Windows xp

[whiskeryron]

Is it possible to download w xp into a pc that is using w 7 & if so would w7 have to be removed ?

Ron.

[deggers316]

no so long as you loaded it up on another partition or another hard drive you may have installed you can duel boot

[rojash]

You can run Windows XP from within Windows 7 (as a virtual PC).

http://www.microsoft....tual-pc/download.aspx

[ChuckFickens]

↑ although you need professional or above for that.

[whiskeryron]

Cheers guys

Ron

[Skids]

The best way is to run XP 32bit within 7 32bit or XP 64bit within 7 64bit.

If their architecture (32bit or 64bit) is different then programs that use device drivers won't work properly.
For example, if you're running XP 32bit inside 7 64bit all your devices are still run through 7 even though you're trying to access them in XP.
They software in XP require 64bit drivers but those drivers won't then be compatible with XP 32bit.

The other way is to have a dual boot PC, as I have recently finally managed to do, so your PC is effectively two separate computers which you can't run both at the same time.
But you can have one system in 32bit and one in 64bit (if your chipset supports 64bit).
This is handy as the 32bit system only needs 32bit drivers and the 64bit system only needs 64bit drivers.
However, installing an older system onto a PC that already has a newer system is very tricky.
You'll need a copy of the XP install disc.
A very useful tool for this is EasyBCD from NeoSmart Technologies (which is free if you get the non-commercial version) http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
Have a read up on it while you're there.

The only way to have a fully functioning 32bit system along side a 64bit system on a 64bit machine is to use the dual boot method and treat them as different computers.
Be aware though that certain hardware manufacturers won't provide device drivers for older operating systems on newer machines.

Hopefully all that makes some sort of sense.

[ChuckFickens]

You don't quite understand how virtualisation works, do you?

[Buenchico]

Er, why not simply dual boot?
http://www.techspot.c...3-dual-boot-windows7/

[ChuckFickens]

Actually, these days as long as the computer is of a high enough spec (recent dual core CPU and at least 4GB of RAM) then I'd suggest using a virtual machine of some sort, if you have windows7 professional or above you can download the XP mode (as linked to by rojash) for free which includes a fully licensed version of windows XP (32bit, which will run quite happily in a 64bit host system).

If you don't have professional or above (i.e. any of the home editions) then you can download VMware player for free and then install XP as a virtual machine using that but you'll have to find your own copy of XP and a license for it

For skids,

all virtual PC solutions keep the guest OS separate from the host OS, that's the point of it! and the drivers of the guest system have no access directly to the actual hardware on the computer, the windows virtual PC emulates a standard PC system with a AMI BIOS, an Intel PII (32bit only) CPU, a S3 graphics card, a soundblaster 16 soundcard and DEC network card and the appropriate (32bit) drivers for that hardware are installed on the guest OS.

"The best way is to run XP 32bit within 7 32bit or XP 64bit within 7 64bit."

Microsoft virtual PC doesn't even support 64bit guest operating systems!