Age of Virtualization | Hyper-V, App-V, Virtual PC…

Nowadays XP mode is getting very popular because it is really useful feature of Windows 7, especially in enterprise business environment. Simply said with XP mode you can run fully licensed version of Windows XP along with Windows 7. Of course this Windows XP is virtualized and it has different features and possibilities than standard virtual XP with earlier versions of Virtual PC. Now with Windows Virtual PC beta, you have a great feature with seamlessly integrated applications installed in virtual Windows XP. So, with Windows Virtual PC beta (XP mode), shortcuts of application installed in virtual Windows XP, appear in your host Windows 7, as if  applications were installed  locally.  Of course you can see whole virtual Windows XP with start menu and desktop or you can only see applications.  All that said, it is clear that XP mode is similar to Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), but MED-V of course has more features like centralized management, various policies etc…

OK, so how can you publish application shortcuts of applications installed in virtual Windows XP, to your Windows 7 host. Well it is really very simple. All you have to do is install application as you normally would, in your Windows XP. For example, download one simple application, save it to Windows 7 desktop and then copy it to Windows XP desktop. Shared folders now work great with Windows Virtual PC beta, so you can navigate to any Windows 7 folder and copy application to Windows XP workspace. After that, just install application normally and you are done – application shortcuts are published by default to Windows 7 start menu in folder Windows Virtual PC >Virtual Windows Xp applications. So the procedure for newly installed applications is really simple, but what with Internet Explorer 6 that is already part of Windows Xp?

All you have to do in this case, is even easier.  Just create shortcut for Internet Explorer, in virtual Windows XP in following folder:  C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu. Same procedure works for XP command prompt, Outlook Express, My Documents etc… So after that, Internet Explorer 6 shortcut is published in Windows 7 start menu, and Internet Explorer is seamlessly integrated in Windows 7 as you can see in following picture.

Download Windows Virtual PC beta, and virtual image of Windows XP for free here and try it for yourself, it is rather simple.