Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate Users Will Have Virtual Win XP

SuperSite for Windows have revealed an intriguing and awesome Windows 7 feature: Dubbed Windows XP Mode (XPM), a virtualized copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3. It will be a free download for Professional and Ultimate Edition users, too bad it won't be coming to all versions. Unlike many other Virtual PC options, the environment won't require a separate workspace so you can run the individual apps as you would alongside those native to 7.



In the screenshot example pictured above, you'll see Windows XP Mode running Word 2003 next to Word 2007 under Windows 7. It looks similar to the XP compatibility mode found in Vista, which means XPM should make legacy compatibility much less of a hassle. No reports of it being found in the leaked Release Candidate build, but if you want to have more of it, hit up this link to Supersite community for more.

How to Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7

It's quite difficult but doable. We all know that Microsoft seems to tell us that a Windows 7 upgrade is will only work from Windows Vista-based computers. Is this some kind of strategy Microsoft's playing on us loyal Windows XP users to purchase Vista before upgrading to Windows 7? I hope not. But if you're running XP, you may not be out of options.

Can we get around without purchasing and activating Windows Vista before upgrading to Windows 7? Yes we can. We have tried upgrading one old Windows XP machine over the weekend to Windows 7 Build 7000. It took us from morning till evening to wrap up the upgrade. But it's all worth it. We had the machine running Windows 7 without a glitch, at least until now.

We got a copy of a Vista promo installer to upgrade our Windows XP SP1 (yes SP1, we specifically want to try it on the earliest XP release, but should at least have Office 2007 on it). We were able to install Vista without entering any serial number. Afterwhich we installed the latest Windows 7 public beta, after waiting through a long installation process... It went in without any problem. We entered a legit serial number and activated it, crossing our fingers, it did. Everything's running without a hitch including Office 2007.

But then, this may not guarantee that everyone can have the same system installation experience when upgrading XP to Windows 7, most particularly with the final Windows 7 release. But this experience will at least tell us, at the very least that inspite of a difficult long process, Windows XP users can get their system upgraded to Windows 7 without the extra cost of purchasing a Windows Vista.