I know alot of people have decided for many reasons not to upgrade your Vista or XP install to windows 7, but there's a reason why I put Windows 7 so high on my thoughts.

We all know there's been issues with x64 bit OS's for a very, very, very, very long time. This has kept throughput for Windows users under Mac and Linux's advantage for quite some time... until now.

If you are using Windows 7 ULTIMATE, ENTERPRISE, OR PRO (This is very important, because you must have one of the following versions of Windows 7 to do this.) you can now run a virtual instance of Windows XP.

This is called Windows XP mode, or Windows 7 XP Compatibility mode. Some of you may have heard of it. It's very similar to how "Parallels" for Mac works. This virtual machine of Windows XP comes in a 400 MB download and comes with the FULLY ACTIVATED VERSION of Windows XP! This allows you to run programs that are incompatible with x64 OS's! I took a screenshot to show you what it looks like running full time. You can also create programs inside of this virtual application, and run them as if they were not running in a virtual environment. In other words, there's no clunky screen to look at, just a web browser on your screen being virtually created from the virtual XP OS running. There are some small flaws, however. Sometimes, Windows XP will not resize windows correctly if you are running the virtual XP in a sized window. Also, as all virtual machines function, they require you specify RAM/HD space for the XP virtual machine. This may cause some load issues for some people with smaller amounts of RAM or HD space. I'm running this virtual XP mode with the following specs related to this matter:

2x 300GB WD HDD's. 1 on 10k RPM Raptor (Main HD), and one at 7200 RPM (Backup).
1x 18GB WD HDD. (DEV)
6 GB Corsair 18000 RAM (Triple Channel).
1100W Tagan PSU.
Core i7 Extreme @ 3.6 GhZ. (I clocked it back down. It was at 4.2 GhZ stock, but some programs were fussy at times.)
NVIDIA GTX 280 @ Stock GPU clock speed/memory speed.
ASUS Rampage II Extreme ROG motherboard.

I selected (based on my system's specs) 160GB of dedicated space and 1.5 GB of dedicated RAM, which is more than enough to run what I need to run on this virtual XP mode. Keep in mind that these resources are only dedicated while the virtual machine is running.

Here are the screenshots of the XP Compatibility mode running on my machine...

The first picture is me starting the XP virtual machine up. On the initial boot it takes, about 20-30 seconds to load. On suspended mode, it takes about half that time.





The second picture is Windows 7 Ultimate x64 running side-by-side with a genuinely-activated version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3. It acts and functions just like a normal XP OS would. (IE: It does Windows updates by itself, "restarts itself" after finishing those updates) It also has a much faster boot loading time than a regular install of Windows XP due to its virtualization. You can "suspend" or "hibernate"... if you will... Windows XP, and resume it once you're ready. This means you can turn off the OS completely, then boot it back up with the same windows and programs open on the virtual machine. You can also choose to shut the OS down, and the OS will "power down" into a "shut off" mode. It's just like shutting down your normal system. The virtual OS can also use your current internet connection by bridging your Windows 7 network to the virtual OS, or you can dedicate an ethernet port to it solely. The choice is yours. It also recognized any USB devices you connect to your system, and can use them just fine, though you still must install the drivers for some to work correctly as the virtual XP machine doesn't share Window 7's drivers, or merge Windows 7's driver database into it's own driver database. You can hear audio and record as a normal XP OS would do as well.



This final picture is Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows 7 Ultimate x64 within the virtual Windows XP environment after adding it into the programs list under the XP startup menu in Windows 7. You just open the "All users" folder on the Windows XP virtual box, and paste a shortcut of that program in the "Programs" folder inside the "All users" folder. Once you do that, you close off the XP virtual machine, and click the "Start" button and click on the "Programs" folder under the "Windows XP Compatibilty Mode" start menu entry. Upon starting the program, you may or may not get prompted for your XP user credentials if you are not logged in as an administrator. Your user account for the Windows XP compatibility mode virtual machine is normally set at full administration privileges to start with, but you might have logged out or created another user without these privileges and logged into that account, causing the logon screen. Once you enter the admin/account credentials, the program starts up running under the virtual machine, but the Windows XP OS screen is gone, so it looks as if you were running the program under Windows 7. This helps some users feel more at home with Windows 7, instead of making them feel as if they have to run an entire OS just to make certain programs function. (even though it does actually still run the virtual XP OS. It's just not visible.)



If you have the above listed versions of Windows 7, I highly recommend you check this out, and you'll be much more at ease with having an x64 OS, instead of having to dual boot, or simply refuse to upgrade. It honestly wasn't my first idea of better compatibility, but it works, and I give Windows major props for at least taking a step in the right direction. I hope that with future versions of Windows, this will be implemented in the OS without needing to download anything, or even better- if the OS ended up having "full backward compatibility". If you like this idea, and you'd like to try it out, here's the link to get XP compatibility mode: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtua ... nload.aspx

I think windows 7 is a nice step back to where Microsoft use to be. i've had zero issues so far with x64 and have used the compatibility mode myself and think it's great.

I won't use anything else. I do run 32 bit version of 7 Enterprise because I hate dealing with no youtube and flash and shit with my mozilla

The only problem I have with 7 (I use 64 bit pro), is the issue with Firefox where it will completely freeze the whole system randomly. After doing some research, it seems to be a common issue and Firefox is the culprit. I'm just switching to Chrome.

I use firefox, but Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. I have never had that issue before. It may just be your version OS. You might want to try the new beta instead?

I'm firefox on win7 ultimate x64, no real issues for me. Random crashes but nothing more frequent than once a month.

I can't justify using an x64 bit OS on a desktop.

Unless I have 4+GB of ram, there really is no advantage to it.

*shrug*

I've been using Win7 though and I am a fan.

I've got 6gigs so it was a necessity for me. But yeah under 4gigs, why go thru the extra hassle.

I was thinking about it. The crashes are completely random and you can never predict when it'll happen. It has also happened to a lot of people - http://quality.mozilla.org/projects/win ... ox-testing

I've also read reports of firefox on win 7 being incompatible issues with AVG, Bitdefender and some other anti virus programs (not on every pc though).

I have only 4 GB Ram so 64 bit is not really necessary, but I got it for free thanks to the university's deal with Microsoft.

in regards to the firefox thing the addons and that stuff are cool, but to me( on my computer) it actually runs slower than explorer does. i know most of you guys probably hate IE but with its pretty legit on win7.

and ive been using win7 x64 bit for a few months now and where working on moving everything at my college to it. the only compatibility issue we've had is with some the older programs not working.

Windows 7 is to XP like Vista was to ME. I stayed on Vista for probably 2+ years, and upgraded to 7 on my main rig about a week ago. I didn't have any compatibility issues with Vista 64, or any other complaints really, except for a few issues (i.e. networking shit). This is good to know, as I haven't run across this yet. I may have to give it a try if I ever run into any compatibility issues with 7

I was a die-hard IE fan, until the beginning of this year. I've used IE since Netscape Navigator was king of the hill, and Prodigy/Compuserv, were the only ISP's to go to. I dropped that shit, and I will never look back. Google Chrome is working its way up the ladder by popularity, but I feel the only really good thing it has to offer is the framework it's built on.

The argument between 64bit and 32bit with windows 7 isn't really valid anymore...I've been on a 64bit OS since vista was first released, and I never had any problems running applications that would run in 32 bit. Practically every processor now uses 64 bit architecture, so there's really no reason not to go 64 bit (albeit not all apps are 64 bit, those that are 64bit will run better).

Also, no problems with windows 7 64bit and firefox here either.

The fire fox problem I mentioned is quite odd. Randomly you'll see the cursor getting stuck in hourglass mode when you click on a link, and it won't let you click on anything else. You can open the task bar just once, but you can't click on anything there either. The only option left is a restart.

This sounds like a hardware issue to me. Try doing some memory tests, deleting old junk files, scanning for adware/spyware, and see what you get.

I know, I know... it's the same shit the typical HP Indian rep gives you over the phone, but seriously... give it a whirl, and see what you come back with. Ultimately, try upgrading ALL your chipset drivers, and if that doesn't work, try rolling them back to see if it's a driver issue or an actual hardware issue. If you rule all that out, try a format, and if there's still an issue try going back to XP. If it's still an issue, you know it's a hardware issue for sure.

I was thinking about doing that, but thought against it due to the amount of programs I have to reinstall. Also, I've been using IE 99% of the time for the past week, and the problem did not happen once. When I was using Firefox out of habit, it happened again. I did some memory tests a few months back which had no issues, and I do routine maintenance every other day. So far there's no issue with IE, which makes me think that maybe some program or driver is conflicting with Firefox.

Right now I'm quite happy with IE since it seems stable, though I think I'll switch to chrome, especially after checking this out - http://www.chromeexperiments.com/

An add-on to Acid's virtual machine: if you are using XP / Vista you can use the Virtual PC 2007 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtua ... -2007.aspx). Personally I find the VPC207 more user friendly than XP mode in 7. Another note about the XP mode in 7 - you have to have the virtualization enabled in BIOS.

64-bit is good even if you have 4 GB of RAM. For some insane reasons 32-bit Windows will allow you to use only ~3.5 GB.

Abandon IE and FF - Opera is an answer: http://acid3.acidtests.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid3

yea, any1 who has vista needs to upgrade to windows 7 because it runs soo much smoother and faster. i have never had problems using youtube or anything in firefox, chrome, or IE on windows 7 x64. if u dont have 4gb+ of ram, u dont deserve to talk, the price for 4gb is no where near where it used to be, and it will run much better with them. there is no reason not to use x64 any more, i have never had a problem with software on windows 7 x64 with compatibility, idk y any1 would use the xp mode because as far as i can tell, all my programs (even if they dont say they will work on vista or 7) work fine, plus, i have found that some hardware that is made to work with xp and vista only will work on 7 with the vista drivers. plus, it is sooooooooo easy to download and activate a free copy of win 7 ultimate that there is no reason that some1 won't upgrade (unless its a company computer that has software that hasnt been tested on 7, and that doesnt have the money to upgrade all of their computers to win7.) and ctp. carrot, IMO, opera sucks, if anything use chrome, it is the shit, especially because it has add-ons now, it is awesome, my favorite thing about chrome is that if 1 tab crashes, none of the others crash because they are each seperate processes, and it runs faster and with less RAM than FF. and FF is also very very good.

Well aparentely windows 7 fails because it took your enter key away rexxer.

HUUUMM no i will not migrate and no you dont know what youre talking about, yeah vista sucks yeah windows 7 is probably better but im to lazy to make a full migration and to be honest i have never experienced problems with my current OS so NO kkthxbye.

yes, i do know what im talking about. laziness is a reason, i just remembered another reason, u cant do an upgrade from xp to 7, lol.