Microsoft Trots Out Windows 7 Upgrade Options, Refines XP Mode
It's August. It's hot -- sort of, finally, at least here in Greater Boston. And it's the time of year when people go on vacation and industry news shrinks from a rushing river to a trickle in a dry stream bed.
At this point, most of the Microsoft world is waiting for Windows 7, and most of the news that's most relevant to Microsoft partners involves Windows 7. Post-Tech-Ed, post-Worldwidw Partner Conference, post-Microsoft-Yahoo deal, we're living out the dog days waiting for the fall, when Microsoft's knight in shining shrink wrap (if you're old-school and still buy stuff that way) will come and save us from the tyranny of Vista and the terror of Microsoft's shrinking profits.
While we're waiting, though, there's a little bit of Windows 7 news leaking out here and there. Microsoft revealed upgrade options and pricing late last week, although most of the trade press (RCPU included, apparently) seems to have missed the announcement. Well, now you know what's happening.
And there's also word about XP mode for Windows 7, the desktop virtualization component that will allow users to run XP and XP-based apps in the new operating system, just for old times' sake (and because Windows 7 obviously won't run everybody's legacy apps right out of the box). XP mode code is at the release-testing phase, and the final product should launch with Windows 7 in October.
But that's a couple of months away. In the meantime, enjoy a beverage in the back yard, go for a swim, catch a baseball game and take what might be one of your last spins with good ol' XP (or, uh, Vista, we suppose). Windows 7 is coming...but not quite yet.
Have anything to say about Windows 7 you haven't read here before? How about those upgrade options and that XP mode? Send your thoughts on this stuff to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on August 05, 2009