Xp - Win7. Compatibility issues ?

whipper_snapper

whipper_snapper

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Some barsteward has nicked the netbook which was my primary nav tool so I need to replace it. I need to re-install a bunch of stuff which I have accumulated over the years and which ran on the old netbook under XP. Can I assume it will all work ok under win 7 which is likely to be my only option on a new machine ? The most critical is an old version of MaxSea with a worldwide collection of charts. I can't immediately tell which version....but I am pretty sure I have a backup copy on CD somewhere....


Is win 7 much more demanding of hardware than XP? I was planning to get a reasonably cheapo Atom 1.6Gb based machine, something like this ? Do you think it would hack it ?


Thanks
 
XP to Win7 compatibility shouldn't be a problem for your old software. A bigger compatibility issue will arise if the new computer is a 64-bit model. I have come across problems with certain 32-bit software related to Maxsea (Sentemul.exe) that will not run on a 64-bit machine.
 
greenalien said:
Win7 has a (separately installable) XP mode, which is effectively a complete XP virtual machine that runs inside Win7 - so even if your applications won't run natively in Win7, they should do so in XP mode. Here's the details : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/features/windows-xp-mode
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This mode is for Win 7 Pro and Ultimate only, not for the more common Starter and Home premium version. For the old programs, you probably get away with Win 7 32-bit (or Xp).
 
As the OP hasn't yet bought his replacement PC, he could consider getting one with no OS installed, and then buying a copy of XP and installing that - loads available on Ebay, even if Microsoft don't sell it any more. Should be a cheaper option too.

A note of caution - if you do buy a copy of XP via Ebay, make sure the seller offers refunds - there are fake copies of XP out there, and I don't mean pirate copies - the fakes won't work at all!
 
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oracle vm

I recently came across Oracle's Virtual Box which has proved very useful. (free download)

https://www.virtualbox.org/

It supports usb devices and enabled me to run car diag software in a W2k window on a Vista (home version) laptop.

"Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, OS/2, and OpenBSD."

Its quick and easy to install and you can allocate as much disk space as you need to each OS.

Ian
 
thalassa said:
This mode is for Win 7 Pro and Ultimate only, not for the more common Starter and Home premium version...
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That is a commonly held belief but is incorrect. I cannot speak for Starter (as it is below our needs) but there is no reason whatsoever that Home users cannot download and install Windows Virtual PC from Microsoft and install XP on the virtual machine. The only difference is that one has to provide ones own copy of XP whereas that comes free with Ultimate and Pro.

As you say, most things (providing they are not 16 bit) should run in Win 7 if they previously ran in XP. An area of potential problems though running older applications is if the application relies on a parallel port dongle (as some nav programmes do, if one has not upgraded to a USB dongled version). In that case neither Win 7 nor Windows Virtual PC will likely provide a solution (as WVPC offers negligible support to the parallel port); we have found that using VMWare Player for the virual machine does support the LPT port in the cases we have come across.
 
CelebrityScandel said:
Win 7 nor Windows Virtual PC will likely provide a solution (as WVPC offers negligible support to the parallel port); we have found that using VMWare Player for the virual machine does support the LPT port in the cases we have come across.
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I had often issues with Oracle Virtual box on the USB comms -and I did install Guest Additions. VMWare Player indeed had almost none.
Finally, I simply ran XP 32 bit on the Win 7 64-bit machine in dual-boot setup. It then uses fewer resources than with the Virtual Machine. The OP was going for an Atom-based PC, which can use all the resources it can get.
 
I would say that that netbook is only appropriate if you need it to be compact and have good battery life. For any reasonable performance on Win 7 I would recommend a dual core processor and at least 2GB
 
CelebrityScandel said:
That is a commonly held belief but is incorrect. I cannot speak for Starter (as it is below our needs) but there is no reason whatsoever that Home users cannot download and install Windows Virtual PC from Microsoft and install XP on the virtual machine. The only difference is that one has to provide ones own copy of XP whereas that comes free with Ultimate and Pro.

As you say, most things (providing they are not 16 bit) should run in Win 7 if they previously ran in XP. An area of potential problems though running older applications is if the application relies on a parallel port dongle (as some nav programmes do, if one has not upgraded to a USB dongled version). In that case neither Win 7 nor Windows Virtual PC will likely provide a solution (as WVPC offers negligible support to the parallel port); we have found that using VMWare Player for the virual machine does support the LPT port in the cases we have come across.
Click to expand...

Virtual PC does not support usb devices which is why I used Virtualbox.
 
ianj99 said:
Virtual PC does not support usb devices which is why I used Virtualbox.
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Virtual PC with XP certainly does support many USB devices and we have used it in a number of situations where Win 7 drivers were not available for legacy peripherals.

Like everything, it may not support all.
 
CelebrityScandel said:
Virtual PC with XP certainly does support many USB devices and we have used it in a number of situations where Win 7 drivers were not available for legacy peripherals.

Like everything, it may not support all.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't on my Vista laptop and I couldn't find any updates or add ons to make it work.

When I run it and click on 'settings' there are no usb ports listed. Maybe there's a work around using virtual com ports?

I think is does have usb support but only in Win7.

Anyway, Virtualbox is excellent, reliable and can acces or share all the hosts resources including isb, dvd, network/internet conenction. A most impressive free utility.
 
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ianj99 said:
It wouldn't on my Vista laptop and I couldn't find any updates or add ons to make it work.

When I run it and click on 'settings' there are no usb ports listed. Maybe there's a work around using virtual com ports?

I think is does have usb support but only in Win7.
Click to expand...

Virtual PC does not support Vista hosts so you cannot install it on your laptop, for Vista hosts Virtual PC 2007 is used and it does not support USB

Virtual PC only supports Win 7 hosts and it does support USB.

Regarding Oracle's VirtualBox as far as I know it only supports USB 1.0 which may or may not be an issue depending on the user; but we have never used it.
 
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CelebrityScandel said:
Virtual PC does not support Vista hosts so you cannot install it on your laptop, for Vista hosts Virtual PC 2007 is used and it does not support USB

Virtual PC only supports Win 7 hosts and it does support USB.

Regarding Oracle's VirtualBox as far as I know it only supports USB 1.0 which may or may not be an issue depending on the user; but we have never used it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification - I should have made it clear I was referring to Virtual PC 2007 when stating it had no usb support.

As regards VirtualBox's USB2 support, there is the option to enable a USB2 (EHCI) controller in the settings.

So to sum up:
If you run Win7 then you can use XP mode, or Virtual PC.

If you don't run Win7, then the best choice for running other OSes is (in my view) Oracle's VirtualBox.
Ian
 
ianj99 said:
..If you run Win7 then you can use XP mode, or Virtual PC...
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Not quite correct as the "or" is misleading.

Assuming one wants to run XP (could be a different O/S) on a Win 7 machine then one installs Virtual PC on the host machine and then XP in the virtual machine created by Virtual PC. If one has a higher version of Win 7 one has the opportunity to install XP "as XP Mode" free by downloading it, otherwise one has to provide ones own copy of XP (which often is not a problem if one has had an XP machine in the past).

So your statement should be (assuming talking XP Mode case only) "If you run Win 7 then you can use XP mode and Virtual PC".

But to be complete there is no reason why one cannot use virtualisation packages other than Virtual PC with Win 7, for example
Oracle's VirtualBox as you have mentioned or VMWare Player as I have mentioned and both of which are free but can have additional features if paid for. In general the free versions have better capabilites than Virtual PC.

Thanks for your contribution on this Ian.
 
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