Which Intel CPUs Support Virtual XP Mode?

Martin | May 04, 2009 | Comments

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When Microsoft announced Virtual XP Mode support for Windows 7 most of the community was thrilled. Most thought that it would combine the improvements of Windows 7 with the ability to fall back to Windows XP whenever they needed to. Many thought games probably but that was not the reason why Microsoft added the mode as an option to Windows 7. The main reason – in my humble opinion – is to show companies that they can move to Windows 7 even if they run software that has been specifically designed and tested on Windows XP systems. Virtual XP Mode will be there so that the software can be run under Windows 7 as well.

The hardware requirements for Virtual XP Mode are not that different from the general Windows 7 requirements. A user wanting to use the mode needs a cpu that is supporting hardware virtualization and about 15 Gigabytes of additional hard drive space. One would think that all modern cpus from either Intel or AMD support hardware virtualization. This is however not the case as Ed Bott discovered painfully. Painfully in the way that it is surely no fun to check all Intel processor families for hardware virtualization support.

It does not necessarily have to end as bad as the Vista Capable disaster as the terms are different this time. Back then Vista Capable logos were given to computer systems with graphic adapters not capable of the full Aero mode. A few reasons speak against it:

  • Virtual XP Mode will not be used by the majority of users. It is not available in all Windows 7 editions and Microsoft clearly aims at companies and organizations, not end users.
  • There will be no special Virtual XP Mode Logo

It is however very likely that at least some users will be disappointed that their Intel cpu will not be able to run the virtual mode. Here is the list that Ed Bott assembled:

Desktop CPUS

Core 2 Duo

E4300/4400/4500/4600/4700 NO
E6300/6320/6400/6420/6540/6550 YES
E6600/6700/6750/6850 YES
E7200/7300/7400/7500 NO
E8190 NO
E8200/8300/8400/8500/8600 YES

Core 2 Extreme

QX6700/6800/6850 YES
QX9650/9770/9775 YES
X6800 YES

Core 2 Quad

Q6600/6700 YES
Q8200/8200S/8300/8400/8400S NO
Q9300/9400/9400S YES
Q9450/9550/9550S/9650 YES

Core i7/Core i7 Extreme

I7-920/940 YES
I7-965 YES

Pentium D/Pentium EE

805/820/830/840 NO
915/925/935/945 NO
920/930/940/950/960 YES
955/965 YES

Pentium for Desktop

E2140/2160/2180/2200/2220 NO
E5200/5300/5400 NO

Mobile CPU products

Core 2 Duo Mobile

L7200/7300/7400/7500 YES
P7350/7450 NO
P7370 YES
P8400/8600/8700/9500/9600 YES
SL9300/9400/9600 YES
SP9300/9400/9600 YES
SU9300/9400/9600 YES
T5200/5250/5270/5300/5450/5470 NO
T5500/5600 YES
T5550/5670/5750/5800/5850/5870/5900 NO
T6400/6570 NO
T7100/7200/7250/7300/7400 YES
T7500/7600/7700/7800 YES
T8100/8300 YES
T9300/9400/9500/9550/9600/9800 YES
U7500/U7600 YES

Core 2 Extreme Mobile

QX9300 YES
X7800/7900 YES
X9000/9100 YES

Core 2 Quad Mobile

Q9000 YES
Q9100 NO

Core 2 Solo

SU3300/3500 YES
U2100/2200 YES

Core Duo

L2300/2400/2500 YES
T2050/2250 NO
T2300/2400/2500/2600/2700 YES
T2300E/2350/2450 NO
U2400/2500 YES

Core Solo

T1300/1400 YES
T1350 NO
U1300/1400/1500 YES

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About the Author: Martin Brinkmann is an Online Journalist from Germany who discovered his love for technology in high school. He is currently working as a freelancer for several publications and runs his own Internet website Ghacks

  • Freaky
    What about AMD? Do they have any support for this?
  • According to Wikipedia:
    On May 23, 2006, AMD released the Athlon 64 ("Orleans"), the Athlon 64 X2 ("Windsor") and the Athlon 64 FX ("Windsor") as the first AMD processors to support AMD-V. Prior processors do not have AMD-V.

    You can use this tool to check:
    http://www.grc.com/securable.htm
  • Will XP mode pose any security risks?
  • Phil
    I have a Xeon. I know mine have virtualisation, but I guess Xeon aren't listed because they all support virtualisation anyway.
  • Stephen
    I can confirm that Windows Virtual PC (which Virtual XP uses) does not run on a T6400 T6400 CPU. Oddly enough, it will install and only will tell you it can't run it when you try to start the application. Beta or not, it seems a bit strange that it does not run a screen for acceptable processors before installing. This could prove to be very important since you need to uninstall Virtual PC 2007 (if on your machine) before installing Windows Virtual PC and some people are having trouble reinstalling Virtual PC 2007 later.

    This sounded impressive, but given the list of CPUs that won't run it is (pretty much) a checklist of the one's businesses and average consumers actually buy, I think it will have little impact beyond annoying people who will assume it should work. BTW, if you check out the Technet forums you will see very few positive comments. Actually, that was being nice - you will see no positive comments.

    Personally, I am hoping that since it is a beta, they will not release it as final until well after Windows 7 is out. That will give time to work out the myriad of issues being reported - lots of installation problems, crashes, and performance/resource utilization problems. They can always let people who really want it have it as a beta with a disclaimer.

    Stephen
  • BC
    downloading the RC right now from the technet site public download this is a screen shot of the download for proof it's out now

    1:20am est

    http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...
  • Will XP mode pose any security risks?
  • nathanm90
    I've installed Windows XP SP2 into Virtual PC 2007 running the RC of windows 7. Also, My computer is running the Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 which is listed as a 'NO' on this list. Is what I'm doing different than this 'XP mode' that this article is talking about?
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