Office Professional 2007 Windows 7's XP Mode Won
 

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By Ian Paul, PCWorld May 6, 2009 8:29 AM

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Hoping to use Windows 7's XP Mode on your new laptop? Better check your specs, because many big-name, Intel-powered notebooks including Asus, Dell Studio, HP Pavilion, Sony Vaio, and Toshiba Satellite models may not have what it takes to operate Windows 7's XP mode. Featured in the recent Windows 7 release candidate, XP mode allows XP-specific applications to operate inside Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows 7.  Microsoft included XP mode to entice business customers to upgrade to Windows 7 even if they're using custom-made programs that run only on XP.

To operate XP Mode, your Intel-powered computer must support Intel Virtualization Technology. Problem is, many Intel laptops found on retail shelves aren't packing Intel VT. Affected chips include Intel Celeron, Pentium Dual-Core, Pentium M,Windows 7 Ultimate Key, and Atom 270 and 280 processors.   If you've got a Pentium D,Windows 7 Key, Core,Microsoft Office 2007, or Core 2 Duo chip you'll need to check your model number because P7350/7450,Office Professional 2007, T1350, T2050/2250, T2300E/2350/2450, T5200/5250/5270/5300/5450/5470/5550/5670/5750/5800/5850/5870/5900 and T6400/6570 do not support VT, according to ZDNet. AMD-powered computers may also find difficulties running XP mode since Sempron processors and some Athlon 64 chips don't support virtualization.

That's a pretty big list of processors that can't support virtualization, so it's no surprise that many laptops will be frozen out of Windows 7's XP mode. However, for the everyday user this may not be as big an issue since XP Mode is targeted at a small segment of the market anyway -- gamers take note that XP mode was not built to support video games.

If you are a part of the XP-specific minority running a custom application or another XP-specific program,Microsoft Office Professional 2010, you'd better make sure your processor supports virtualization before making the switch to Windows 7.

Can't find your processor's model number? Run GRC's Securable a free app that can tell you if your processor supports virtualization.

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