W7 XP compatability Mode -- Works great

I've just being trying the W7 XP compatability feature

Whilst I'm very happy in using vmware (still excellent for developer / testing scenarios) the "XP compatability mode" works 100% for me so no reason anymore to have anything else for the Main OS other than Windows 7.

I'm retiring all my other old OS'es now since all my incompatable apps work with the "XP compatability feature". Roll on RTM MS please. Just finished testing them ALL.

Minidisc stuff, Photo scanner, negative scanner, plotter, large A2 (Huge poster size) printer, SAP GUI connectivity, SAP JAVA portal access, Web dynpro GUI.

All working (finally). None of this stuff worked either on VISTA (both X-86 and X-64) nor Windows 7.

For typical users this feature will be great -- this IMO is the real "Killer App" that allows small business (and even medium size ones) to upgrade their hardware and software in stages to suit them whilst not having to discard loads of older PC's. Businesses tend to upgrade their equipment much less frequently than home users - especially now.


The "preconfigured" XP machine only has 256MB RAM as standard. Whilst you can't evaluate a Virtual Machine on a ratio 1:1 with a Real machine I think it should be a 512 MB machine by default.

Doesn't seem to want "Activation" either so I assume that the XP machine will work as long as the Windows 7 trial (7100) is active.

I've installed this on the RC 7100 X-64 I downloaded from "the Green Devil" a while ago and its fine.

I'm going to see if I can tinker around with this "Integrated XP VM" and maybe clone it and make the virtual RAM size bigger. I know I can install my own VM but if I have to do that it rather goes against the whole point of "the Integration" feature.

Performance seems pretty good and integration with the desktop just fine.

So far Nice one Microsoft.

Nice to see my old Minidisc app working on the W7 desktop .

I'm waiting for additional language packs as well -- using English at the moment.

(Hint -- would like these for W7 as well - still only a few languages like German, Spanish, etc). There ARE other countries BTW.

Anyway once again MS You've finally got your s--t together. well done.

Cheers
jimbo

That's great news Jimbo! I'm going to be trying it out early next week once I do a complete move to the RC from Vista on my main PC (no dual booting anymore, just W7 by itself ).

MS really thought this one through, as all of the business customers wary of moving to Windows 7 (still using XP because of legacy apps) should be greatly reassured. I know that lots of the engineering software we used at University would only run on XP, so they never upgraded to Vista.

It's not often Microsoft get lots of praise, but it looks like they have learnt some lessons from Vista

This is the only way I can get my printer working on Windows 7, and if that's what I have to do, so be it. I'm a fan of XPM.