How To: Windows XP Mode In...Ubuntu Linux?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
[citation][nom]hardwarekid9756[/nom]How about a non-bias impartial review with actual information?"...or not. If you're open to using Linux , you too can have a fast and secure next-gen OS with full XP compatibility, all for free!"This is untrue unless you're endorsing linux users to install pirated versions of XP in their VM.[/citation]
The article plainly assumes you already have a legitimate copy of XP laying around. In fact the part you quoted was even used in the context of upgrading, for example from XP to 7. As for "fast and secure next-gen OS with full XP compatibility," it's fast/secure/next-gen compared to XP, without giving up the ability to run most XP-dependent software.

I've seen a million-and-a-half "Here's how to VB in linux!" articles...why do I need another, only this time laced with anti-windows malice?
Click to expand...
You've probably already seen a million and a half other benchmarks for new hardware before coming to Tom's too, so why bother showing up if you already know everything? It's good that you personally may have read countless thousands of VM walkthroughs, but a lot of Tom's readers probably haven't. Notice all the people thanking Adam for the article? As for the anti-Windows malice, it sounds to me like that's mostly in your imagination.
 
Windows 7 is free. I'm hosting a Microsoft party :) Windows 7 Ultimate will be heading my way very soon. I like Linux in theory, maybe I'll setup a dual boot when I do the Win7 install. I do wish the multiple desktop powertoy for Windows hadn't been so godawful.
 
the same USB device cannot be used by the guest and the host OS at the same time.
Click to expand...
Seems to me this could be quite a hassle for external hdd useage.

Maybe I will try vbox to virtualize a linux install. Last linux install I tried didn't work so well, crashed my hdd, and was generally a pain to use.
My experience with Linux, you have to know exactly what your doing and where to find the proper information, or know people who are well informed on linux.

Also, talking about the taskbar dissappearing, that happened to me a few times when I was trying linux.
 
[citation][nom]WheelsOfConfusion[/nom]
As for "fast and secure next-gen OS with full XP compatibility," it's fast/secure/next-gen compared to XP, without giving up the ability to run most XP-dependent software. [/citation]

Except it's not. Your not running just linux, you're still running XP, with all it's insecurities. Run some tax software in "xp mode" and fire up your favorite email client in "xp mode" guess what...... all your tax & email docuements r belong to us.
 
If you're running games, dual boot. Why have that kind of overhead and incompatibility. If you want basic office applications and security, just use linux + open office etc.

If you have some business app you need to run under wine/"xp mode" just go back to XP or dual boot. It's not worth screwing your business over if it stops working after a patch, you're playing with linux and don't really know for a fact if what your doing will screw things up.
 
[citation][nom]WheelsOfConfusion[/nom]The article plainly assumes you already have a legitimate copy of XP laying around. [/citation]

Then why all the talk about the upgrade costs to Windows 7 Professional and Ulitmate? You can run Home Premium and install VM software to run your legitimate copy of XP without having to pay for another XP license.
 
[citation][nom]johnbilicki[/nom]VirtualBox kicks some serious ass. Unfortunately Windows 7 is nothing more then Vista glorified and I'm sticking with XP until I figure out which Linux distro to use. If they wanted 7 to succeed they should have added Aero and networking improvements to XP but instead they had to reinvent everything and they failed miserably at doing so.The UI requires two to three more times the clicking (start menu--> programs requires two clicks versus XP's one in example). A critical aspect of design is consistency which was thrown out the door, where is the My Documents folder? Sure there is an equivelent but changing what it's call is like telling people to call their CPU's "fuzzles" without any justification. ...and just like Vista you STILL can not move the ENTIRE My Documents folder so if you're keen enough to NOT put your personal/work files on the same drive/partition as the OS you'll still have to deal with programs automatically generating folders on C:\ so you'll need to manually move each folder for EVERY program every time otherwise you're looking at losing 30-50 hours of saved game files PER game. 7 is also less customizable and for those who aren't politically ignorant can you spot the communist propaganda? Even the 7 ads are stuffed full of it. The complete lack of design in 7 just can't be made up by eye candy alone; substance is more then skin deep.[/citation]

You can move where your personal folder should be in any version of Windows based on NT kernel. It's not a trade secret.
 
[citation][nom]punditguy[/nom]Then why all the talk about the upgrade costs to Windows 7 Professional and Ulitmate? You can run Home Premium and install VM software to run your legitimate copy of XP without having to pay for another XP license.[/citation]
Absolutely, IF you got W7HP (or below) for free...
 
I reread what I wrote and didn't quite understand myself.

Tried to say this:

You can move your personal folder to any place on your computer - Even to a remote file server.
 
This is stupid, load xp to play a game? Just so you can say technically you did it in Linux? How about getting the games working in Linux. Oh and dont forget with NO ISSUES and full functionality. Not much good if Punkbuster or other features dont work....
 
Hell, with the ubiquity of "Windows XP Pro Corporate - Pirate Edition"(tm), and it's pre-license-keyed nLite brethren, why wouldn't you install pirated XP as a VM in Linux? If I'm not mistaken, you can no longer buy XP anyways, so stealing from poor Microsoft is a moot point. Even if Microsoft faultered, my tax dollars would just be used teo prop them up anyways(whether anybody likes it or not), since they're an "intelligence asset":

http://nationalexpositor.com/News/1128.html

Note that the NSA are Linux fanboys when it's for their own use, LOL... re: SELinux
 
a) XP mode, virtual PC, VBox, etc. will NOT work for games; sorry. It is only useful for productivity software.

b) If you have an XP license then using the free Virtual PC on Vista will be a lot easier then rebooting into Linux to run an XP app.

c) If you are going to multi-boot you would be a lot better off booting into a real XP install instead of a virtual image in Linux since a real XP image could be used for games
 
as much as I love Linux, i have to say a lot of this article is stupid. sure, its a nice step-by-step, S1, hold your hand type guide to setting up VBox in Ubuntu, but come on with the opinions...

"Unfortunately, Windows 7 is also overpriced (slightly less so than Vista), and even more confusing." Agreed on the overpriced, I mean it should be free as in beer, right? The more confusing part though, are you serious, what a joke.

"In terms of its user interface, Vista was pretty much XP with a reorganized Start Menu and a black taskbar." Sure, as long as the only thing you do with Windows is stare at the background and click the Start Menu button repeatedly, then yeah, that's a fair assessment of the GUI.

"If you decide to keep this setup, then this How To guide saved you money." Obviously if all you plan to do with Windows 7 is setup a VM for XP, then you have definitely saved money. Wasted a lot of time setting up Linux to do exactly what your current XP setup does, yes, but definitely saved money. The thing is though, the average user isn't buying 7 just for VM, and even though us Linux fans need to whisper when we say it, there are many things Linux just won't current do without a lot of hassle for even the above average user.
 
The author claimed that he would run windows xp free in Linux, but where did he get his "free" copy of windows xp?

I can do the same with windows 7 home version with virtualbox as well. and...so...
 
This article doesnt make any sense. VirtualBox is just as capable on home premium so why go to Linux? Also XPM does more. u can start up VM applications straight up from windows 7 and they take very little memory as opposed to having a full VM running.
 
It's not the same. Not even close.

First, there are more compatibility limitations in the Linux version of this. Second, you don't get the enhancements you get from Windows 7 added into the XP mode.

It's not the same.
 
Nice article but what does Ubuntu give you more than XP? You need a license to run XP in VirtualBox, why not install it directly on the PC? It (XP) has much better hardware support and will run games as well. I would rather have Ubuntu running as a guest in VirtualBox than the other way around.
 
Why even bother with something not open? KVM is open and runs WXP just fine - even has VirtIO drivers for XP to speed things up. The howto fits in this comment:

If on fedora 11 - install virtualization packages if not already done.
Put XP DVD into drive.
Run virt-manager
Create a new VM (click the "new" button
allocate storage, memory, cpu to taste (remember, XP is hungry)
Run VM and perform XP installation.

Note that whether you use Virtualbox, KVM, VMware, Xen, etc., performance of any graphics intensive applications is going to be unacceptable. Only workaround I know of is to map a graphics card directly to the XP installation... I haven't done that yet - note that you'll need hardware with IOMMU support, KVM possibly a second video card and a fair amount of patience.
 
A few notes here:

1) With VirtualBox, you do need a full retail license of Windows XP Professional (or Home if you want). An upgrade will not do as you aren't upgrading anything, and a OEM license may legally not be virtualized, only installed on the hardware it came with. - A retail license costs roughly $200, a quick Google search yielded $229 as the cheapest price but I am sure you can trim that down somewhat.

2) VirtualBox does not run exclusively on Linux. Those on Windows Vista (all versions) or Windows 7 (all versions) can use VirtualBox for free, and use it to install a Windows XP license, and create the same seamless environment.

 
[citation][nom]maartena[/nom]A few notes here:1) With VirtualBox, you do need a full retail license of Windows XP Professional (or Home if you want). An upgrade will not do as you aren't upgrading anything, and a OEM license may legally not be virtualized, only installed on the hardware it came with. - A retail license costs roughly $200, a quick Google search yielded $229 as the cheapest price but I am sure you can trim that down somewhat.2) VirtualBox does not run exclusively on Linux. Those on Windows Vista (all versions) or Windows 7 (all versions) can use VirtualBox for free, and use it to install a Windows XP license, and create the same seamless environment.[/citation]
1)You can use a retail upgrade copy of XP, there is just the extra step of inserting your pre-XP disc during the XP installation.
2) ...and Mac, Solaris, too!
 
My question is why. So im going to load a highly incompatable os Ubuntu, when I have a paid for copy of xp. I am all for free software, but I think I would just load xp.
 
A lot of people seem to be missing the point. This isn't an argument, "use Ubuntu instead of Windows Vista/7!" The article is about how you can get "XP mode" if you already aren't using a newer Windows OS.
 
The article didn't mention the other requirement needed for XPM -

You have to have a processor that has true chip-level virtualization - That means an Intel chip that supports VT-x or an AMD chip supporting AMD-V. Not all chips have support for this.
 
Nice tutorial on installing a Virtual XP using VirtualBox, this will also work on an existing install of Windows or windows 7. It also can be done with MS Virtual PC. However this is NOT the same as XP Mode on Windows 7! Anyone who thinks it is has not tried XP mode yet. IT is very similar, but the main advantage to XP Mode is that the user runs their XP app in the Win 7 GUI not on the XP desktop.
IT is a VM of Windows XP with some advanced features borrowed from Server 2008 called "Remote App", so the user is accessing the VM using Terminal Services or Remote Desktop, but only to run the app not the full desktop. Plus for those that only have a OEM license of XP, The copy of XP that comes with Windows 7 XPmode has its own license for this use.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom