More news is emerging about the forthcoming release of Windows 7. It seems that Microsoft is reluctant to completely let go of its most successful operating system, Windows XP, which they now no longer fully support. It seems that Windows 7 will come complete with a full Windows XP installation included, designed to run inside a virtual PC environment inside Windows 7, which will allow the huge range of software designed to work with Windows XP to run in Windows 7.

The new XP mode, called XPM, requires advanced virtualisation features provided by the latest generations of Intel and AMD processors, will be available in the Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise editions of Windows 7. XP applications that use XPM will not need to be installed in a separate XP desktop. Instead the applications will be integrated in to and available from the Windows 7 desktop. This approach has a number of benefits for Microsoft, including the fact that they don’t have to include lots of code in the main core of Windows 7 to maintain backwards compatibility with older applications, making Windows 7 leaner and faster.