Windows XP Mode in Windows 7

rk1033 said:

I read that you need an additional gigabyte of ram to use the XP Mode feature in Windows 7. My pc is maxed out at 1 GB. (I haven't upgraded to windows 7 yet). Is it possible to run Windows 7 Professional in XP mode with 1 GB of RAM, or will it not even work? I'm just curious because of older software I use such as Microsoft Money 2006.

OP states his RAM is maxed out at 1GB. Sounds like a fairly old machine (or one of the netbooks that had minimal specs.) If that's the case, wouldn't RAM be just one of several possible problems along with CPU, graphics card, etc.? I'm certainly not an expert but Microsoft always seems to under-estimate what the minimums are to run any operating system. For example, does anybody really believe that XP out of the box gives optimum performance with only 64MB RAM - the minimum recommended by MS?

Sometimes a newer machine with improved specs isn't just "nice to have". It's a necessity in order to take full advantage of newer software as well as minimizing the probability of other hardware incompatibilities. IMHO.

pparks1 said:

marsmimar said:

For example, does anybody really believe that XP out of the box gives optimum performance with only 64MB RAM - the minimum recommended by MS?

I thougth 64MB was the mimimum recommended RAM...meaning that if you have that much RAM, you will have minimum performance...not optimum

Exactly my point. I was merely saying that I don't believe I could realistically expect to achieve even mimimal performance out of XP Mode (or any software I'm trying to run in XP Mode) if my machine has minimum Microsoft recommended specs.

Oh I tried a physical machine with 64 MB of RAM and Windows XP once. Technically, it worked. I could read every single command prompt instance during the Windows XP Install and needless to say that everything took half a century to launch. With 1 GB of RAM, I wouldn't recommend XP Mode, your computer will slow down far too much.