Ron Schenone

Microsoft + Intel + XP Mode = Not For Everyone

Posted by on May 10, 2009 | 12 Comments

The computer world is a buzz with the news about XP Mode and the possible ramifications of a lack of support for virtualization by Intel. It seems that some of Intel’s chips, even some of their very latest, do not support XP Mode in Windows 7. It has also been alleged that this could be a plot.

In an article at ARS Technica they state that:

When news of Windows 7′s “XP Mode” came out recently, there was much rejoicing among those who were concerned about legacy support in Microsoft’s upcoming OS. But now we learn that Microsoft and Intel have contrived to make XPM unavailable to many Intel users.

They go on to state that the following:

The CPU support picture for Windows 7 was blessedly simple, at least until this week, when Microsoft complicated things for one corner of its upcoming OS. This new wrinkle was the discovery that Windows 7′s recently announced XP Mode would only work on processors that supported either Intel’s VT or AMD’s AMD-V. The vast majority of AMD’s lineup, except for Sempron, has AMD-V and will work, but the Intel situation is much more complicated, and in some ways, worse.

In a nutshell, Intel’s VT-x and AMD’s AMD-V work by introducing a set of instructions that make x86 fully virtualizable without the use of binary translation. This was originally supposed to have speed advantages, though when VT first made its debut the transitions in and out of the hypervisor were slow enough that BT arguably still had the edge. But this hasn’t been true for some time, and now VT is the way to go if you’re rolling out a new x86-based virtualization package, like Microsoft’s hyper-V or Virtual Iron’s software.

But is this as bad as some would have us believe? First of all XP-Mode seems to have been designed to attract the business community who stayed away from Vista because of compatibility problems associated with some of the software they use successfully with Windows XP. Next, XP-Mode only works with the higher end products of Windows 7 being Professional and Ultimate versions.

Since most users will use the Home edition I don’t believe this is going to be much of a problem for the average consumer. But what do you think?

Comments welcome.

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  • Buffet

    It’s nice to see you attempting to rescue the witless buffoons who insist on trying the newest crapola on the market, simply because it’s the “latest thing” or “all the rage” . You’re, once again, to be commended for your altruism. I’m not so sympathetic. In my mind, the only way to run XP, is with the genuine article, not some second rate knockoff.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Thanks Buffet

  • Ryan Farmer

    Or you could just try Virtual Windows Me Mode.

    http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3108/winme2.jpg

    I hear it supports cutting edge technologies while at the same time giving you the best support for your existing programs. *grin*

    I love Microsoft installation-time propaganda, actually that’s why I use the hidden Windows 2000-ish installer when I automate XP setups.

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  • Don Naphen

    I guess my reaction to this is similar to others Ron. Why on earth would someone that’s using XP want to “upgrade” to an OS that allows one the option of using XP !!! As I said in an earlier post, I’m happy with VISTA and have no plans on upgrading to yet another OS that, for me, offers nothing new. I guess one could always do what’s been done in the past: Dual-Boot with multiple hard drives. I did that back when I was using both Win2K and XP Pro. After awhile, it didn’t make any sense! LOL

    I compare this to someone shopping for a new car and telling the salesperson: “I like it but I want one that has the same interior design of my 5 year old car I’m trading in”.

    Hope you had a good weekend Ron. Looks like the Sox, Bruins & Celtics had a triple win last night. It did suck having them all on at around the same time! Thank goodness for “picture-in-picture” mode! LOL.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hello Don,
    Good points. Thanks for stopping by.

  • Kevin Bailey

    Don & Ron,

    Upgrade reason #1:
    I have to buy a new computer because the capacitors on my current motherboard have all blown out. I found a motherboard that would fit in the case and run all the equipment but after a few bucks and a couple hours swapping it out the existing OS will not run. I choose to reinstall the OS but because when I “bought” my XP operating system with my ‘Shellway’ computer (back in 2004) it was really a license I could only use on the computer it came with and was so OEM customized (bastardized?) that it will only load on my old computer. The bastard OEM install does not recognize the motherboard as the right type so will not reinstall. So after all that waste I purchase a new ‘Gatehell’ because I am pissed at ‘Shellway’ for pushing a piece of crud at me that dies as soon as the warranty runs out. But the new computer only comes with the “new” operating systems (Vista or 7) but it can be downgraded if I have the source media which I don’t because of the bastard OEM media provided. So I have to hope for some form of but in virtual downgrade built into the software.

    OR I could spend several hundreds on purchasing the newest software upgrade for all my business apps also.

    OR I could just go back to paper and pencil. Anybody know where I can get a good electric pencil sharpener?

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hello Kevin,
    Good point as well. I think MS giving XP away for those who need it is going to help some folks such as yourself. I’m using it on the RC build to run Office 2003, which for me is all the Office I need.

  • Don Naphen

    Kevin, it sounds like someone got the elevator and you got the shaft! I do feel badly for you, but if you’re referring to Gateway, I’ve had nothing but good luck with my many over the years. And at one time, they even supplied a genuine OEM version of the OS, rather than the present practice of putting it within an “installation” disk. I still have my 2 cd set of Office 97 Small Business Edition! Yes, separate REAL cd set. Now that was a nice touch in its time.

    Of course when I mentioned earlier that I would never buy another OS, I will of course be buying one by way of a replacement pc when the time comes. That will be a long ways down the road (hopefully) when my present desktop goes to pc heaven! LOL

  • Ryan Farmer

    MY guess is that Microsoft, at some point in 2012 will refuse to activate Windows Vista Home Basic, Premium, and Ultimate, because Windows 7 is what is “supported”

    Need to reload that old computer that crashed? Too bad.

    You need to buy Windows 7, which will probably also need a newer computer with a faster processor and more memory.

    It’s really that reason alone that stands out as to why so-called product activation is a bad thing, Windows has the ability to shut you down.

    You know, I guessed when Windows XP was released that in “5 or 6 years” they’d do that to XP, but the fact is that they would just outright piss 63% of Windows users off, and that’s too much of a gamble even for Microsoft.

    Instead what they’re doing with XP is subtle, they’re removing support for popular applications one or two at a time by introducing bogus checks into the executable for functionality that the program never even calls.

    I ran into this with Windows Live Essentials on XP X64, it says that “Windows XP X64 and Windows 2003 are not supported, you need XP SP2 or Vista”.

    Well, I tricked it into installing, so far I’ve ran Live Messenger, Live Mail, and Live Writer, all the latest versions, and I haven’t come across one function that really truly honestly needs Vista or the real XP.

    Ron: XP Mode is quite frankly offensive, not only because a lot of processors just can’t cope with it, or because they rough you up for a more expensive version of Windows to get it, or because it’s got all the problems of running a virtual machine.

    If Microsoft wasn’t so damned insistent on this DRM nonsense, then they would have just had a library where they exported XP and WIndows 2000 functions and registry entries, and used a compatibility shim to redirect API calls and registry ops. That would have been less than 1% performance penalty, and they have everything they need to do that with WOW64 anyway.
    :)

  • Buffet

    My i7 processor ‘copes’ with XP just fine. Come to think of it, my Pentium 4 did, as well.