windows 7 "xp mode" needs hardware VT support

marc2003 · 2 Aug 2009 at 11:01

i've just been having a quick readup on this and it see it requires hardware VT in the cpu to work. so lots of people with budget cpus won't be able to run it at all. shame.

other software can support 32bit guests no problem - even on 32bit cpus. why can't microsoft do it? their virtualisation software has always been miles behind the competition. i don't see them catching up anytime soon.

edit: just to be clear, i'm certainly not advocating support for 32bit cpus. but there are plenty of budget 64bit cpus that should be more than capable of running this.

NathanE · 2 Aug 2009 at 11:55

They can do it but they don't want to. Hardware VT is just so much faster and better... to be honest if your CPU doesn't support it then running VMs is probably the least of your worries.

Parallels on the Mac has the same limitation.

I don't think MS is behind on VT really. If anything they are ahead now because Server 2008 has the Hyper-V built in at its core and W7 too. Microsoft have worked themselves into such a position with VT now that I expect a lawsuit from VMware and/or the EU Competition Comission very soon

marc2003 · 2 Aug 2009 at 12:12

NathanE said:
to be honest if your CPU doesn't support it then running VMs is probably the least of your worries.

bah. i've tinkered away with virtual machines on crap cpus for years.

hard drives are always going to the main bottle neck. and obviously plenty of ram is a must. i don't think cpu power is that important. remember i'm talking about for home usage.

brummie · 2 Aug 2009 at 12:13

Most modern processors support this don't they??

marc2003 · 2 Aug 2009 at 12:26

brummie said:
Most modern processors support this don't they??

not the pentium dual cores like e2xx/e5xx etc....

Memphis · 2 Aug 2009 at 13:01

I don't mean this in a condescending way but those who geniunely need this feature will have known this already and will have hardware capable of virtualization.

theheyes · 2 Aug 2009 at 13:18

Hmm that's worth knowing. I was thinking XP-mode would be great for work but I've just realised we have a lot of EX200 Pentiums.

With them being brand new there's a small risk I would have overlooked them!

robinbredin · 2 Aug 2009 at 21:30

There is a list of the Duo cores, http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/specifications.htm.

memyselfandi · 2 Aug 2009 at 21:48

brummie said:
Most modern processors support this don't they??

There's a list of those which support it at wikipedia here ... it's quite surprising which models do and don't support it (seems fairly random at times).

Aod · 2 Aug 2009 at 22:45

when MS announced XP-mode, i upgraded the CPU in my laptop to one that has hardware VT. known about this for weeks.

marc2003 · 19 Mar 2010 at 05:38

i always knew this was an artificial limitation. microsoft have now released an update removing the requirement for hardware VT.

We’re announcing an update to Windows XP Mode today that will make it a more accessible to PCs in small and midsize businesses who want to migrate to Windows 7 Professional but have applications that still require Windows XP. Windows XP Mode will no longer require hardware virtualization technology to run. This change makes it extremely easy for businesses to use Windows XP Mode to address any application incompatibility roadblocks they might have in migrating to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode will of course continue to use hardware virtualization technology such as Intel VT (Intel Virtualization Technology) or AMD-V if available. You can find more information and download the update which will go live later today here.

announcement: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wi...ndows-xp-mode-now-accessible-to-more-pcs.aspx

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

Aod · 19 Mar 2010 at 08:12

not that it matters - XP mode was a massive disappointment anyway

NathanE · 19 Mar 2010 at 08:57

marc2003 said:
i always knew this was an artificial limitation. microsoft have now released an update removing the requirement for hardware VT.

NathanE said:
They can do it but they don't want to. Hardware VT is just so much faster and better...

Sounds like they had a change of heart with regard to legacy CPUs... Doesn't really matter either way. Except that now MS will be accused of having "slow virtualisation technology" by all the armchair experts that turn off VT in their BIOS because they think it is just bloat.

MeatLoaf · 19 Mar 2010 at 11:24

Fairly sure my E5300 does

SiriusB · 19 Mar 2010 at 11:31

Some may have it and not realise it. My Q6600 is in an Asus P5B and by default the Intel-VT is switched off and the option disabled. You have to completely power off your PC, unplug the mains/switch off PSU, then start the PC up again to enable the option.

A bit of faffing really!

lcg · 19 Mar 2010 at 12:35

MeatLoaf said:
Fairly sure my E5300 does

If it's an SLGTL then it supports virtualization. If it's an SLB9U or SLGQ6 then it won't.

I also thought that virtualization was an unnecessary requirement. It's good to hear Microsoft have now made Windows XP Mode work on processors that don't support virtualization.

ShakenNstirred · 19 Mar 2010 at 18:29

Aod said:
when MS announced XP-mode, i upgraded the CPU in my laptop to one that has hardware VT. known about this for weeks.

was VT enabled in your laptop bios
on my acer it wasnt so i have to VT hack mine to turn VT on
for some reason acer turn it off in there laptop bios`s

edit
found this for those without a VT CPU
http://bink.nu/news/windows-xp-mode-now-accessible-to-more-pcs.aspx

Duke · 19 Mar 2010 at 20:43

Aod said:
not that it matters - XP mode was a massive disappointment anyway

In what way? I've only needed it once for a customer who had about a dozen old Windows 2000/XP software packages and it ran it all flawlessly.

ns400r · 20 Mar 2010 at 11:29

Microsoft removes VM hardware requirements, improves XP mode

Microsoft made a slew of virtualization announcements today, affecting both current and future products. Arguably the most important tidbit is that the company has removed the virtualization layer's hardware requirements for the XP Mode available in Windows 7. Those already running XP Mode don't need to bother updating since they already have it working, but users who were unsure of their PC hardware can grab the update and try out XP Mode on Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate. The update is available for Windows 7 32-bit (3.7MB) and Windows 7 64-bit (4.1MB).

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/ne...ves-vm-hardware-requirements-from-xp-mode.ars

iviv · 20 Mar 2010 at 12:11

So some questions that you might have:

1. Why is Microsoft making this change to Virtual PC now?

Because of you We have heard loud and clear from customers that they need to be able to run Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode on systems that do not have hardware virtualization support. So we are going to enable this.

2. Why did Microsoft release Windows Virtual PC without this in the first place?

There are two main reasons here.

The first is that we believe that customers will get the best virtualization experience on computers with hardware virtualization support. This has not changed – and even though we are releasing this update I would strongly encourage anyone who is looking at buying a new computer, and intends to use virtualization, to make sure that they get a system that is capable of supporting hardware virtualization.

The second is that we had hoped that by the time Windows Virtual PC released – hardware virtualization support would be prevalent enough that this would not be an issue. We were wrong on that. Bummer.

Cheers,
Ben

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_gu...out-the-need-for-hardware-virtualization.aspx

Sounds like MS simply dropped the ball with this one.