Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate versions have a few tricks and tools up their sleeves to help business users with potential compatibility issues navigating through programs on older operating systems. This is great news for Windows XP holdouts who never ended up switching to the Vista operating system. With Windows XP Mode, you have continued tech support for the software you are still using.

Windows XP Mode is an innovative system that gives you the ability to run certain XP software on your 7 desktop. It works in two ways, both as a virtual operating system and as a way to open older programs in Windows 7. This is a pretty exciting development that hints at future operating systems being more old-timer friendly and much more streamlined than the current rollouts.

Windows 7’s XP Mode includes an upgrade to Virtual PC, which provides the ability to access the physical hard drives on your PC, something that was missing in previous versions. That means users can install programs, save files, and even access the CD/DVD drives and volumes on their machine. The virtual machine also now allows USB support, again something that was unavailable previously in Virtual PC.

XP Mode runs in a separate window just like it was a separate program. You can install programs in XP Mode and the program will appear in the XP Mode list as well as on your Windows 7 program list, allowing you to open the program directly from Windows 7.

A Couple of Things to Do Before You Begin

Download the Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool for Windows XP Mode and Virtual PC Support to find out if your CPU (central processing unit for those of you who don’t speak PC-geek) actually has hardware-assisted virtualization capabilities. If you run the utility, it will be able to you if your PC has the capabilities.

You should also make sure that you are running the Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate version of Windows 7 as these are the only versions with XP Mode. Click on your Start button and right click on Computer. Then click Properties. Your Windows 7 version should appear somewhere near the top of the window.

To Use Windows XP Mode

You will need to download and install Windows XP Mode and Virtual PC. To do so, visit the download page and follow the instructions after click on the “Get Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC” button.