Anthony R, or they just may be acknowledging that it is important to listen to the consumer or user base that is talking to them.  Fearful XP users, what's that all about?

What a waste of time. 

It is just more evidence of how overbloated the software is and how much of a failure Vista is. Microsoft profits are way down...interesting that they released this "secret" info now.

SUCKERS WE ARE!!!!!!!

It's time to start boycotting MS. They have used us as their testers for too long. No other industry works the way Microsoft does. It is not right. It is a scam that we as stupid frikkin people have fell for.

Some big whig at the hot dog factory got together with some big whig at the bun factory and decided to screw you.

There's a lot of unfounded hatred/fear/call-it-what-you-will towards Vista, but the bottom line is a huge number of businesses opted not to upgrade to XP because it just didn't offer them enough advantages to warrant the expense. It's not a matter of not being willing to adapt to changes/new ideas. It's a matter of cost/benefit ratio. There's no sense in switching just for the sake of switching. If XP is already doing what they want it to, and their apps are working with XP, why would they switch? With this XPM in 7, there should be fewer campaibility issues and it may well turn out to be worth it for many businesses.

I'm in the same boat. I still use XP. The reason I didn't switch to Vista had nothing to do with the FUD that was circulatng about it. It was all about the benefits. Vista just didn't offer enough of a benefit for me personally to warrant switching. Windows 7 likely will, because I'm planning on building a new rig in the fall and am going to go with a 64 bit OS at that time.

If this virtualization option works, it will remove one barrier to upgrading equipment (which does not now have XP as a native OS option) in the business environment and will help the PC industry overall.  There are lots of essential business applications which have yet to be made Vista/W7 compatible.  More to the point, there are many installed XP-only versions of applications that still meet all of the specific requirements of particular businesses, even though Vista-compatible versions may be available.  Giving us a business OS upgrade that does not render unusable such existing fully useful and sufficient apps is a very positive step for MS.

Not forcing businesses to incur the cost of upgrading applications for the sole purpose of OS compatibility is a good thing.  Maybe not for the application vendors, but certainly for end-users.  If a particular application that brings real value to a business enterprise, or is a mission-critical component of a business, requires an OS upgrade, there is a valid business reason to upgrade the OS.  But it doesn't work the other way round for the simple reason that it's not the OS 'doing the job' of the business. it's the apps.  In the past, MS could brush off such objections and arrogantly force businesses into grudgingly accepting the 'cost of doing business.'  The current economic environment doesn't permit that luxury and I'm glad MS has (apparently) recognized that fact.  It's core business depends on PC sales and it is in its interest to make sure everything it does enhances demand, or at minimum doesn't inhibit it.

.02

Have you been paying attention to the economy? You can't point the finger at Vista for that.

I can and I did.

Seceret super uber mega W7 feature...

drum-roll...

wait for it...

another drum-roll...

IS...

XP MODE!

Great... Now developers can skip W7 compatibility, and stick to making 32-bit XP apps... Woohoo, let's create more ways to stop this crazy fad called "new technology".

I'm not gonna complain about it. I was planning on updating to 7 anyways.

In my opinion it will hardly have any effect at all, it's just good news for professional who still have some legacy programs incompatible with Vista/Seven. I really doubt that today any serious company would still develop a new application incompatible with Vista/Seven.

And for gamers, well it's a virtual machine and unless Virtual PC have made tremendous improvment recently when it come to 3d acceleration support you can hardly play any recent game on it.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh Top Secret XP. That was just plain funny as hell! Good one, NT!

Actually, it's probably there to wean XP users into 7. When will MS wake up? Most people have XP. They like it. It works. Do they really need more? No. Just another "Mine is bigger than yours" pissing contest, imho.

7 will necessitate a whole new "buying a new computer" round. Cool....the computer manufacturers (China) get an economic stim. Just what we all need. Someone above said it: Buy a new computer for an OS. Feh!

When does Sustainability, Carbon Footprint, Waste, Pollution, Planned Obsolescence and just plain Nonsense enter into all this hype?

This is like having a phase out period while switching to Metric...  it doesn't work.

Yeah but too bad that windows 7 is hyper glitched and your system can be hyjacked by a 3kb program that bypasses the HDD

http://gear.ign.com/articles/976/976242p1.html

From what I understand of that article, that glitch requires actual, physical access to your computer during startup. You've got other things to worry about if a hacker is actually at your computer.