XP Mode Review and Opinion

[jorgeorchilles]

I finally got around to testing XP Mode both for home and corporate use. As an IT Administrator I have mixed feelings because 1. It does make virtualization easier but 2. At what cost?

Here is the full review and opinion. Feedback welcome:
Jorge Orchilles

 

[Lebon14]

<crossposted from the comment form of the blog above>

I do not agree that you need to buy a Windows XP licence. Here's why.

If you have bought and set computers with Windows XP and those computers will be replaced by a new computers with Windows 7, why not use their licence in XPM? You save LOT of money. Does Microsoft need to know? NO.

Also, today, almost all middle-line CPUs have Virtualisation technology and, also, habitually, in enterprise, when you change for a newer OS such as W7, you will also plan on those :
- Upgrade software
- If software han't been developped since win9x years, then buy a new software and give course to people that will be using it
- Buy new computers that will be used for a long time. This is a long-time investment.
- etc.

By the way, I don't know if you checked but, WinXP mode barely use 20MB of RAM on the machine...

 

[johngalt]

It may barely use 20 MB of RAM on the machine - idle. I seriously doubt that if you load up Photoshop, Firefox with 35 tabs and Outlook checking 3 IMAP accounts that it will continue to use only 20 MB of RAM....

B/c if it does, then it is doing a horrible job of using the heck out of your system's paging system, and slowing itself down unnecessarily....