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Win 7 virtual machine XP compatability mode. Useful?

Last response: in Windows 7
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I downloaded the win 7 VM and the XP OS for it. Then I went looking for software to test it with. I have fooled around with this for about two weeks now, and can only find one older program that shows any benefit. Silent Hunter 3 will use it and run in it, but the graphics are crummy compared to native XP 32 bit. (or Vista 32 bit, for that matter) This program just doesn't like 64 bit OS's...

Older versions of ACad, Photoshop, and several other editing programs, all run just fine on Win 7 64 bit.


So, I guess that my question would be 'has anyone really found a use for this'?

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I use the VM to boot up copies of XP or Vista so that I can answer questions from students who use those operating systems. It's easier than having separate machines to do the work.

But I don't anticipate the need to use them for program compatibility.

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The only reason I use XP mode is to use my scanner... I am so cheap, that I will not buy a new scanner. The HP scanner I have is very old and will not work on a X64 OS.

I think the reason anyone would need XP mode is for custom business software that will not run on a X64 OS or Vista / 7 because it needs to access the kernel. Microsoft removed third-party access to the kernel in Vista and 7 for security reasons.

1Haplo

1haplo said:
The only reason I use XP mode is to use my scanner... I am so cheap, that I will not buy a new scanner. The HP scanner I have is very old and will not work on a X64 OS.

I think the reason anyone would need XP mode is for custom business software that will not run on a X64 OS or Vista / 7 because it needs to access the kernel. Microsoft removed third-party access to the kernel in Vista and 7 for security reasons.

1Haplo



Hmmm.... I have an old HP pen plotter in storage that I may have the occessional use for. Is it easy to get files from your main OS to scan / print in your VM?
Windows 7 Authority

croc said:
Hmmm.... I have an old HP pen plotter in storage that I may have the occessional use for. Is it easy to get files from your main OS to scan / print in your VM?
You can configure the VM to access the host file system via a file sharing mechanism. You don't have to set up the file sharing yourself, you just need to indicate in the Virtual PC configuration which folder(s) you the VM to have access to. It works well from my experiments so far.
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