Windows 7 XP Mode Software Compatibility Verification 1

[goombawaho]

Is there any kind of compatibility checker like the Windows 7 software compatibility tester/list that lists the compatibility of apps running within Windows 7 XP mode???

Like these:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15

OR

Will the software automatically be okay under XP mode if it runs natively in XP?

 

[linney]

XP Mode is a self contained XP (SP3) operating system, so anything that runs on a standalone XP machine should also run in "XP Mode".

I think the Upgrade Advisor has been "retired" so you might have trouble locating it via Microsoft. I don't think you need it though. You can look at some of these sites however.

Description of the Windows XP Upgrade Advisor

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307726/

Microsoft Windows XP Upgrade Advisor

http://www.probz.com/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=112

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=w...ox&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=ieNWTd2fK8jzccqX4MQM

 

[goombawaho]

What about things like LPT dongles? I wouldn't make that statement too broadly. I was reading that if you have software that requires a parallel port key, it might not be "seen" by XP mode.

 

[linney]

Windows 7 Virtual PC (XP) and parallel port dongle

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...t/thread/2623053f-426e-425d-b46f-6be1105b1458

You take the Dongle matter further in this Forum.

Windows 7 Virtualization

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprovirt/threads

Are there any solutions similar to, or along these lines, that are feasible?

Converter From USB To Parallel

http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund um den PC/USB2LPT/index.html.en

 

[goombawaho]

I don't have a dongle to worry about, I was just pointing out that XP Mode won't address all issues, LPT dongles being one.

 

[Nelviticus]

This thread's entitled "software compatibility verification" - dongles and LPT ports are hardware.

The software will run just fine if it's XP-compatible but it'll be running on emulated hardware. Some 'real' hardware can be mapped to virtual equivalents, such as USB devices, but any software that needs to directly talk to specific hardware (e.g. dongles) is unlikely to work properly.

Or more accurately: it'll work just the way it would on a 'real' XP machine if the hardware it needed was missing.

What are you trying to achieve?

Nelviticus

 

[flyboytim]

That 'missing hardware' includes graphics adapters, ethernet controllers (inc. wireless adapters), sound cards, game and midi ports, modems, fax-modems etc. Some serial ports will not be directly accessible, specific SCSI ports... quite a long list.

An alternative may be to run Windows 7 in a virtual machine (VMWare, VirtualBox, VirtualPC 2007, etc) under real Windows XP.

http://www.fxxxingcomputers.co.uk

 

[BadBigBen]

most Dongles these days are USB versions, like the Aladdin HASP, as the parallel and serial ports are getting rarer and rarer on mainboards...

even though XP mode is free, if you run into a situation like that, it may be necessary to switch the virtual app to VMWare Workstation, though this comes with an increased price tag...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[linney]

Maybe Dual Booting can sometimes be an alternative if you have an old and no longer used XP Retail CD floating around?

How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

One known (minor) bug with dual booting XP with Vista or Windows 7, is the loss of System Restore points in the other operating systems after every XP boot.

 

[goombawaho]

Thanks for the responses. I'll see what happens when we run some of her apps in XP Mode vs. native W7. Of particular concern is some quilting (!!!) software and Eudora 7. Her software DOES require an LPT dongle when attached to the quilting machine, but her new W7 PC would not be attached to it, so the dongle is not on that machine (only used for viewing patterns). Sorry for all the details.

Nelviticus
[This thread's entitled "software compatibility verification" - dongles and LPT ports are hardware.]

Hey thanks for telling me that buddy!!! But guess what - some software is USELESS without an LPT dongle/key and thus the two are paired together inseparably. So, concerns about software compatibility would also need to include the functionality of the hardware piece.

 

[Nelviticus]

Well that comment was in response to you asking about software compatibility, linney answering that anything which runs on XP will run in XP Mode, then you replying "what about things like LPT dongles?".

You may be able to get things to work by running the app's installer on Windows 7 in compatibility mode - make a shortcut to it on your desktop, then right-click the shortcut, choose 'properties' and go to the 'compatibility' tab. Select compatibility for Windows XP SP3, save it, run it and see what happens.

Alternatively, I'm not sure whether you can do this in the latest version of Windows Virtual PC but in the old version, Virtual PC 2007, you can assign a physical LPT port to a VM. If it's not possible in WVPC (I can't test as I'm not on Windows 7 here at work) then you can still install Virtual PC 2007 under Windows 7.

Nelviticus

 

[goombawaho]

Right - when I mentioned dongles after Linney's comment, I was just pointing out that "everything that runs on XP will run in XP Mode" is not a fair summary of things.

Let's forget the dongles. I got what I needed - I think.

 

[flyboytim]

I think you have to jump thru some hoops to install Virtual PC 2007 on windows 7 if the Windows Virtual PC is installed already. (some of the later commenters come up with some ingenious solutions)

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2009/08/19/running-virtual-pc-2007-on-windows-7.aspx

Then there are yet more hurdles getting XPMode activated under Virtual PC 2007.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...t/thread/beca34b1-74e2-4040-a53f-1241217ce0d3

LPT and COM ports can be passed through to physical ports on VPC2k7, but pass thru USB is unavailable, not sure about the SP1.

http://www.fxxxingcomputers.co.uk

 

[Sympology]

Also one more thing, XP mode does NOT run all all versions of 7.
In addition, if your machine does not support hardware vitualization, you'll need to get the hotfix for it.

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[goombawaho]

Also one more thing, XP mode does NOT run all all versions of 7.
In addition, if your machine does not support hardware vitualization, you'll need to get the hotfix for it."

I was aware of both of these items.

 

[flyboytim]

More correctly, XPMode virtual machines are not licensed to run on OSs other than Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate or Professional.

This does not mean they will not run on Microsoft virtualization products on lesser Microsoft OSs, or on hardware that does not support virtualization at hardware level.

XPMode installer can be downloaded and run from some Windows 7 genuine PCs outside the above 3 editions, and the XPMode base VHD can be extracted without problems.

The XPMode virtual hard disk can be run without problems in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (not SP1) on machines including XP Home (VPC2k7 not supported, but running), XP Professional, and Windows 7 Starter.

Presumably Vista versions and Home editions of Windows 7 (untested) would be able to work as well.

http://www.fxxxingcomputers.co.uk