Running XP Mode on Windows 7

As most of you know, Windows 7 comes out on October 22^nd to the general public. MSDN, Technet, and Volume Licensing members are allowed to have it now though. On top of the other great features of Windows 7 (very stable, quick and responsive, intuitive window controls, improved graphics shell…etc) they included access to XP Mode for Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Professional editions. This allows enterprises to use a virtual copy of XP to run software that may not be compatible with anything other than XP. It seems like Microsoft's way of saying "why wait for compatibility testing to finish when you can run Windows 7 now?" Will it be sufficient? We shall see…

Here is a rundown of how to get XP Mode installed on a machine running Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise.

As of 8/12/09, the Microsoft instructions and files can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Verifying Virtualization Support

First you have to verify that your computer can handle the virtualization. The E6500 definitely supports it but I'm not sure about other models.

Here's the Intel software that will tell you if your processor is sufficient.
Run Intel Processor Check from here:
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/


Install and run the Intel software and then navigate to the CPU Technologies tab.
If the value says "Yes" in the "Intel Virtualization Technology" field, then the computer supports hardware virtualization.

Configuring BIOS for Virtualization Support

Shutdown the computer and go into the BIOS. Configuration for each BIOS will be different and instructions can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/support/configure-bios.aspx

For Dell machines, do the following:
Navigate to:

1. Virtualization Support
   
   1. Click virtualization
      
   2. Checkmark "Enable Intel Virtual Technology"
      

Save the BIOS and exit.

Install the Virtual PC Software

1. Install Windows_VPC_RC from:
   http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
   

This installs the Windows Virtual PC software and allows the Windows XP Mode RC to run.

The machine will probably ask for a reboot.

1. Run WindowsXPMode_RC from:
   http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
   

Change Virtual PC Settings

Go into your User folder and there should be a selection for Virtual Machines:

Open the folder, right-click on Windows XP Mode and select Settings.

From this screen you can change several options, like increasing the RAM to 512 MB and changing COM port behavior.

Select "Networking" from the left column:

Change Adapter 1 to the computer's on-board network hardware (it may be defaulted to "Shared Networking (NAT)". This allows the computer to join our domain when configured from XP Mode.

Also, if you chose to save logon credentials during the XP Mode install go into "Logon Credentials" and click "Delete saved credentials". This will stop the computer from automatically logging in when trying to join the VPC to a domain.

Running Windows 7 XP Mode

Click and type "XP".

You should see the following icon come up in the search:

Click on that to run in XP Mode

That's all there is to it. Inside the Virtual XP "My Computer" was connected to all the network drives my Windows 7 machine is running. VPC can be joined to a domain or workgroup as it normally would.

Post Blog via Microsoft Word 2007

I've taken a liking to this whole blogging thing. One of the tools that is making stuff easier for me is using MS Word 2007 as my blog editor. It is super easy to type up a blog and with the click of one button have it go to the blog site of my choosing (sometimes multiple ones). When I use it to publish to Sharepoint it even allows me to add pictures to the blog post.

Here is a little documentation I whipped up if any of you want to link your Word 2007 to your blog provider.

1. Click Start and select "New"
   
   
   
2. Double-click "New Blog Post"
   
   
   
3. Click "Manage Accounts"
   
   
   
4. Click "New"
   
   
   
5. Select your blog provider from the dropdown list and click "Next"
   
   
   
6. Enter your blog account login information and click to "Remember Password".
   
   
   
7. When you click OK, the Picture Options window will pop up. Select a compatible image provider (listed in the dropdown) and click OK.
   
   
   
8. This message means you have successfully added the account to Word 2007.
   
   
   
9. Type up a blog post and click "Publish". The Publish button also includes a dropdown to Publish as Draft to your blog provider.




And there you have it.

So easy a caveman can do it...

Finally! I got my Palm Pre!!

After months of waiting and a couple more months of anticipation, the Pre was finally made available to Sprint employees and people with employee accounts. I got mine today and I'm very excited to finally replace my Windows Mobile phone with something that actually contends with the iPhone.

The friendly UPS man brought me this little box. Doesn't look too impressive, but I know what's inside! J

Open the box…nice bubble wrap they use these days:

And there it is! I recently read an article about the new Pre builds in the "sunset box". Looks like I got one.

It's a pretty cool shaped box:

And there it is in all its beauty. It has a screen protector on it and I'll probably leave that on until it falls off so it doesn't look as clean as it could.

Nice packaging effort. I like the orange ribbons around the manuals and quick start guides.

The accessories underneath the manuals. There's a nice plastic cover over them.

Included in the package: A USB cable, headphones/hands free headset, pocket carrying pouch, and wall charger.

Now I'm ready to charge it up a little bit and get this bad boy activated! For some reason the phone won't activate without first switching my current line over…gee…imagine that? LOL

I'm extremely happy to get this thing going so I'm gonna call the Sprint people and get it started! WOO HOO! Happy day!