useful to them as well. Some of them have applications (for various reasons) they can't upgrade to a version that will work on Vista or 7. Thus XP mode allows them to keep up-to-date without having to worry about legacy applications.

In my opinion Microsoft should be applauded for this feature, even more so for making it free.