This is a guest post written by Ilija Brajkovic, a student who’s interested in computer networks. He spends most of his time on blogging. He is also a founder of the Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Virtualization Blog, in which he writes about Microsoft’s solutions for system administrators.
Windows XP Mode is a fantastic addition to Windows 7. Not only does it provide a solution to all legacy applications that don’t run on Windows 7, but it also gives your old unsupported hardware a second life as well.
If you have some old applications that doesn’t work on Windows 7 but you still want to have them to be able to run on a modern operation system, Windows 7 XP mode can be a solution for you.
If you have some ancient unsupported hardware laying around at your home that you want to give them a good use on Windows 7, Windows 7 XP mode can also be a solution for you.
When I bought my first laptop 6+ years ago, I got one no-name portable TV card that came it with XP-compatible driver. It worked just fine on Windows XP but not at all on Vista and Windows 7. I don’t watch TV very often (because I think it’s a waste of time), but sometimes I do like to watch some football games (I’m from Croatia, and we love football, a game called soccer in North America :)).
One solution is to run another copy of Windows XP in dual-boot mode aside with Windows 7, but a better solution is to make a good use of Windows XP Mode (thanks to the new Virtual PC that finally supports USB attach). I attached my TV card to my new laptop, and then attached it to Windows XP Mode virtual machine via USB sharing on virtual machine. Once I installed the driver and the TV application, I can start the application for watching TV right from my Windows 7 start menu. Guess what, it works! For a few times a week (or even less), this is perfect solution that is more than enough for me.
Note that Windows XP mode (and Windows Virtual PC) has some hardware requirements. If your PC’s processor supports Virtualization Technology and provides all necessary resources, Windows 7 XP mode could be a working solution for both your old applications and hardware.
The only reason that device works is because its a USB device.. other types of legacy hardware simply won't work.
Anan got it pegged exactly. Only old **USB** hardware might work. An old PCI TV card will **NOT** work, using this method. The author should have made that point clear, in the very first opening paragraph, because as it stands now, the title is very misleading.