Binary Impact

Windows 7 to have Windows XP virtualization (unless you have the Home edition)

Posted by TM | Filed under Tech

With Windows 7’s release date getting closer, details on (the few) new features are starting to come out. One of the most recent features is a Windows XP mode, which will allow XP virtualization for backwards compatibility with applications that don’t work properly in Windows 7. However, it will not be available in the Home edition, which begs the question – How will Microsoft continue to frustrate Windows users? Assuming you’ve made the switch and you buy the Home edition (which will probably come on most new PC’s), if your program doesn’t work on Windows 7, you won’t be able to use the Windows XP virtual machine. Shelling out more cash will get you one of the more superior versions of Windows 7 (Ultimate, Enterprise, etc.) but these are overkill for most PC users.
Summary: If you have a program you used to use in XP, but it doesn’t work in Windows 7, you probably won’t be able to run it because you’re using Windows 7 Home edition. Most tech-savvy people will be spared, but think about the children, please. Read more about it here.

What’ll happen when you want to play an old DOS game? For those who are unfamiliar with DOSBox, this allows you to play old DOS games in any OS, so let’s hope it’ll get updated for Windows 7. Otherwise, there could be a lot of slowdown/confusion due to virtualization of DOS within a virtualization of XP within an actual copy of a new OS that doesn’t bring many new features to the table at all.
________________
I’m a big fan of internet randomness. So, I recommend you check these sites every few days to ensure you know what’s funny on the internet.

Totally Looks Like – Funny comparisons galore.
Graph Jam – Funny charts and Venn diagrams.
Fail Blog – Need I say more?

Tags: Humor, links, Microsoft, Windows 7