How in the Tech

Does your Computer Support Windows 7 XP Mode?

By Adam Myers ⋅ May 11, 2009 ⋅ Tags: System Administration

When Windows 7 ships later this year the high end versions, Enterprise and Ultimate, will include an interesting new feature titled XP Mode. Microsoft has been dabbling with the notion of virtualization in there server line of products for a couple of years now; quite similar to long-time stalwarts such as VMWare. To keep things simple, virtualization can be thought of as a way to run one operating system from within another. For example, it is possible with VMWare to run a full blown Linux environment from inside Windows. Using a TV analogy it is not unlike picture-in-picture; you have Windows running natively and then have booted a Linux virtual machine in a smaller sub window, which behaves just like the true operating system only everything has been virtualized.

Windows 7 XP Mode takes the idea of virtualization and simplifies the process to the point that it’s possible for anyone to get up and running. The main rationale behind XP Mode by Microsoft is to provide application compatibility from XP in Windows 7. If you have an old application that you were never able to get going under Vista, it’s likely that XP Mode in Windows 7 will get you up and running. This is a huge boon to businesses who have been reluctant to upgrade from XP, if only because of concerns there older, and usually custom-built, software would not function correctly. It’s likely Microsoft is thinking along the same lines, which is why the feature is only available in the more expensive versions of Windows 7. Home Premium, the version a home user will most likely opt for, does not include XP Mode.

Virtualization comes at a cost, how couldn’t it? You are effectively running two (or more) full blown environments simultaneously. The requirements for XP Mode are a 1 Ghz processor, 1.25GB of RAM, and 15GB of storage for each running virtualized environment. That doesn’t sound overly taxing nowadays and generally simple enough to determine if you pass the bar. However, this is one minor detail that is extremely important and not nearly as straightforward to determine – your process must support hardware virtualization! If you have an AMD64 process you are in luck, however the situation is quite murky when it comes to Intel. It is impossible to determine whether your current Intel processor supports virtualization just by looking at the model number. Some brand new quad core processors from Intel do not meet the requirements while older dual core CPUs released a few years back do.

SecurAble is an extremely tiny and free application from Steve Gibson of GRC that can visualize the capabilities of your current processor. The standalone application returns three feature sets of your processor: 32 or 64bit, hardware D.E.P. support, and hardware virtualization support. It is of course the last feature set we are interested in and with a simple Yes or No, SecurAble provides the answer to the question above. No muss, little fuss.