Can a Mac handle Windows 7's virtual XP Mode?

[Candlelight]

I heard you have to have a certain motherboard/graphics card set up or something.

I mean Macs can handle virtual software like VMware then I don't see why it wouldn't...

...question is can it handle Windows 7 on VMware running in XP Mode...

 

[Amaris]

Yes. I've used Windows 7's Virtual XP mode, and it worked flawlessly.
For the record, I'm using an iMac 17" 1.83Ghz Core Duo.


J.

 

[romulus]

Given that Macs probably have better hardware than your average PC, I'd say yeah.

 

[Hermiod]

IIRC, the only special requirement for XP mode is that you have 2gb of RAM.

 

[Candlelight]

Cheers everyone.

I know what I'm installing tomorrow!

 

[Amaris]

^ I think you're going to love it. I did.


J.

 

[bdb]

Yes. I've used Windows 7's Virtual XP mode, and it worked flawlessly.
For the record, I'm using an iMac 17" 1.83Ghz Core Duo.


J.

Just out of curiosity, where is the virtual XP in windows 7? I spent 5 or so minutes looking for it the other day, but I couldn't find it.

 

[Amaris]

Yes. I've used Windows 7's Virtual XP mode, and it worked flawlessly.
For the record, I'm using an iMac 17" 1.83Ghz Core Duo.


J.

Just out of curiosity, where is the virtual XP in windows 7? I spent 5 or so minutes looking for it the other day, but I couldn't find it.

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


J.

 

[Candlelight]

I'm currently ripping out my old Bootcamp partition to a VM image then will wipe it and go to Windows 7.

 

[Candlelight]

Had to retain the boot camp so installed 7 as a virtual image. Running really well but as I expected the virtual xp failed to run.

 

[Marc]

Had to retain the boot camp so installed 7 as a virtual image. Running really well but as I expected the virtual xp failed to run.

So you're virtualising within a virtualisation?

 

[Candlelight]

Had to retain the boot camp so installed 7 as a virtual image. Running really well but as I expected the virtual xp failed to run.

So you're virtualising within a virtualisation?

As I said, I'm not, as it won't run under a "dual" virtual environment.

A new laptop arrives Thursday so I may try and use that or my old one as a boot camp tester for Windows 7 for a couple of weeks until it's deployed.

 

[Arrqh]

Runs fine in the Win7 RC on the Macbook Pro I bought last week.

The required hardware isn't just the RAM, the CPU also needs to support hardware virtualization... which pretty much all Core 2 Duos support. So I don't imagine it'd be an issue on any Intel Mac.

 

[kimc]

I'm using Parallels to manage my XP virtual machine on the Mac. I didn't want to mess around with re-booting between Mac & Windows. Just throwing it out as an option...

 

[Arrqh]

You can also do both... currently I have a boot camp partition with Win7 on it, but Parallels is also hooked into it. So I can access it with Parallels without rebooting or if I really want the performance for something I can just reboot.

Right now, anyway... I still on the demo versions of both Parallels and Crossover

 

[Candlelight]

On my machine i currently have XP on Boot Camp (but running through VMware on native Mac) and a virtual Windows 7, which currently doesn't let me run XP Mode which I am chalking up to itself being a virtual machine.

I am hoping to blow away my XP partition and install 7 on it, and hopefully that will allow me to use the XP mode, although in doing that I lose the link to the Mac.

Hopefully it'll run on boot camp THROUGH VMware, although from what Arrghman said above it sounds possible.