Comments on: AMD cites chips that don't do Windows 7 'XP mode'

Select processors from Advanced Micro Devices do not support Windows 7 'XP mode,' though, like Intel, the vast majority of shipping processors do support XP mode.

[Mr. Dee]

This is going to cause a problem, I hope Microsoft gets it ready by RTM too, because its obnoxious to download a 500 MB to 1 GB files just to gain some level of sophisticated XP compatibility, even if its free. The out of box experience is not good enough either, setup and publishing of applications is on the PHD edge, so user experience is something Microsoft needs to definitely think about.

[sevenalive]

Maybe the software developers should update their programs, its the shoddy code they wrote that causes the incompatiblity, the top reason for that is hardcoded directories, or maybe companies should update an 8 year old program if they want windows 7. Let XP DIE ALREADY!

[Mr. Dee]

I am using a program named Mobile Phone Tools which was last updated to work with Vista 32 and 64 bit in Summer 2007, guess what, its not compatible with Windows 7. I will be downloading XP Mode over the weekend, MPT better work or Microsoft seriously needs to do something even more sophisticated than XP Mode.

[ies00]

This is getting ridiculous. I cannot tell why you are focusing on this point since yesterday. Two articles talking about the same thing. As if you want to say :?windows 7 is bad, do not use it?!!
This XP mode is targeted towards enterprises, high end users. FULL STOP. it is not meant to be used by anyone else and it is not needed to be used by anyone else. Why don?t you talk about the new good features of windows 7? Or there are none to your knowledge?
Its pathetic how the focus is on something which is like a myth now?do you think that any normal user knows what kind his CPU is? Ask people, they would say, ?I have windows?. Most don?t even know which windows they use!!!

[Mr. Dee]

If you did the research you would realize that XP Mode is targeted at Small Businesses. Also, it will be available to Windows 7 Ultimate and Professional, two retail SKU's, I am sure there are consumers out there who also use business features in Windows. Although Microsoft supports XP Mode on Windows 7 Enterprise, it recommends MED-V which is even more sophisticated than XP Mode.

[ies00]

well, i meant by enterprises all businesses.....where i was differentiating between home users and all others.
this was my argument, and for this reason, i do not believe that someone who uses the computer for chatting, facebooking, web browsing would even know about the XP mode or what does it mean.

stil lthe same point, do you think that any home user would even know what Virtualization is? or MED-V is? or even SKU??!!!!! or anything else?

they know :"i have a computer" or "i have windows" ....
and for this reasons, these articles are just nonesense

[rmva]

Brooke,

This is a bogey. Companies that would have some use for XP mode are on the verge of bankruptcy. They're not buying new computers. They're throwing their computers in the dumpster as they shed office space. They are not hiring new employees. They are laying off the ones they have.

Microsoft added this because some wise guy asked, "If Apple could do this, why can't Microsoft?" It doesn't add anything not available from VPC 2007 and other virtualization software.

Agreed, it would have been brilliant as an addition to Vista, cuttting off a lot of the griping. Back then hardware virtualization was just an infant and wouldn't have been included in the package.

[RobertAPierce]

rmva: what are you talking about? Most companies have not switched to Vista and have no plans to do so. One of the main reasons is that they have older applications that are not vista compatible and are expensive to change. This XP compatibility feature would be perfect for most large companies with legacy apps. I'd venture a guess that you're going to see much much quicker and fuller migration to W7 than from XP to Vista.

[cosuna]

rmva: You sure have no idea what enterprise like. I'm writing this on an Enterprise installed laptop on Fortune 500 company and guess what, it's XP. And so are thousands of PC and laptop in Enterprises around the world. Vista is so damn flawed, serious businesses have kept away or opted for Downgrade options. The only place you see Vista is on the home user, which was "strong-armed" into upgrading. Those new PC and laps have 4Gb and aren't working. For the first time in my lifetime, I have a home laptop with a dead battery 'cause of vista.

Windows XP mode is Microsoft acknowledgment that its better to separate the worlds of XP and Vista/7, since Vista/7 will never be able to fully replicate the XP experience and may even create problems in the long run.

Thousands and thousands of legacy VB, C++ and even Java apps, work better in Vista. Check out Google Chrome XP against Vista, and the XP version has a nicer interface. MS Messenger was another example. Until 2008, edition it worked like crap on Vista. Offices below 2007 work horribly on Vista and Office 2007 works horribly with old "*.doc", "*.ppt" and "*.xls" which tens of thousands of inside memos are sent daily. Even Google docs does a better work at handling those legacy apps.

So Microsoft did a wise thing, and suddenly realized that there's no one Windows but two: Before Vista and After Vista. BV/AV. Microsoft has finally realized it can't kill XP and needs it to survive. Quite a dilema.

Please wake up and smell the coffee, since in the future we are going to see three flavors of apps: XP apps (legacy), Web apps and Vista/7 apps and I'm sure the last one is gonna be the one with the smallest offerings. Forsure.

[Random_Walk]

re: "Companies that would have some use for XP mode are on the verge of bankruptcy."

Err, what? Last I checked - Intel, Cisco, Oracle, IBM, and a whole host of other large corporations (that I either know of first-hand or have networked contacts in) have a metric ton of have legacy apps that do CRM/ERP/finance/payroll/issue-tracking and a long list of etc. - and are far from anything that could be considered bankruptcy.

You, err, may want to stick with opinionating about help-desk/'Geek Squad' issues, mm'kay? Because quite frankly (and I say this with sincerity) enterprise computing is a wee bit more complex than, say, making sure you have the right kind of video codecs installed to play bootleg anime with...

Thx in advance.

[plbyrd]

I find it absolutely hilarious that you guys are whining over the fact that a vital CPU technology that is a great ENABLER OF VIRTUALIZATION is being required to perform virtualization. This is what the CPU boys spent the money and time for! What's next, complaining that you cannot run Word Perfect 5 under 64-bit Windows without a virtual machine?

The poster who stated that this is a problem with the software developers is dead-on-target. Developers who blatantly ignore the published best practices for GUI and file organization deserve to have customers threating to sue them out of existence. But somehow, someway, the media has manage to turn the spear 90 degrees so that it points at Microsoft instead. Enterprises who let their junior developers design mission critical applications deserve to have their CTO/CIO fired.

[Imalittleteapot]

I really don't understand all the hoopla. Maybe someone can explain it to me. What's everyone so obsessed about the XP mode for? If you need to run XP that bad just dual boot. Any computer can dual boot . If all you plan on running is XP programs in XP then why bother to install 7 in the first place? It makes no sense.

Most any program a home user needs already works fine on Vista will soon work fine with Windows 7. Since it'll just slow your system down it's not like you're going to play your games as well as you did when you were actually running XP. Games probably won't work in it at all and would run faster on pure 7 anyway.

Now, your business may have one or two apps they use that only work on XP, but you can just keep running XP on those computers. I can't see any reason why they would all have to have Windows 7 on them and run the XP mode too. You would just have some computers that ran XP and some that ran 7. I can't see any reason why you'd need a whole bunch of computers that did both at the same time.

Maybe one or two systems in the whole place, but if they need it really really really badly then it's probably just one or two systems that would need replaced and the chips are pretty cheap to get a hold of. Especially if you just get a discounted AMD so what's the prob?

Please, someone give me an exact example from your business. Please list the exact apps and the version numbers of those apps that you are using so that you would need to run the XP compatibility mode in 7 instead of just running pure XP or pure 7 so I can understand the importance of this. And then please explain why it's so important to your business that you need to complain about it, but it's not important enough that you can go out and buy another computer system or two that supports the compatibility mode? Either it's important or it's not? Which one is it?

[Imalittleteapot]

opps, sorry plbyrd. That wasn't really meant to be a reply. Clicked the wrong reply button.

[darkxeno]

XP mode is nothing more then a band aid for software writers not to update their code to work on newer OS's. Its like sticking a old model-T engine inside a modern day mustang. It shows the laziness of people and companies to keep using it. Base OS's change and need to Linux got it they now have a much better UI than just command line for regular users. Apple understands it look at the past few years with them. Microsoft needs to move away from it. So that program writers will move on like the other OS program writers have.