Back to the future: Windows 7 and its Windows XP Mode

By David M Williams
Saturday, 25 April 2009 18:29

Technology

Microsoft still can't shake the success of Windows XP. In a move that seems designed both to ensure backwards compatibility and to sway the Vista nay-sayers it has been revealed Microsoft’s impending Windows 7 operating system will include a virtualised Windows XP mode.

Windows XP is undoubtedly a high point in Microsoft’s product line. While the change from Windows 3.1 to Windows ’95 was much more dramatic, there’s no denying XP successfully transitioned the user interface while maintaining a reputation for good hardware and application compatibility.

Contrast that with Windows Vista which has been well regarded by some, but loathed by many more.

Vista was a long time but even so still missed some of the key innovations it was expected to bring Consider WinFS, for instance; this was to be a new file system that replaced NTFS and FAT. WinFS was interesting because it was a relational database at heart. You’d still save and organise files and folders but you’d also be able to search on data in new, fast ways.

Vista introduced new device driver models which meant that many devices would not operate correctly until new drivers could be produced. Early on, the lack of an nVidia video card driver at the time of Windows Vista’s retail launch – for one example – really caused some pain. Looking back, the situation is much better now but Vista definitely started off life on the wrong foot.

Meantime, Windows XP – fast approaching its 10th birthday – is still plugging away, powering computers where the owners lack confidence in Vista to upgrade (or are so happy with XP they see no reason to upgrade.)

The legacy operating system is also powering netbooks, quickly becoming Microsoft’s weapon against Linux in the war for domination of low-powered lightweight computing devices.

Windows Vista was never a contender for the netbook market, with much beefier hardware requirements than its predecessor.

It stands to reason Microsoft has considered carefully how Vista was perceived, and similarly how Windows XP has gone from being just an operating system to a virtual equivalent of a security blanket. I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way. Really, Vista has caused users to tenaciously hold on to Windows XP when they would ordinarily be excited by the release of something new.

We already know Windows 7 is lighter on hardware needs than Windows Vista, thus allowing it to operate on netbooks.

It has now been revealed that another big thing about Windows 7 will be a virtualised Windows XP mode. I see this as solving two problems. First, it guarantees that if something works with XP then it will work with Windows 7. Second, and as a result of the first, this can sway the Vista-holdoffs that they should give Windows 7 a try.