Dear CNET members,
Happy Friday, or for some of you it's already Saturday, so
happy Saturday! Time sure flies; my son is back in school and
in San Francisco we are finally getting some real nice warm
weather. For those of you who are new to this newsletter, I
welcome you! I know that as a new subscriber, this whole
newsletter may be a bit abrupt and confusing. To get caught
up, check out the community newsletter archives. You'll see
that each week's Q&A comes from the previous Friday's
newsletter. So check them out and join the rest of CNET's
community members in helping each other out and voicing your
opinions--it's all good fun, and I hope you stick around. Now
let's see if we can put Bryan's concern about running Windows
XP programs on Windows 7 to rest.
Before we jump into this topic, I just wanted to put out
there that our forum moderator John Wilkinson has put
together for you a comprehensive and up-to-date list
information on Window 7 for you folks who may be curious or
interested in moving to Windows 7, so have a read and get
informed. Thanks John!
Well, Bryan, a lot of great suggestions trickled in for you,
and it looks like most members who have posted in the forums
said that most XP programs should run on Windows 7 without
any assistance at all, and where you may run into some
problems is if you are running 64-bit version of Windows vs.
32-bit Windows. And for those folks who are running Vista
already, those software programs should run on Windows 7 with
no issues. Many members also advised to run the Microsoft
compatibility wizard for software, which is currently only
available for Vista (7 version should be out soon), but it
should work just fine.
Now for the programs that just will not run on Windows 7.
First the good news. In Windows 7 there is a Windows XP
compatibility mode (called Windows Virtual PC and will
require a download from Microsoft), that will allow you to
run XP programs. However, as a few members pointed out, the
bad news is this feature is only available on Windows 7
Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. And there
are also PC hardware requirements that must support
virtualization software. So that is a bit of bummer, as I'm
sure many of us at home will most likely be running the Home
edition of 7. But if you have those incompatible programs
Windows 7 Pro may be the answer for you. But run the Windows
adviser just to be sure you'll need it.
Well, I've gone over just a few quick points to Bryan's
questions, but for more in-depth details, please read through
our members' suggestions and advice. I have a few picked out
to start you off in the Q&A section, so please read on, as
Windows 7 release is right around the corner--and what better
time to get informed than now. Thank you all for your great
contributions! Have a spectacular weekend, folks!
Cheers!
- Lee
Got suggestions? Send me an e-mail: messageboards@cnet.com
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Hi CNET, I'm planning to upgrade to a new desktop when
Windows 7 becomes available. But I have a lot of programs on
my current XP Home system that I want to continue running.
Some of them are fairly new, and I don't want to pay to
upgrade all of them. I've heard about some sort of XP
virtualization program on Windows 7 that will allow me to run
XP programs. Is this true? Could someone explain to me how
this works? Would it allow me to run my current programs on
a new system? If this isn't the case, is there anything I
can do to run my current XP programs on Windows 7 or am I out
of luck? Thanks!
Featured member solutions
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