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XP Mode and gaming: Not so much

Apr. 25, 2009 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

I've gotten a lot of questions about whether XP Mode will be suitable for gaming.

Put simply, no, it will not be suitable for gaming.

First, this technology is aimed at businesses, not consumers. It's licensed only for Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise, and Ultimate. What Microsoft is trying to accomplish here is to remove the final deployment blockers for its most recent version of Windows. Those are compatibility related. Many businesses run older applications or, more important, custom apps that they built on older Windows versions.

Second, it's based on Virtual PC vNext (7.0) not Hyper-V, and the performance you get is similar to what you see in VPC today. That is, it's fine for applications, not so good for anything strenuous.

As a caveat, I suppose that older, DOS-style games that run on XP (DOOM or whatever) might run fine under this environment, but I haven't tried that yet. And let's face it, you can always use DOSBox or whatever for that stuff.

BTW: Fun XP Mode fact: XP Mode application windows running under Windows 7 cannot take advantage of things like Aero Snap.

Discuss this Article 11

Waethorn
on Apr 25, 2009
DOSbox is better for DOS games. You can route MIDI calls to any Windows-compatible MIDI interface while the program emulates an MPU-401. That means if you have an MT-32 (I have 2! :P ) or a good General MIDI tone module laying around (I have a Yamaha MU15XG which does General MIDI, Roland GS, as well as Yamaha XG), you can plug it into your favourite Windows-compatible USB MIDI interface and play games as they were meant to sound. DOSbox also allows you to put speed governers on games so that when you play Space Quest 1 AGI, Roger Wilco isn't doing Warp 10 when walking down the halls of the Arcada. (You know what I mean) ....sometimes it's funnier when you leave the speed controls off when playing Leisure Suit Larry though. :P
kenmcnamee
on Apr 25, 2009
I can personally attest that Ages of Empires I and II run perfectly fine in a virtual machine. ;)
LuxZg
on Apr 25, 2009
Who cares about games, if they were pre-Vista games you've already played them on XP. And if they were released in last 2 years they are probably compatible with Vista, so in turn compatible with Windows 7. Anything else should be gone if you're a true gamer :) Anyway, if you game old games a lot, dual boot :P Not that I wouldn't like to see games running in VPC or VXP or XPM whatever it will be called.. but I don't see it as a major problem. Corporate enviroments don't game anway .. yeah, right ;)
anonymuos
on Apr 25, 2009
Age of Empires I and II (and Rise of Rome and Conquerors expansions) work flawlessly NATIVELY on Windows 7, why would anyone then want it to run in the XP Mode Virtual machine? Btw, Virtual PC sucks at the core, (no 3D support like VMware Workstation 6.5) which already has this feature in the form of "Unity mode". And soon VirtualBox will get this too (Seamless mode). Not locked for XP guests and Windows 7 hosts and locked out for Home Premium users like Microsoft's "XP Mode".
Delmont
on Apr 25, 2009
Again, the whining by people who have never worked/supported I.T. in an Enterprise Environment. This XP Mode is for Enterprise/Corporate to run legacy apps....not GAMES. Get it? Geesh!
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 25, 2009
Delmont Actiually this really is geared more for the small to medium businesses. The big Enterprise IT groups can do this with MED-V and get the additional management and control that they need, Of course, if they don't need all the stuff in MED-V, this is another option for them.
anonymous
on Apr 25, 2009
Windows Mobile 6.5 en mayo : Aunque como comenta la noticia, hasta otoño no veremos teléfonos con él
Waethorn
on Apr 25, 2009
Gametap still doesn't support Windows Vista that well, and NONE of the Windows games play on x64. That just sucks. I discontinued my service in 2007 though.
Victek
on Apr 25, 2009
It's understandable why folks would like games that only run on properly in XP to work in a virtual XP environment, but even if it supported 3D acceleration this would not be optimal. 3D games ALWAYS need to run on bare metal for best performance and, as anyone who plays them knows, you're always wishing they were faster. If you want to run games in XP dual-booting is the way to go.
gorath
on Apr 25, 2009
Victek, which winXP games do you know of that don't work under Vista? I'm not being snarky, I just don't know of any myself. Any game that works in vista (which as far as I know, is any game that works on XP) should be fine with Win7 anyway.
Victek
on Apr 26, 2009
Gorath, Well, I do very, very little gaming so I can't offer a list. I do have a copy of Quake 4 though, which pops up a message warning of compatibility problems when trying to install on Vista. I haven't explored this to see if it can be made to work properly.

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