I just recently got a computer that has windows 7 on it. I heard that you could get windows xp on windows 7. I would like to know how to have windows xp on windows 7. Thank you.
27
Jul/10
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You can run them side by side with two different hard drives and start each one at boot. You cant have XP running in windows 7.
There are two ways to do this. The first method, which is trickier, is called Dual Booting, where you install both versions of Windows on different parts of the hard drive (or different drives), and select which one to use when you start up. The second, easier method, is called a virtual machine, where you run a copy of Windows XP inside of Windows 7, as though it were a program. You can download the software to do this from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/ (you will need a copy of windows XP to install for this).
I believe what you’re referring to is whats called Windows XP Compatability mode. It is where Windows 7 comes with a version of Windows XP to run XP applications. Unfortunately that is not available for your version of Windows 7.
You CAN accomplish the same task by:
a) Installing windows XP on a seperate hard drive to be able to run all your XP applications or,
b) get some virtual machine software like Virtual Box (free) or Microsoft’s own Virtual PC and you can then install Windows XP inside of your Windows 7 machine. This is actually how the higher-end versions of Windows 7 run the Windows XP compatability mode.
Also, you could purchase Parallels Desktop for PC, which supports a really great hybrid mode that can run XP application inside of Windows 7, and they run seamlessly together.
Either way you’re looking at installing XP on a seperate drive, or installing it to a virtual machine.
You could either have a dual boot system with both XP and windows 7 on it. The earlier OS will need to be installed first and then Win7 will need to be installed 2nd, on a different partition. After that you will be prompted at startup to choose which OS to boot into.
Alternatively, you could have XP running on a virtual machine, running on Windows 7, using software like VMware.
What you may be referring to though is the fact that the most expensive version of Windows 7 (Windows 7 Ultimate) has whats called XP compatibility Mode which allows anything that ran on XP to run on Win7 Ultimate.