"XP Mode" on Win 7 and Win 8 (no dual boot required)
I have heard this in passing, but never tested it until this evening. I was reading that Win7 had "XP Mode" built right into it (i.e. no dual boot necessary) but also found that MS does still have the files available so that it can be installed on Win 8. I had older software (pre-2000) that I could not get to run regardless of compatibility mode, yet ran on XP Mode perfectly fine (creates a window which is like a virtual XP desktop). Interesting comment on the site I was reading is that
XP is actually embedded into Win7 (but not Win8).
The site I started at was:
http://www.howtogeek.com/171395/how-to-get-windows-xp-mode-on-windows-8/ which led into:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/5460/our-look-at-xp-mode-in-windows-7/ The links at the bottom of the second page are accurate,
except for the Windows XP Mode itself (which had been moved) and is now here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8002 "Securable" simply runs (no installation of anything), and tells you if your machine is capable of Hardware Virtualization (i.e., can use XP Mode), and from there, an installation of "Virtual PC" from MS (use the version based on your hardware... is in the file name (x86 = 32-bit, x64 = 64-bit), and "Windows XP Mode" (I ran the version
without the "N" in the middle, and could not find the difference between the two) is all that I needed to do. The virtual PC gives a window that looks like an XP desktop, and I was able to install older software from inside that without issue (and Win 7 is still the true OS).
Others may have more experience with this ( and can add more insight since this was my first pass on it), but it is actually rather slick (for those "fearing" OS' beyond XP).