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back to article Sony's Windows 7 virtualization switch-off (partly) reversed

Angry Sony PC customers who've splashed out nearly $2,000 on a new Vaio laptop should give up hopes of running Microsoft's XP virtualization technology in Windows 7. The consumer electronics giant has said it will enable Intel's Virtual Technology (VT), which supports Windows XP Mode in the forthcoming Windows 7, only on …

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  1. TeeCee Gold badge

    Re: VitualBox as the solution?

    Er, my copy of VirtualBox allows you switch on or off the use of Vx/Vt as you require, but then I'm running it on Windows. Is the Linux version crippled in this respect then?

    Experience running Win 7 under VirtualBox (it works) compared to MS's own Virtual PC product (it doesn't) would lead me to believe that VirtualBox is far more likely to be the right answer here. Both products'll run XP virtualised quite happily, but VPC is prone to suddenly not doing so when it feels like it.

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  2. Herbys
    WTF?

    Not security - control

    Sony is not concerned about security in this case (ok, never). There's no real security threat here.

    What Sony cares about is that a machine being run in a VM can easily bypass DRM protections from the host. So virtualization is not good for media control, and thus it is not good for Sony.

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  3. Forename Surname

    Re: VirtualBox as the solution?

    VB on Linux has that very same Vx/Vt switch. Sun recommends to leave Vt switched off as, they say, they made VB run faster in Vx mode. This is not a Linux-only thing.

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  4. Ashtonian

    Makes good security sense to me

    Makes good sense

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  5. And Clover

    App compatibility

    > Can anyone tell me which applications: can run on Windows XP; cannot run on Windows 7

    Apart from all the old, dodgy and bespoke apps that don't get on with 7 (or which mess up with UAC in general), there's one big one for enterprises: the dreaded IE6.

    Many poorly-coded intranet apps *still* don't work on any other browser, and because IE is welded into the OS, you can't (in an easy/supportable-for-IT way) run IE6 on Win7 or Vista. This lamentable technical decision, originally made to ensure MS's dominant position in the browser market, is now costing them sales. Whoops.

    XP Mode would be the fix for this, except for the issues with Intel turning off VT on lower-end chips as an artificial product line differentiator, and rubbish OEMs like Sony turning it off because they're miserable idiots. Hopefully this will now stop.

    [It remains unclear why the new version of VirtualPC, on which XP Mode is built, requires hardware virtualisation; the old versions didn't. VirtualBox's hardware virtualisation support is better now, and needed for running 64-bit guests, but for normal 32-bit XP there's no need for it.]

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  6. MadHatter

    This is also happening on Lenovo Ideapads..

    I recently purchased a Y-series ideapad and found that VT was also disabled, for no apparent reason, and that the BIOS were severely crippled.

    I started a thread here and confirmed that it wasn't just me: http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=ideaPad&thread.id=12068

    I didn't realize having these features crippled was such a big deal(although it REALLY annoys me),big enough to make news. Is there any way I can contact The Reg to tell them about this as well?

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  7. MadHatter
    Thumb Down

    RE: lenovo having the same issue

    here is a larger thread concerning the same issues with Lenovo laptops, this issue has been long-standing for the Lenovo community as it affects ALL ideapad models.

    http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=ideaPad&thread.id=11293&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

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  8. Variable

    Virtualisation or compatibility?

    There seems to be some confusion about 7's ability to run older applications. Sadly, this article makes the mistake of confusing virtualisation with compatibility.

    Yes, there is a virtualised XP environment which some chipsets can run. Why anyone would need it I can't imagine. It's pointless.

    7 has the ability, on ANY PC, to install older software using a compatibility troubleshooter. So the statement that 'Older software won't work on Windows 7' is a complete lie. It will run just about any old software you throw at it. I have just installed my 5-year-old Humax PVR. Perfect. My four-year-old video capture card. Perfect. My Canon multifunction printer. Perfect. None of these would install on Vista at all.

    I don't need 7's virtualisation technology. But its compatibility is awesome.

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  9. willboy
    Go

    Over-priced but virtualized

    I've just run the Intel CPU ID utility on my Sony Vaio VGNZ21WN/B purchased at the beginning of 2009. It says that virtualization technology is enabled, so you might need to check rather than assuming that it is not available on all Z-series Vaios. I agree Vaios are generally over-priced and it is annoying that they ship with so much crapware. I always do a clean OS install from my development DVDs.

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