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Thread ID: 136728 2014-04-07 22:49:00 Imaging XP into W7 XP mode? Billy T (70) Press F1
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1372157 2014-04-07 22:49:00 Hi Team

With support for XP ending very soon, and for legacy reasons having a need to maintain some features of XP in operation, it crossed my mind that when installing into W7 it would be helpful if I could just drop in an image of my current installation and configuration. However, if I had to do a full install, it would be the virgin version only, minus all updates etc, apart from SP3 which I have on disk.

I guess that will include all security updates to the date of release of SP3, but what about the updates subsequent to that? I'm not planning on using XP very much, but is it likely that MS will continue to leave available the previous updates?

Alternatively, I note that I have a huge raft of security updates in Add/Remove programs, and as I have always avoided deleting these, I almost certainly have copies of every update since day one for this computer, so would they suffice?

I could probably operate off-line for any XP usage but cock-ups happen and I'd like to minimise risk!

Cheers

Billy 8-{) :)
Billy T (70)
1372158 2014-04-07 22:52:00 I doubt you'd be able to clone an existing XP installation into XP mode, but you could try cloning it into a generic virtual machine.

As for updates, based on my experience with Windows 98 (:p), updates will continue to be available.
pcuser42 (130)
1372159 2014-04-07 23:39:00 A bit out of the box but worth suggesting I think, Make an iso of your existing xp drive install win 8 or whichever os you are going to then use Oracle VM VirtualBox to run the Iso in a virtual machine on your new installation. Or as pcuser suggests clone it to virtual hard drive. I have done it with VMWARE Workstation in the past but haven't tried it with vmpalyer or VirtualBox and Microsoft virtual machine is not available for download nor will it install on the win 7 or 8 without some trickery beama (111)
1372160 2014-04-08 01:57:00 If your legacy requirements include accessing devices through things like serial and parallel ports, or other direct hardware access, you may find that XP mode under Windows 7 is useless. Agent_24 (57)
1372161 2014-04-08 02:42:00 If your legacy requirements include accessing devices through things like serial and parallel ports, or other direct hardware access, you may find that XP mode under Windows 7 is useless.
+1 You may need to retain a legacy machine specifically for your requirements.
It's a pain with old hardware and applications.
KarameaDave (15222)
1372162 2014-04-08 06:45:00 If your legacy requirements include accessing devices through things like serial and parallel ports, or other direct hardware access, you may find that XP mode under Windows 7 is useless.

That is it in a nutshell Agent! I have many thousands of dollars worth of instruments that use serial and parallel ports to download their data and the last OS that they (and their software) worked properly on was W2000. With experience gained over the years I have managed to minimise the need to use these instruments, but sometimes you have to 'show the client the money' (so to speak). They won't always accept my word alone, especially when we are talking about multimillion dollar projects. I argued for two years with some engineers before they finally accepted that they could not do what they had planned and I only got through to them whan I mentioned that my recommendations were in writing, and reminded them of their potential liabilities if they made the wrong decision. Without my instrument data I would have lost that fight.

I see enough costly blunders as it is.

Multiple boot options might be an idea.............DOS/W2K/XP/W7 each one a full installation in its own right. W8 is in another galaxy, far far away, as far as I am concerned! :badpc:

Cheers

Billy 8-{)
Billy T (70)
1372163 2014-04-08 06:51:00 I know a accountant who has a dedicated windows 95 machine that does not go online but has all his accounting software on it. Would this type of approach help you? worl (8599)
1372164 2014-04-08 07:08:00 W8 is in another galaxy, far far away, as far as I am concerned! Compared to how W8 has now developed into 8.1.1, W8 was a handful for some, 8.1.1 is a different kettle of fish, way more user friendly.

To quote chill from an earlier post
I'd now happily recommend 8.1 Update 1 over Windows 7.
wainuitech (129)
1372165 2014-04-08 08:41:00 If you wanted to make a virtual image of your current XP you can always try the fre giveaway of Paragon Virtualization Manager 14 Compact - Link in first post malwaretips.com

You download the exe, when installing you need to get a free reg key ( pop up window) then install it. Downloaded it a while back from giveawayoftheday - for use on oracle Virtual Box, but have not tried it yet. :2cents:
wainuitech (129)
1372166 2014-04-08 09:43:00 try Disk2VHD technet.microsoft.com

There is nothing special about a XP Mode VM, you can load on the extra Virtual PC additions that provide the "RemoteApp" type functionality if you just want to present an app window up to the host OS instead of the full desktop

But realise this doesn't make your XP machine supported past the end of support date / secure etc
nmercer (3899)
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