As you all know that Windows 8 is out now and every one wants to enjoy the new features present in it, but there are a lot of users who are still reluctant to upgrade Windows XP/7 to Windows 8 due to the compatibility issues of their must-have applications on latest operating system.
Till now many organisations didn’t update their core software and applications even to Windows 7. In Win7 they could run these applications using Windows XP Mode provided by Microsoft itself but they have no such tool for Windows 8.
There is a good workaround for those now.
Windows XP Mode can now be installed on Windows 8 with a trick. Here are the requirements:
- Genuine Windows 8 / Windows 8 Pro running on your PC
- Windows XP Mode
- Windows Virtual PC
Steps:
Step 1. First of all download Windows XP mode EXE file after validating the genuineness of your Windows.
Step 2: Now extract the EXE file using a decompressor like 7-zip.
Step 3: In the extracted folder you will find a file called “xmp”. Re-extract it again using 7-zip.
Step 4: Now you will see a file VirtualXPVHD. Take it out and add the .vhd extension at the end of this file by using the rename option.
Step 5: Now launch VirtualPC and load this file in it to run the Windows XP on your Windows 8.
It is recommended that you set up the new Virtual machine from scratch instead of using any existing set up.
Windows 8 Pro users can also use the built-in Hyper-V emulator for this purpose.
It works in W8 Pro Hyper-V but it is a bit of a struggle to get there.
1. Enable Hyper-V by adding new Windows Features.
2. Reboot.
3. Create a new VM.
4. Attach VirtualXPVHD.vhd as the drive.
5. Boot XP VM.
6. In VM search for hardware drivers to support virtual devices.
[via LifeHacker]
