More support for Windows 7 (DAW)...

[euphoria89]

Microsoft Corp. will unveil an add-on to Windows 7 that lets users run applications designed for Windows XP in a virtual machine, the company confirmed Friday — the first time Microsoft has relied on virtualization to provide backward compatibility.Dubbed “Windows XP Mode,” the add-on creates an XP virtual environment running under Virtual PC, Microsoft’s client virtualization technology, within Windows 7, said Scott Woodgate, the director of Windows enterprise and virtualization strategy. In a post to a company blog, Woodgate said the add-on is part of the pitch to convince businesses to migrate to Windows 7. “All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode,” said Woodgate. “The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7.”

Details of Windows XP Mode (XPM) were first reported Friday afternoon by Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott, two prominent bloggers who are also collaborating on a book, Windows 7 Secrets, due out this fall. Windows 7 Enterprise is available only to companies with volume licensing agreements. Windows XP Mode (XPM) requires processor-based virtualization support and is based on the next-generation Microsoft Virtual PC 7 virtualization technology, said Rivera, who also disclosed that Microsoft will include a fully licensed copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) with the add-on. That, in effect, gives Windows 7 users a way to run older applications without having to pay for another operating system license. Rivera also touted, as had Woodgate, the ability to run Windows XP applications directly from the Windows 7 desktop without having to first open a separate virtual machine window.

Hopefully this is a good step forward for all DAW applications. The ability to use older applications/plugins etc is going to be a big advantage over Vista (amongst the other factors), and should mean everyone can get the same level of compatability as they are getting with XP.

Windows 7 really is looking like a top O/S. After 9 years of XP, i think i'm finally happy to make the swap.

[Solar]

Definitely some very positive news... now let's see how it both with behave one in Virtual and the other one as the main.

Thanx for sharing the news!!

Cheers!

[matthewvandenham]

ya I think most pc users are pretty stoked for 7...they've worked out most of the bugs in vista and it looks a lot lighter and more efficient. I hope the virtual mode isn't as slow as virtualpc or vmware.