Win 7 and Virtual XP

[oomgar]

I have a new VAIO Laptop with installed 7 Professional - are there any issues I need to be aware of, if I want to run it in virtual XP mode?

[Blencogo]

You don't say which model you have but I assume VT is turned on in the BIOS and your processor supports VT.  I think this will be the case for all new Vaios with Windows 7 Professional preinstalled.

All you need to know and do is available on the Microsoft Windows Virtual PC website here: -

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/default.aspx

Read through the pages and if you have any specific questions or problems then come back and someone may be able to help.

Only Windows XP 32-bit versions are supported.  Remember  that you will have to maintain the Virtual PC in addition to your physical PC with Windows Updates and a firewall and anti-virus.

[oomgar]

Thanks for info - very reassuring. The only reason I'm  inerested  in XP capability, is because I  need to run an Autocad program which will only work on  XP Professional. I am assuming that the Virtual XP is same  as XP Professional?

The details of my Sony Computer (which should arrive  next week!) are:-

VPCEH1C5E Laptop which is a Vaio

[stephanius]

XP mode is a virtual machine running XP professional 32 bit, which is what you need.

To get it you have to have Windows 7 Professional or better, home versions are not eligible.

[oomgar]

Final question re virtual XP (I hope!) - I've already got an old version Norton Ghost 10 which seems to work fine on my old desktop under XP Pro (but won't work with 7 Pro) - do you think it will be OK on the virtual XP? It's all very difficult for me to understand how a ghost image taken off a computer running under a virtual XP, can be successful in reproducing a bootable image which mirrors both the virtual XP asnd the Windows 7 of my new VAIO. I'm too old to take allthis in now - I must just hope for the best.

[stephanius]

I've not tried it, but I think attempting to image the XP mode instance with Ghost will not work or create problems. It's my understanding - I'm not at my Win7 Pro machine to check right now - that you can copy the VHD file with the information of the virtual machine and making backups of the whole machine is as easy as backing up a random document you created.