The Windows XP Mode that Microsoft is planning for Windows 7 does allow you to access applications straight from the Start menu as promised, and it also enables you to save files straight to the hard drive of the Windows 7 host, I can confirm.

However, in my tests at least, performance was not entirely impressive, with a distinct lag between keys being pressed and the application inside the virtual machine responding.

Windows XP Mode, for those that don't know, is a tool designed to help users moving to Windows 7 if they have any compatibility issues with applications they are currently running.

Still currently in beta, it sets up a virtual Windows XP environment using Microsoft's Virtual PC software.

Users can then install applications inside the virtual machine, which will be available from the  Start menu of Windows 7 afterwards.

The first hurdle a prospective user faces is hardware requirements. Not only does Windows XP Mode require at least 1.25GB of memory (2GB preferred), but it will only run on systems with hardware acceleration for virtualisation. This means you must have an Intel processor with VT-x extensions or AMD processor with AMD-V technology. These must also be enabled in the system's Bios firmware.

I tested Windows XP Mode on a Lenovo ThinkPad X300, which was already being used as a testbed for the Windows 7 Beta. This has a Core 2 Duo L7100 processor that supports Intel's VT-x, but I had to enable this in the Bios.

After installing the new Windows 7 Release Candidate, I downloaded and installed the Windows XP Mode installer, which turned out to be about 445MB in size. Users can also now download it here.

After installation, a new Virtual PC folder appeared in the Start menu, but clicking on the 'Virtual Windows XP' option revealed that Virtual PC itself had yet to be installed. Fortunately, this was automatically downloaded, and a short while later I was fixed up with a pre-configured XP environment.

At this stage, the virtual machine has no applications other than those that come with Windows XP. To install applications, you need to fire up the virtual machine in its normal mode, where the XP screen appears as a window on the Windows 7 desktop (see screenshot).

As you can see, the XP machine automatically maps to the drives available on the Windows 7 machine, allowing you to install software by DVD or hard disk, or by downloading from the Internet.

For test purposes, I downloaded and installed the latest version of the OpenOffice.org suite in my virtual machine, then closed it down. As you can see from the screenshot alongside, the applications now appear in a sub menu on the Windows 7 Start menu.

Clicking an application name starts the virtual machine in the background, but all you will see is the application itself, as if it was running natively on Windows 7. The giveaway is that the application window retains the look and feel of XP, as you can see in the final screenshot below.

The good part about Windows XP Mode is that you can create a document, as I did in OpenOffice Writer, and save it to the My Documents folder on the Windows 7 machine along with all my other files.

The downside is the virtual machine's performance. I found that as I typed text into Writer, nothing would happen for several seconds, whereupon all the characters I had typed suddenly splurged across the screen in one go. This is quite off-putting, and I would hope that Microsoft will address this before the final release is made available.

If you have an application that just won't run under Windows 7, then this solution will get you by, although I personally have found very few applications that don't work with the new platform. However, it remains to be seen whether end users will be satisfied with this. Waiting for an updated version of your application is still likely to be the best option.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on May 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (6)

Will the Windows XP Mode compatibility tool Microsoft plans to provide for Windows 7 prove a boon to those worried about application compatibility, or is it just a half-hearted kludge to try and convince XP die-hards to upgrade, as some observers believe?

For those not up to speed, Windows XP Mode will be a tool that users can download for Windows 7 that basically provides a pre-configured instance of XP inside a virtual machine. Any software not compatible with Windows 7 can instead be run in this.

A lot will depend upon how XP Mode is implemented, but getting a straight answer from Microsoft is not always an easy matter, as it turns out in this case.

When I met with the company, one question I wanted to know is where document files ended up if you hit the save button in an application running in XP Mode. Would it just go onto the hard drive inside the virtual machine, or has Microsoft been clever and allowed XP Mode applications to map to folders on the host machine?

This is something that Parallels has already implemented in its Desktop for Mac product, which lets Mac users run Windows applications. It means that users don't have to worry about moving documents into the virtual machine in order to edit them with Windows applications.

Has Microsoft done the same with XP Mode? Here is the response I finally got from the company;

"Windows XP Mode is the combination of two features. The first part is a pre-packaged virtual Windows XP environment. The second is Windows Virtual PC, which is used to run the virtual Windows XP environment. Customers can install their applications into Windows XP Mode using typical installation processes such as downloading from the Web or using the product CD. Once installed, the applications are automatically available on the Windows 7 Start Menu and can be launched just like any Windows 7 program. Optionally, these Windows XP applications can be pinned to the Windows 7 Task Bar and launched using just a single click from the Windows 7 desktop."

Like a response during Prime Minister's Question Time in Parliament, this carefully avoids addressing the issue in hand. However, other sources on the web seem to suggest that Microsoft hasn't gone this far, meaning that XP Mode is likely to have a separate file system from the host system. If so, this would be a shame and renders it much less useful than it otherwise would be as a compatibility tool.

I hope to soon have the answer - either by clarification from Microsoft, or by testing the beta of Windows XP Mode and finding out for myself.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on April 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)

ThinkGrid is a company offering IT-as-a-service to business customers, including hosted Windows desktops accessed via an internet connection.

The idea behind this service is that companies can outsource the provision and management of a Windows desktop environment for their workers, complete with applications, to ThinkGrid. It could prove especially useful for smaller companies that do not have a dedicated IT staff.

I tried the service using a sample account provided by ThinkGrid, and found it pretty much like using a thin client session, except you have your own desktop that can be customised (within limits) to appear how you want it.

Access is via a login from ThinkGrid's web site, which requires you to enter a username and password. All being well, you gain entry to a full-screen session on your own virtual PC running in ThinkGrid's datacentre.

The virtual desktop looks and feels exactly as if it was running on the computer in front of you. I perceived no lag in either mouse movements or keystrokes when accessing the desktop, but for this hands-on I was using the corporate network in our central London office.

Each user has their own 5GB of disk space with their remote desktop, and it automatically maps to the local drives on the computer you are using so you can easily transfer files if necessary.

ThinkGrid costs £49 per user per month, or £490 for an annual contract. Applications are an extra charge, with Microsoft Office Pro costing £17 per user per month.

A full review of the ThinkGrid service will be posted to our web site at a later date.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on April 9, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems that VMware's Player has a slight bug, which can prevent virtual machines from accessing USB devices. This happens if the user is running Player while logged into the host operating system of their machine with reduced privileges.

I ran into this issue while trying out release 2.0.3 of the open-source OpenOffice.org suite at home. To avoid conflicts with Microsoft Office, I installed it in a virtual Windows XP system.

However, I found I was unable to copy some sample Word documents onto the virtual machine from a USB Flash drive. Both the host operating system and the virtual machine tried to access the disk. The VM reported "USB device not recognised", after which it became unstable and locked up, forcing me to close VMware player from Windows Task Manager. 

For security reasons, I usually run Windows in User mode, but I found the problem does not happen if I log in as Administrator.

VMware does not offer technical support for Player (which is a free product), but a brief search on the company’s user forum showed that the problem is a known issue. According to a posting from one of VMware's engineers, a workaround is to add users to the "__vmware__" user group created by Player. It is unclear at the moment whether this setting may have any security implications.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 4, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)