Posted on 04/24/2009 4:20:39 PM PDT by DevNet
XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). It will be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft web site. (That is, it will not be included in the box with Windows 7, but is considered an out-of-band update, like Windows Live Essentials.) XPM works much like todays Virtual PC products, but with one important exception: As with the enterprise-based MED-V (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization) product, XPM does not require you to run the virtual environment as a separate Windows desktop. Instead, as you install applications inside the virtual XP environment, they are published to the host (Windows 7) OS as well. (With shortcuts placed in the Start Menu.) That way, users can run Windows XP-based applications (like IE 6) alongside Windows 7 applications under a single desktop.
Obviously, XPM has huge ramifications for Windows going forward. By removing the onus of legacy application compatibility from the OS, Microsoft can strip away deadwood technology from future versions of Windows at a speedier clip, because customers who need to run older applications can simply do so with XPM. For Windows 7 specifically, XPM is a huge convenience, especially for Microsofts corporate customers, who can of course control XPM behavior via standard Microsoft administration and management technologies like Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GP). And it significantly recasts the Windows 7 compatibility picture. Before, Microsoft could claim that Windows 7 would be at least as compatible as Windows Vista. Now, they can claim almost complete Windows XP compatibility, or almost 100 percent compatibility with all currently running Windows applications.
(Excerpt) Read more at withinwindows.com ...
That’s what I’m talking about too. There’s plenty of pure research out there. Not all of it is published. Matter of fact, much of it is no longer published outside the company at all. IBM is one of the last outfits that, like Bell Labs, puts forth some really nice publications.
I wonder if this means virtualization is built into Win7.
Just make sure you have around 2 Gig Ram. I've seen people with new machines that scrimp on RAM and Vista runs poorly. Add RAM and it behaves nicely.
Fair enough; I just wanted to try to determine what your perspective might be. Your questions are based on a false premise, namely that Microsieve actually does any engineering. So I guess technically the answer is no, they’re probably not engineered badly.
See, this is the problem. Microsoft has developed this attitude they have good reasons for doing things that aggravate the hell out of virtually 100% of their customers, and the customers will just have to learn to like it. The interface is CRAP. It’s an irrational mish-mash of inscrutable icons and words, with many very commonly used functions relocated to completely random and hard-to-find places. 99.9% of users don’t care about the geeky technical philosophy underlying the giant mess Microsoft made out of its user interfaces; they just want a rational interface that doesn’t have hundreds of pointless rearrangements from what they’re used to. That’s why so many people have “downgraded” from Vista to XP, and why most people who have later versions of the new Office software that enable reverting to the “Classic” interface, have reverted.
And yet for all the misguided attempts at “improvement”, very, very simple obvious improvements that are needed just don’t make it onto Microsoft’s radar screen. Example: on whatever new version of Explorer is on my Vista machine, there’s a spot on the toolbar for “Search” that you can supposedly set up to use the search engine of your choice — except that you can’t, because some genius at Microsoft decided you should only be allowed to set it up with a search engine with a very specific URL format. If your search engine of choice is, like mine, Google Advanced Search, you’re out of luck. Microsoft will generously allow you to set the spot on the toolbar to go to the main Google Search page, but then you have to navigate to the Advanced Search. So of course, after spending time trying to set up this supposedly convenient tool to reach my preferred search engine in a single click, I learned that actually no such thing was possible, and that I just had to stick with the old method of going to my Favorites list to click on my search engine link. I’m all in favor of change when it actually makes sense and makes the software or operating system easier to use, but it’s been quite a while since Microsoft offered that sort of change.
I’m really starting to get the feeling that Microsoft is run by hordes of people with Asperger’s — they understand machines and technical code brilliantly, but are just hopelessly baffled by how PEOPLE work. And they make pathetic attempts to appeal to people, but keep missing the mark because they just lack the basic mental wiring to understand people. For a trivial, but blindingly clear example, see the thread I posted a link to, re a new user’s experience trying to set up the Surface computer. Rhodamine??? WTF is “rhodamine”? They’re talking about indicator lights that are supposed to convey information at a glance, and think it makes sense to concoct some wacko new word for the color pink that nobody on the planet will recognize without a translation. The idea to refer to a pink light as “rhodamine” came out of the same sort of mind that designed the new Word interface, and that decided that the “Start” button on the desktop should be replaced with some blob that looks like a Christmas tree decoration, and that decided that the “File” button on Word should be replaced with another blob that looks like a Christmas tree decoration.
They can write a thousand pages of technical gobbledy-gook about their “reasons” for all this nonsense, but they would do better to spend their time sitting down next to ordinary people who are trying to use their products, and seeing what problems they have and asking what the users would like to see changed. And do this BEFORE developing an expensive new operating system or a complete overhaul of the Office software.
It absolutely does NOT work on my 2007. Was yours an upgrade or did you install 2007 on a new machine?
That sums it up.
A new machine. I never do a in place upgrade.
Interesting - I built my desktop in November, 2007 and did a clean install of all the new software as well. I've never had the option to use pre-2007 shortcuts presented to me.
I couldn’t have said it better. And it took them 20 years to figure out that some people could use more than 256 columns in a spreadsheet.
Try this one:
ROFL!
The Knuckledraggers revolt...
ROFL!
The Knuckledraggers revolt...
I recently had the pleasure of being told by someone, someone that has been put in charge of me mind you, that he's still using Windows 98 on his home computer. I tried my best to explain to him what he was doing and pleaded with him not to take that thing out on the net, but I could see that we were outside his zone of comfort technically speaking and if he just nodded his head I would shut up and he could go home to his Internet Explorer 6.00.
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