Uh-Oh… Is i7 3770k (Ivy) compatible with XP mode on Windows 7 pro?

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Oh dear, I’m confused and please need help once again. If I understood correctly what I read somewhere, that CPU may not be compatible to a virtual machine to run an XP mode. Then elsewhere, I thought to understand that Microsoft had a hotfix for that problem. Moreover, it is my (mis)understanding that Windows 8 does not feature an XP mode possibility. That would definitely hold me back from considering an 8 platform. I have much in the way of valuable and costly XP software I’d like to call up again if possible. Please help me separate the sheep from the goats, the myth from the magic, or whatever. Thanks!!!

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Win 8 has Hyper V which replaces XP Mode. Many agree that a 3rd party VM works better than either MS offering. VMware is one of those I have heard a lot about as a good contender in Win 8.

Much of the XP S/W will work natively in Win 8. If it’s 32 Bit, there is a good chance it will work. If it’s 16 Bit, then it might work on the Win 8 32 bit edition. It’s hit or miss in that case.

I thought that it was more of a function of the MB Bios to have hardware virtualization enabled rather than the CPU. I could be wrong.

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As far as I can tell, the hardware support for virtualization in XP mode was removed in 2010, but I am pretty sure the latest Intel CPUs would support it, if needed.

Hyper-V is an excellent virtualization platform and you can run XP on Hyper-V. It does not include a license, as XP mode did, though. Hyper-V VMs cannot also access USB devices directly, which can be a bit of a limitation…

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Hyper-V is an entirely different animal that Virtual PC with XP mode. As Rui states it is an excellent virtualization platform. It is from the Windows Server side and has been constantly imporved since the initial release. There are differences between Server Hyper-V and Client Hyper-V. See What features are in Server Hyper-V that aren’t in Client Hyper-V? for a list of what’s different. If you look around you’ll find dueling articles from Microsoft and VMware about whose product is better.

The biggest difference between Virtual PC with XP mode and Hyper-V is that with Hyper-V there are no guest OS licenses included. You must have a valid license for the guest OS – this is the same as with third party virtualization solutions.

Joe

--Joe

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Oh dear, I’m confused and please need help once again. If I understood correctly what I read somewhere, that CPU may not be compatible to a virtual machine to run an XP mode. Then elsewhere, I thought to understand that Microsoft had a hotfix for that problem. Moreover, it is my (mis)understanding that Windows 8 does not feature an XP mode possibility. That would definitely hold me back from considering an 8 platform. I have much in the way of valuable and costly XP software I’d like to call up again if possible. Please help me separate the sheep from the goats, the myth from the magic, or whatever. Thanks!!!

Windows 8 does not have an “XP Mode”, but like Ted points out, there are plenty of good 3rd party solutions that offer VM ware. All you need to have is a
valid XP disk and license. You choice of processor should due fine with it.

As far as I know too, Windows 7 Pro will offer XP mode that will work just as well.

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Thank you all so very, very much for your input! Phew!–This is very heavy reading and research for me as I am quite naive about such matters. I was toying with the idea of which (7 or 8) to install on my fresh new build. My heart says 7, my head says 8 (both Pro 64 bit versions). I believe I might be better off sticking with 7 for now, seeing all the software compatibility issues and such about which I have been reading. Nevertheless, I could still perhaps be persuaded otherwise given good reasons to do so. Wow, so many folk are disparaged with 8, yet I see that technology keeps moving us forward, whether that’s where we want to go or not.

That being said, the idea came to me would I, could I, be better served by doing a dual boot setup with XP and 7? This is also unfamiliar territory. Is it possible to run XP with such new high-powered hardware? And if so, would I assume correctly in that I would need to partition a drive and run a separate antivirus for the system? Could I install it to my “D” VelociRaptor HDD, or would I install it to my “C” SSD. Or is XP mode the preferred way to go?

So sorry for all the inquisitiveness, but I sure extend my most heartfelt appreciation for your help. 😀

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I’d go with Windows 8 and use Hyper-V for whenever you need XP. Likely everything you need to run will run in that environment, and you’ll have the latest hardware and OS.

I haven’t tested the above, but you sound like someone who likes to keep up with the latest.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I haven’t done it (because I’m already running Win 8 only in VM) but I’m pretty sure I could get XP Mode cooking on Win 8. I’d have to use my Win 7 system to install the XP Mode on then “export” it over to run under VMWare Player because I think Virtual PC is another of the scrap heap programs, replaced by Hyper-V which doesn’t support it (imagine that). VMWare player also has a cool Unity mode which sort of lets you operate XP applications in the same enviroment.

Anyway, from there I would put it on the fastest drive you have, you could test the velociraptor against the SSD performance-wise just by copying the install folder over but I’m guessing the SSD would still make a pretty big difference in smoothing out the performance hit that comes from virtualization. I only tested on 7200 RPM units but I don’t think another 3000 RPMs can make up for random access.

Would it be violating the EULA? Very probably, but Microsoft doesn’t gain one penny from a purchased copy of XP at this point, a purchased copy of XP might very well not be legitimate at this point, and it would cost Microsoft to try and put a stop to it. That’s 3 to zero in my favor.

I should try it just to see how well a virtual machine runs within a virtual machine on a dedicated SSD that I’m running from remote desktop. 😉

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Thanks Friends!

After all the consternation, I have finally decided to go with 7 for now. Many folk in the past have skipped out on Millenium and Vista and came out the better for it. Funny, I really don’t mind Vista– been quite stable for me, and I appreciate that. But 7 looks very appealing to me, and looks to be a preferred platform workstation, Whereas 8 seems to be more preferred for social networking and such. At least, that are my impressions from “looking in the window.”

It’s reaffirming what CLiNTsays that my processor should work for XP Mode. But I’ve done some reading around, and am now getting enticed by the prospects of a dual boot possibility (if such exists). I mean, can such new hardware work with an XP platform? Really? Some advise that for one doing a/v work, a dual boot is a preferred option, as one does not take a performance hit from an XP Mode. Moreover, it seems to be less problematic to have both OS’s installed to the same disk. So I guess what I am wondering at this point is can I get the dual boot going with this hardware, and what step-by-step technique can I best follow, and any other hidden secrets I should know about? Thanks!

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I think we need to let you have time to make up your mind to what you actually want to achieve.

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I think we need to let you have time to make up your mind to what you actually want to achieve.

Curiousclive, Sorry for the confusion. I do know actually and exactly what I want to achieve. I need to build this computer into an audio/video workstation. Now contemporary software is great for doing HD, 3D, Blueray, etc… whatever state of the art we are at. However, I still have quite a lot of analog capture and processing to do as well. Years ago, I acquired all kinds of valuable, costly, and appropriate software, with all kinds of plug-ins to boot, to perform such tasks. For example, Vegas, Acid, Sound Forge, Poser, DAZ, Paint Shop Pro, various audio, and on and on, and even a Canopus ADVC300 Advanced Digital Video Converter. And so hopefully you can see why XP is still very viable and important to me. Therefore, I need to implement the best solution for getting XP onto my system. Lastly, I am comitted to 7 Pro 64 bit now. I hope that clarifies things.

***Edit note: Sir Clive, please do not speak for “we”. What is the point and purpose of such a post? It could serve to dissuade the kind and generous folk from helping me out here.

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Check the driver CD you get with the motherboard for a set of XP drivers.

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Check the driver CD you get with the motherboard for a set of XP drivers.

Ooooh… Thanks, I’ll do that, F.U.N.downtown

*** Edit note, follow up. I checked the MSI website real quick. Quite a list of motherboard drivers. They do have the chipset and Intel engine drivers, but not a few of the others, like Intel VGA Driver for XP. I don’t know how to interpret that– I mean in terms of possibilities.

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z77A-G45-Thunderbolt.html#/?div=Driver&os=Win8%2064

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The only thing I was really wondering is if there would be thunderbolt port XP drivers but I don’t see any special notes or issues on that matter. Don’t have to worry about basic generic drivers like VGA, even if XP fails to load them, there is still a generic form running so you see the screen and can install the video card drivers you are going to use.

If you have external capture devices, that would be another reason to opt for dual boot, if not USB, there’s no way to capture the port to the virtual machine and even capturing a USB port for a device that is not recognized by the host as, something, so it shows up on the computer, may not work.

I see the SATA drivers are available as well so if you want to get fancy you can integrate those into the XP install disc with something like nLITE. You’ll probably want to try and do that to keep from putting the BIOS into IDE compatible mode. I do the latter and don’t notice a difference but on paper there are some advantages to AHCI mode.

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The only thing I was really wondering is if there would be thunderbolt port XP drivers but I don’t see any special notes or issues on that matter. Don’t have to worry about basic generic drivers like VGA, even if XP fails to load them, there is still a generic form running so you see the screen and can install the video card drivers you are going to use.

If you have external capture devices, that would be another reason to opt for dual boot, if not USB, there’s no way to capture the port to the virtual machine and even capturing a USB port for a device that is not recognized by the host as, something, so it shows up on the computer, may not work.

I see the SATA drivers are available as well so if you want to get fancy you can integrate those into the XP install disc with something like nLITE. You’ll probably want to try and do that to keep from putting the BIOS into IDE compatible mode. I do the latter and don’t notice a difference but on paper there are some advantages to AHCI mode.

Thank you, my Friend.

Yes, both my Canopus and old Panasonic camcorder connect via firewire. But my Microtek scanner (best scanner I’ve ever seen anytime, anywhere) is USB. If I understand correctly, you are reasonably confident that my hardware will not stand in the way or be an obstacle to a dual boot. That would be fantastic and FUNtastic! Now if I can only be led to some good step by step process somewhere. I wonder about many things like which OS to install first, when to partition, the whole nine yards. I will look into that nLite and see if it’s something I can understand. Thank you so much yet once again, F.U.N. downtown. 😀

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The only thing I was really wondering is if there would be thunderbolt port XP drivers but I don’t see any special notes or issues on that matter. Don’t have to worry about basic generic drivers like VGA, even if XP fails to load them, there is still a generic form running so you see the screen and can install the video card drivers you are going to use.

If you have external capture devices, that would be another reason to opt for dual boot, if not USB, there’s no way to capture the port to the virtual machine and even capturing a USB port for a device that is not recognized by the host as, something, so it shows up on the computer, may not work.

I see the SATA drivers are available as well so if you want to get fancy you can integrate those into the XP install disc with something like nLITE. You’ll probably want to try and do that to keep from putting the BIOS into IDE compatible mode. I do the latter and don’t notice a difference but on paper there are some advantages to AHCI mode.

F.U.N. downtown, you are a computer savant genius!– What a most brilliant and powerful freeware that nLite appears to be. I also like the idea that you can add on the Service Packs and cut out the bloat in the same and one installation. But now the question that is troubling me has to do with remember how you had to verify your installation with MS? Well, I have maybe 3 possible installation options and am wondering which way I should go, please?

1. I have an XP home edition upgrade disk (that is probably going to want my ’98 product code)
2. I also have an OEM XP home with SP 1a
3. Or should I try to track down and buy something like an XP Pro? Thanks!

***Oh, I don’t know if you are aware of this or not yet, but I bet you would be interested in Ted’s Tweaks that he found for Windows. At least for me, it is “totally awesome” stuff!
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//150906-TweakGuides-Tweaking-Companion-for-Windows-All-Versions

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I think I am going to extend this thread into the “General Windows” forum now where this discussion seems to have more apropriately evolved, and will be more visible.

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I do not remember if XP had the same double install that Win 7 did. I’m not sure the XP Upgrade will work. Plus it’s most likely an original w/o SP1

The OEM disks are generally tied to the original PC they were installed on and this might not activate either. A call to MS probably will not work either as the OEM eula specifically ties the OS to the original PC.

You might be better off getting an original XP disk. There are many sites listing XP disks still. Amazon, eBay and many others. If you use an auction site please ensure a good feedback rating of the seller.

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Ya, I think there are some pretty comprehensive differences between Home and Pro, don’t know if its even possible to integrate the latest service pack with an upgrade disc, the OEM license key is probably tied to the manufacturer’s range of keys given to them for their installations; XP Pro SP3 retail is the best way to go there I think, even though there may be some possible workarounds with what you already have that I don’t know about.

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Thanks guys. I tracked down an XP Pro for $135 from DigiConcepts that sells through Amazon, so I guess I’ll get that. I had already posted a warning about windows-oem.com. I almost got suckered there, thinking with the domain name they were a Microsoft site. Phew!– scary, scary world everywhere one turns.

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