One of Windows 7’s most publicised new features (announced in the Release Candidate) has been XP Mode, which allows users to stream virtual legacy applications to the Windows 7 desktop. We interviewed Jeff Alexander, an IT pro evangelist with Microsoft Australia, to get some extra information about how this feature will benefit businesses and IT pros. We also spoke about how Microsoft has changed its internal development structure to produce a better, more stable operating system and to avoid the nightmare of bad publicity and perception which surrounded Windows Vista from RTM.
James Bannan: Looking at Windows 7 RC from an IT pro perspective, what are the features which excite you most and why?
Jeff Alexander: Well, the biggest one is XP Mode, and the reason for that is because we now have an easier way to get people across to the new operating system, but be able to still run their old XP applications which might not be compatible with Vista or Windows 7. XP Mode is essentially Windows Virtual PC with a pre-configured XP virtual image, and it’s very tightly integrated into the operating system.
When you look back on the issues which probably caused people to resist going to Vista, it’s clear that there was such a big architectural change (especially from a compatibility point of view), so that even though we provided a lot of free tools to assist customers, there was still a lot of work that had to be done to move to Windows Vista. With XP Mode, they have more options and don’t have to replace old applications.
Of course, ultimately we do want applications to be fully compatible with Windows 7, but this gives them a stop-gap solution. Many customers have applications in their organization which aren’t being developed or supported anymore, and XP Mode lets them seamlessly integrate into the new operating system, which is great for both IT pros and end users.
James Bannan: Given that this functionality is already available to software assurance customers via MED-V, was there an argument that this technology should be made available to all businesses rather than limited to software assurance customers?
Jeff Alexander: Well, we’ve got to be very clear about where we position XP Mode and where we position MED-V. MED-V is targeted squarely at the enterprise consumers as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization pack, whereas XP Mode is targeted at small to medium businesses that might not have software assurance or access to MDOP.
XP Mode is very similar to MED-V—you get a Type-2 hypervisor, but you don’t get the management layer that you get with MED-V. So XP Mode doesn’t replace MED-V, it’s just targeted at a different IT professional who might be in a small to medium business.
James Bannan: Given that XP Mode is essentially a VHD running on top of Windows Virtual PC, is there anything to stop an organization from creating a Vista-based VHD and using that the same way as the XP-based VHD?
Jeff Alexander: Nope. The Virtual PC integration components support XP SP3, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, so that you get the same seamless integration across all those operating systems. So far, I’ve done three machines on my system, and the only limitation is that it doesn’t support x64, so they are all 32-bit clients.
James Bannan: Will there ever be integration components available for non-Windows platforms?
Jeff Alexander: I haven’t heard anything about that yet. At this stage it looks like we’re just concentrating on those three operating systems for integration component support. The other thing to consider is that MED-V is currently in Version 1, but there will be a beta of Version 2 available 90 days after the general availability of Windows 7. Version 2 of MED-V will use Windows Virtual PC, compared with the current version of MED-V which uses Virtual PC 2007.
James Bannan: Do you think that there’s a risk that some businesses won’t do any compatibility testing at all and simply move their apps across onto the Windows XP VHD and run it in XP Mode?
Jeff Alexander: Some might, but we don’t think this is a long-term solution. The thing about XP Mode is that it’s a bridging technology allowing them to be able to get access to that application, but we are really going to be encouraging them to continue to do their application compatibility work for those applications. There obviously is a danger for them doing that, but we figured it was better for us to have a solution in place to help people to be able to move towards the new operating system. I think that was probably the number one piece of feedback that we got, that moving applications over to Windows 7 or Windows Vista is just too hard. So we’re giving them an option.
James Bannan: Given that it is seen as a bridging tool to encourage people to migrate, presumably it’s not an offering that Microsoft would choose to simply remove at a later stage?
Jeff Alexander: No, there hasn’t been any word on that at this point in time. Of course XP Mode is simply installed via a KB so it’s easy to remove, but there’s no talk of removing the product once Windows 7 is firmly established.
Jeff Alexander: Another thing of interest for IT pros is that BitLocker is far easier to use. One of the things that people didn’t do when moving to Windows Vista was implement BitLocker, because it was simply too hard. With Windows 7 it hasn’t changed much from the beta to the release candidate, except reduce the size of the BitLocker partition to 100MB, and it’s far easier for IT pros to set up because it’s simply a case of ticking a checkbox. The 100MB partition is set up automatically, regardless of whether the system has a compatible TPM chip.
James Bannan: Is there any noticeable performance drop with BitLocker enabled?
Jeff Alexander: No, none. That’s been the case since Vista. Steve Reilly has commented on that many times. BitLocker impacts performance when it’s physically encrypting the drive, but after the drive is encrypted, there’s no impact.
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