Win7 XP Mode - for DRIVER compatibility?

Quick question on WinXP mode in Win7...

I'm familiar with other virtualization technologies out there like VMWare and VirtualBox.

What intrigues me about Win7's XP mode is that it appears to me from googling that:

- WinXP licensing is included with your Win7 license. No extra licenses required just for an app or two

- The WinXP instance doesn't need to run like a full blown OS on a virtual machine. No dedicated page file, hiberfil, set of user IDs or SIDs, passwords, AV software, policies etc... It's meant much more for launching one app... This would be a distinct advantage in my books over VMWare, VBox etc...


I have a number of devices, such as a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED 35mm film scanner, for which Nikon has only grudgingly put out Vista support and only x86 at that. There are workarounds for x64 which I'm using, but nonetheless they seem to have more or less decided that they're not going to support the device at all going forward.

As with many other cases under Win7, I do not necessarily anticipate a lot of problems running software apps under Win7, but I do forsee driver problems such as this one.

Can anyone in-the-know describe briefly whether XP Mode can indeed address driver issues, how drivers are loaded in the XP space, and can only applications running in XP space access the XP drivers? I presume that even in Win7 x64 the XP Mode is x86, correct? Is the WinXP mode indeed application-oriented instead of boot-a-whole-OS oriented? This is a disadvantage for sandboxes, but an advantage for the average Joe with an old app. (Speaking of sandboxes, I guess that means x64 users could get Sandboxie back, as kludgy as it is implemented kernel-wise. Run IE in XPM w/ sandboxie.).

Thanks,

http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html

Just get VueScan and don't worry about driver issues for your scanner anymore.

Fairly sure that drivers for XP won't work in 7, even with compatibility mode. If they do, I doubt they will work outside of the VM apps, but I am not certain on either point.

Look in to VueScan regardless. It has saved my ass on more than one occasion.

silent-circuit said:

http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html

Just get VueScan and don't worry about driver issues for your scanner anymore.

Fairly sure that drivers for XP won't work in 7, even with compatibility mode. If they do, I doubt they will work outside of the VM apps, but I am not certain on either point.

Look in to VueScan regardless. It has saved my ass on more than one occasion.

Click to expand...

VueScan is the workaround I'm using for x64 - use the NikonScan app with the VueScan driver. It has some issues, stopping batches saying that nothing was read or something like that. I don't know where the fault lies - possibly the VueScan driver, or the mix of Vuescan and NikonScan.

Regardless of opinions on the quality, ICE4, GEM and ROC are convenient when you're trying to get the job done without pulling each and every 20MP+ TIFF into Photoshop for manual retouching. I don't believe Vuescan has the same technologies - particularly the hardware use of infrared for dust detection as part of the ICE4 scan. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

I intended my case to mean that I could load the Nikon drivers and NikonScan in XPM, and run them in XPM, writing the TIFFs to local diskspace. Further work in PS would take place under Win7x64 native. My apologies if I was confusing.

In terms of XPM commentary - just how many people have software that does NOT relate somehow to a driver that won't run under win7? Columnists tout XPM as being revolutionary and able to accelerate the adoption and migration to Win7 since Win7 can drop "old" technology for compatibility and fall back to XPM. Just about every Vista problem I had was an x64 problem, and mostly driver goof ups. If XPM can't load drivers, I simply don't see it as being nearly as valuable as it's been portrayed.

If XPM was able to load drivers, run on a per-app basis, and easily share diskspace with Win7 - it might be great. I could load an XP in Virtualbox or VMware and, quite possibly, install my scanner drivers and software since it's a USB device which could pass through. Then there'd be drive shares, user accounts, and lots of RAM waste running an entire virtualized OS but, so be it.

Finally, the $1200 scanner came with perfectly good software, but now I need to shell out for Vuescan too? That's an annoyance to say the least.

So what's the end word on this, now that RTM has been out for a while?

Can one install XP-only drivers under XPM for USB devices to be used by software running under XPM?

Bump.

Time has passed.

Any answers?

If you have the XP instance up and route a USB device to it, it treats it just like being connected to an XP system and only the XP system has access to it. I did this with a label printer I didn't have a Vista 64 driver for and it worked fine.

darkpaw said:

If you have the XP instance up and route a USB device to it, it treats it just like being connected to an XP system and only the XP system has access to it. I did this with a label printer I didn't have a Vista 64 driver for and it worked fine.

Click to expand...

That sounds precisely like what I'm asking about. Thanks!

I believe I've read that XPM doesn't require separate logins and things like that, so this sounds perfectly convenient for specific-purpose hardware used with a limited number of applications.

Surly73 said:

That sounds precisely like what I'm asking about. Thanks!

I believe I've read that XPM doesn't require separate logins and things like that, so this sounds perfectly convenient for specific-purpose hardware used with a limited number of applications.

Click to expand...

XPM is a full xp VM and it comes with the default account XMPUser. You will need to set up pw for that account and creds for it on comps in the network you want XMP to have access to if you use account based sharing. Also note that usb devices are not connected to it if you are did not open full XPM VM first.

For usb pass through to work you need to connect the device will need the full XPM VM running, click the XPM app and let the prompt close the VM for you. Other wise the passed USB device will be disconnected and the XMP App will not see it when you launch it.

eg. I just installed a QuickCam Express which has not support in V/W7 into XPM. When I have the XPM VM open I can pass the QC to it and QuickCam software can see it. However if I close the VM (hibernate) and try start->win virtual PC->XP mode Application->Logitect->Logitech QuickCam (Windows XP Mode) The QC app will start but it won't be able to see the webcam and there is no way to connect the QC to it in this state.

And note how aero preview can't see what's inside a VM app

I wonder if this work around could get my PS3 controller fully functional in windows 7. Command prompt can be transfer to 7 as an xp app also right?