SecureAble Tells You If Your Processor Will Support Windows 7’s XP Mode

@JuryDuty:
Hmm, that's weird I was able to install tivo desktop plus without doing anything different than I would normally do.

I don't know, I've installed it as my main OS on both my laptop and desktop. I do like it alot. I wish my laptop was VT compatible because Street Atlas 2008 won't run in Win7 for me. I'd like to have XP mode...oh well. Maybe I'll get it running eventually

BlancheKisser

@jsmorley: And of course from the original article "XP mode" is only included on Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. So it very much is targeted towards company use with legacy applications / legacy USB hardware.

For home use... just use normal virtual machine software (VMWare, VPC, Virtualbox) and get a hot copy of XP and run it for applications that don't work on your Vista or 7 OS. MOST things work under Vista / 7, so you only have to fire up the VM for the odd thing that doesn't.

@jsmorley: 100% agree.

I think XP Mode is mostly targeted at business customers who have legacy applications written years ago. Many of these applications are either too big and undocumented to fix, or of a low enough priority that they just won't be. XP Mode lets these companies at least consider moving to Windows 7 while protecting these legacy applications.

Most "home" users are never going to need XP Mode, as there are newer, better supported versions of just about everything we use out there. (Unless you wrote your own email client in QuickBasic 3.0 ten years ago and just don't want to give it up...)

;-)

jsmorley

@Jason Fitzpatrick:

i'd change the command to:

if [ `egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo` -ge 1 ]; then echo Supports VT; else echo No Support for VT; fi

[from: [sn.im]]

Ashish Vijayaram

I still find it funny how many people are pissed off when their processor doesn't have VT and blame MS for requiring it. These same people bitch about Vista and stability yet want MS to keep up 2 separate trees for XP Mode. One using BT (32 bit ONLY) and one using VT (32&64) which reduces the resourced put into a single tree.

I guess the short answer is VT is needed thanks in part to AMD x64 ;)

Doesn't MS already have a similar download like this to test if you can run Windows 7? Although I think this one gives you a little bit more info.

Axel_BZ

@perryizgr8:
Got the same thing myself - if you click on it, it explains that its something that has been set in Bios or some existing virtualization software that you might be running already--or it could be some Rootkit that is wreaking havoc on your system.

I'm not running virtualization and am pretty confident that I'm keeping this machine rootkit-free, so I'll have to go look at my Bios settings to see what it might be.

i'm getting 'locked yes' in the virtualization field. anyone know what it means?

perryizgr8

I haven't yet found one program out of the hundreds I have installed that won't run on Win7 that would run on XP. In fact, I only have two--Canon PhotoPrint and Tivo Desktop Plus--that simply require to be run in Vista Compatibility mode. But once you set that, you never interact with it again.

XP made is great, but probably of limited use.

@Xenon: Handy. Does the command work on AMD processors too?

If you've running a linux distro, copying/pasting this into the command line will tell you.

if [ `grep -c vmx /proc/cpuinfo` -ge 1 ]; then echo Supports Intel VT; else echo No Support for Intel VT; fi

Xenon

@kd420: but when will this end

Windows XP, Windows Vista and I believe Windows 7 still support 8086 DOS mode visualization. And include the "useful" utility edlin.com

So the answer is never.

I'm getting "Yes" but I doubt I will ever need XP mode. I just installed the RC yesterday and it is running beautifully. Needless to say that many, many workstations will need XP mode to ensure that their programs work, but when will this end? Sometimes I think that these people will never even bother upgrading programs since they are coddled by MS and allowed to use the old ones.

kd420

@BlancheKisser: ... Just install VMWare, VirtualBox, or VPC and install XP like normal in the VM?

Really what MS did here, although commendable, is nothing more than a little bit of polish on top of a standard VM solution. Just implement your own.

@icecreamman: Spinrite really is the last line of defense. Once you run it, if the drive craps out, spinrite will have damaged it such that hardware recovery won't work.

Goody. A reason to upgrade. Now if I could get the money to do so.

adelossa

@perryizgr8: it gives me the same 'locked' result on my dell laptop and also on my friend's hp laptop. i guess it's got to do with the pc manufacturers disabling unnecessary features... (both laptops have vista, which does not use this cpu feature)

probably playing around with the bios might show a way to unlock it, like Bilsko said.

Wow this is made of pure WIN!!

ThaMofo

Steve Gibson and his podcast are probably the single biggest reason why I have any knowledge of internet/computer security. His small but very amazing free programs plus his portscan firewall check are a true service to the world wide computing world. His hard drive diagnostics/repair utility SpinRite is probably the last line of defense when hard drive failure is already immanent .

It no surprise that he is the one that came up with this utility.

icecreamman

Hm.. I'm running VMWare Fusion, and I got the ok on Hardware Virtualization when I ran the utility, but when I installed the VM in virtual PC on Win7 , it said the hardware isn't supported.
I'm not really surprised, since I'm trying to run a VM within a VM, but I thought I'd try it anyway :), and maybe give a heads up for those who try to use it as a testing utility for XP Mode within a virtual environment. I think in this case, the utility's reporting is erroneous, or perhaps, if not erroneous, there is another factor that determines whether XP Mode will function in that particular environment.

Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte have, weekly, for four years created the best technology podcast in "Security Now!" A brilliant and talented programmer, author of SpinRite and SecureAble, Steve somehow makes complex security topics accessible to the uninitiated and informative to the knowledgeable. I greatly admire him.

LetaEleazar

Be careful of this software, it attempts to install a .sys file into your system32 directory and make it load each time windows restarts - the website clearly states it installs nothing and makes no changes. I've contacted their tech-support to find out what it's doing...

IllianaOceanus

er...the screenshot has an AMD processor

LelandFimbria

Intel and AMD have apps that do this as well, but this looks like the faster easier way.
[www.microsoft.com]

BuddhaMonkey

Do you have any more information? The NAME of the .sys file that it attempts to inject for example, and the method by which you believe you detected this behaviour?

MauriceCbazon

Will have to use this to check my current processor. Had been looking to upgrade, but not to vista.