0

In the past, people using Windows Vista could run into the problem that their Windows XP applications would not run on the new operating system. Given that Windows 7 Ultimate and later versions of Windows are advertised as including support for Windows XP applications, I was wondering just how easy or how compatible such systems are with older Windows XP applications and whether there are any issues or whether such applications work as a charm on the newer Windows systems.

Thanks.

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    And the same problem can occur in Windows 7. Support isn't full, Microsoft just tries to make most programs work. This being said, I rarely see any program that fails to run on Windows 7, even without compatibility mode, unless it is very (+10 years) old.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Nov 23, 2013 at 1:33

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

Windows 7 Ultimate, along with Professional and Enterprise, support a feature called Windows XP Mode. This is a fully-functional version of Windows XP, running as a virtual machine on top of Windows 7. That is how full compatibility is achieved: running the XP applications on the operating system for which they were built.

Windows 8 does not support XP mode. I would suspect 8.1 does not either.

(Side note: Enterprise users, this is built on Microsoft's MED-V technology.)

Improve this answer
4
  • 2
    Relevant: windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/…
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Nov 23, 2013 at 1:37
  • I see, full Windows XP compatibility is obtained by running a full instance of Windows XP inside Virtual PC which is Microsoft's version of comparable virtualization systems such as VirtualBox, VMWare, and Parallels. Too bad support was removed from Windows 8. I wonder why? I don't see why recompiling Virtual PC to run on Windows 8 wasn't possible.
    – John Sonderson
    Nov 23, 2013 at 2:32
  • Even with XP Mode compatibility is not 100%. Although I can only think of 1 application where this was this case.
    – Austin T French
    Nov 23, 2013 at 2:40
  • 1
    @John - I suspect it has more to do with killing off XP than some kind of inability to get it to work. Just my opinion though.
    – Patrick Seymour
    Nov 23, 2013 at 14:05

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .