Windows 7 XP Mode Won't Work On Dozens Of AMD, Intel Processors

Dozens of AMD and Intel desktop and laptop processor models could well not support the XP compatibility mode in Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.

Microsoft offered the XP compatibility feature to wow businesses which have been reluctant to migrate from XP to Vista and had preferred to wait for Windows 7 to be launched. 

As its name implies, the "XP mode" will allow XP-only applications that are not explicitly compatible with Windows 7 (and for which there are no current upgrades) to run in a virtual machine on Windows 7.

The XP Mode is not available in Windows 7 per se, but is offered as a download (Windows XP SP3 & Virtual PC) to those who have a license to Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate.

Only platforms that have had support for Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) enabled in their BIOS will be able to run the XP Mode.

A number of Intel and AMD processors won't be compatible with the XP Mode as they don't offer so called Virtualisation technologies (like Intel's own VT).

Intel said in a statement that it shipped more than 100 million chips with that feature (which came as part of the vPro platform aimed at businesses) but the are possibly tens of millions others which won't be supported. These include a number of Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, older Pentium 4 and Pentium D processors.

Although most current AMD processors have inbuilt AMD Virtualization technology (AMD-V), older socket 939 processors or Sempron-based CPUs don't support it.

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