DOSBox works the same under Windows 7 as it does under Windows Vista.

Although Microsoft tells us not to, I am using Win 7 RC as my mais OS, and I am amazed by how fast and smooth it does the job. I hope the final version comes in an affordable price. Dosbox works 101% well on it.

That's good news. I did wonder if it might try and install as an XP app in compatibility mode and be an emulator in an emulator. Glad to hear it doesn't!

One day, just for the hell of it, and to see if it works, I'm going to try and install dosbox inside a virtual machine just to see what happens. There's absolutely no point to the excercise of course except to see if it would work! After that, its try to install a full on virtualiser inside a virtual machine - and wait for the whole thing to come crashing down. Then again, I could find something more useful to do, like play a few old DOS games 😉

The XP mode in Win7 is a joke because (A) it emulates crap hardware, and (B) it connects to it via remote desktop so that the graphics and responsiveness are even worse.

DOSBox works perfectly fine directly in Win7 (even under 64-bit) - no reason (and certainly no advantage) to running it in the XP Mode virtual machine.

HunterZ wrote:

The XP mode in Win7 is a joke because (A) it emulates crap hardware, and (B) it connects to it via remote desktop so that the graphics and responsiveness are even worse.

I'm pretty sure the XP mode in Win7 is mainly for old industrial software and similiar business software that has been using for years and don't need much power to work.

I was at a company last year, doing VHDL programming and they still used DOS software to transfer the compiled programs into the circuit.

In other words, not really for private users or for old games, since there are better alternatives for that.

The thing I like best about this XP mode is that it will be possible to run 16-bit Windows programs in 64-bit Windows 7 with it. Some early Win9x game installers are 16-bit while the games themself are 32-bit.

I find it funny that the "XP Mode" is even exciting at all. MS VirtualPC has been free for like 5 years now and is what this "XP Mode" is based on from the looks of things. So feel free (literally) to run your "XP Mode" on Vista too. Or run Windows 9x on Vista. VPC works on real XP as well. MS VPC can run most OSs.

It's seems MS had to spell out in a very obvious way the possibility to use Virtual PC for the mass market to take notice.

swaaye wrote:

It's seems MS had to spell out in a very obvious way the possibility to use Virtual PC for the mass market to take notice.

Yeah, I remember someone recommended Virtual PC to the thread starter of another thread (not here, though),
and got re-asked 'What is Virtual PC? A new operating system?'

😅

Not to mention the same could done before hand with qemu and now virtualbox.
The latter adding support for 3D acceleration.

I think Microsoft might be making an error letting people get comfortable with the thought of emulating XP (and why not 2000, 3.1, Vista, etc. all doable), then people can more easily switch to a different host OS without a hiccup or spending a dime if he or she desires...

I have lost count of the times i tried runing ubuntu with 3d acceleration in virtualbox. So many hours I wasted on that. Ubuntu loads slow as f***, takes longer than that to install and it's longer so to update. So i just said "F*** this sh**!" and continue to run XP. 😀

XP is probably more appropriate OS for your computer. If Windows 7 would somehow perform better, that would be great.

Or am I misunderstanding here, you installed Ubuntu in Virtualbox with XP as the host? Then tried to get 3D? That was a waste in that case.

I've got a 4 year old laptop here, and Ubuntu installed under 20 minutes (start to finish, all hardware configured automatically, of course this depends, it's an e1705.)

I've been upgrading from one release through the next via the online updates. The update mechanism takes care of updating and upgrading all installed software...
So yeah, if your internet is slow, leave it on overnight.

As for 3D acceleration support (that is, virtualized OS accessing host 3D hardware) it will continue to mature, since some people want 3D support for gaming and other purposes.

Since XP emulation via Win7 isn't going to be much, you may as well just run XP forever 😀
I rather count on good portable emulators, just like DOSBox for DOS.

HunterZ wrote:

The XP mode in Win7 is a joke because (A) it emulates crap hardware, and (B) it connects to it via remote desktop so that the graphics and responsiveness are even worse.

DOSBox works perfectly fine directly in Win7 (even under 64-bit) - no reason (and certainly no advantage) to running it in the XP Mode virtual machine.

I know, your better off not installing the Windows XP VM for Windows 7 and just use the "classic" approach to Windows XP compatibility mode 😀

I'll be checking out this new XP compatibility mode when I get Win7 running properly. From what I've seen around, this compatibiliy mode isn't as friendly as MS VPC. Its called Windows Virtual PC and runs a pre-defined XP image. Unlike MS VPC 2007, hardware virtualisation is enabled and cannot be disabled (so it won't run on 32bit and early 64 bit processors) and it is not possible to configure it to run other operating systems. So, its not a good replacement for VPC2007 unless all you want to do is run XP. Oh, and VPC2007 has been hidden away on the Microsoft site, so you have to hunt around to find it if you want to download it. Sounds to me like they want to ditch the full virtual PC setup of VPC2007 and concentrate on the new XP only under Win7 version they now have.

One of the reasons I'll be checking it out is licensing. This emulation will allow me to run XP under Win7 without needing an XP license, and that means I can install my current copy of XP elsewhere.

For other operating systems I'll probably use VirtualBox. I suspect VPC2007 won't install properly alongside the new XP emulator, but that's only part of the reason. VCP2007 doesn't support non-Windows operating systems and runs them poorly, unlike VBox, which runs them pretty well. Whatever I do, DOSBox will be there running directly under Win7.