WOW, speaking of Windows 7, here’s some late breaking news – Windows XP Mode is coming!!

Not sure why they chose to push this out on a Friday, but what the hey.  As you should already know there’s some pretty compelling new stuff coming in Windows 7, but I have to say this previously undisclosed feature may well be the, or at least one of the, most impactful of any of them.   Direct Access is way cool, to be sure, and the Problem Step Recorder is my odds-on favorite for the Windows 7 killer app (like Snipping Tool was for Vista – too bad more folks didn’t get to know about it).  But, the new Windows XP mode directly addresses one of the key legitimate reasons that prevented many businesses from adopting the Vista technology – app compatibility (specifically the need for the business to run incompatible legacy apps).  Now, you should also know (if you’ve watched my webcasts or come to an SB2 event) that we’ve done plenty to try and help partners (and IT) mitigate these apps, but some of the more robust tools (e.g. Application Compatibility Toolkit) were either not known or not used for various reasons (e.g. complexity). Also, some of you may be familiar with our really strong virtualization story that includes technologies and solutions such as App Virtualization, VPC/Virtual Server, Hyper-V, MED-V, and now DVI which can also be used to mitigate app compat.  (If you’re not familiar with those acronyms, I’ll encourage you to listen to one of the Virtualization 360 webcasts where those are discussed.)  But, some of those technologies required volume licensing (software assurance) or a sophisticated and current (as in Windows Server 2008-based) IT infrastructure which, unfortunately, not everyone has.  So, now, here comes Windows XP mode with Windows 7.  I’ll not go into a significant amount of detail in this post, but know that it’s similar to what we’re already doing in the MED-V solution which is available thru the MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack) which itself is a technology we acquired thru the acquisition of Kidaro just over a year ago.  In a nutshell, what the Kidaro/MED-V technology does is to allow enterprise data and applications to run within a virtualized machine (known as “workspace”) that’s managed at the corporate level.  The key here is that even though the solution is leveraging a virtual machine, the VM OS is transparent (no additional desktop window – similar to the remote app capability in terminal services)  and, if desired, the user interacts with the app just like any other app without even knowing that it’s running in a separate (virtual) OS.  So now, with XP Mode, you’ll be able to accomplish essentially the same thing, you can launch an app in a (transparent) VM by doing the same essential steps you would normally do to run the app vs having to launch the VM as a separate process and then launch the app within the VM.  Is this cool or what!  Of course, MED-V is still better because it provides for more robust management and control of the VM environment and infrastructure, but if MDOP is not a player for your customer, then at least you can leverage this technology now at the individual desktop level.   Below are some key links.

Check it our more fully on “The Windows Blog” at: The Windows Blog (screenshot below)

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Also, as you might expect, Paul Thurrott, whom I’ve referenced here in the past, has also already put out some pretty good info on this at his “Supersite for Windows”: Paul Thurrott's Supersite blog (Secret no more post), and here’s a direct link to some screen shots on his site: Windows XP mode screen shots.