Win7 Home Premium vs. Win 7 Professional

[sysrkm]

Hi folks,

I am hoping that someone else has had time to research this. It's time for me to upgrade the OS on all my machines (4) that I use to play games and I need to know if you HAVE to have the Win 7 Pro version in order to run Win 7 in XP compatibility mode.

I had been under the impression that the Win 7 XP compatibility mode was a free download from MS that would allow you to play most games built for XP on your Win 7 machine.

Can anyone shed any light on this subject? The difference in price is roughly $30 per copy.

Regards all,

Rob, aka sysrkm aka dethgod74

[uncc]

Yes you need Windows 7 Pro (or Ultimate or Enterprise) to run the XP mode and it is a free download. Having the Windows 7 Pro version means you can run XP mode and won't need an XP license (thats part of having Windows 7 Pro). I've read that the XP Mode was not intended for games and most probably won't run them well or at all [after reading the article below I see that XP mode won't run hardware-accelerated 3D games, but can handle some older, 2D games]. The XP Mode was intended to run older business applications (i.e. Acrobat 6 Pro). I have Windows 7 Pro, but have not tried to run any games under XP Mode as yet. All the games I've run under Windows 7 run just fine. The oldest games I've tried so far are Links 2003 and Combat Flight Simulator 3.

You can still run XP in other versions of Windows 7 if you go the Virtual PC route (i.e. VirtualPC (Microsoft), VirtualBox (SUN), etc) and you have XP discs and a valid XP license.

There is also another requirement for XP mode: hardware support for virtualization. For Intel CPUs, that means the CPU must be VT-x capable, while AMD processors need to support AMD-V. You'll need to verify if your CPU supports virtualization.

Hope that helps...

p.s. you might also want to read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vir ... 418-2.html

[sysrkm]

Hi UNCC,

Thanks for the speedy reply. I didn't realize that the XP compat mode was basically XP pro running in a VM. I build VM servers here at work all the time.

I guess when I ran Sins of a Solar Empire, Battlefield 2142 and COD MW2 that XP compat mode was not required because I did NOT have to set up a VM or any such business to run it. Just installed it as Admin and ran it as admin. No worries.

I have NOT tried Close Combat, SPWAW, Combat Mission or any of my older games that I like to play from time to time, but I can always keep another machine up and running with XP Pro on it for those games if they will not run on Win 7 Home...

Thanks again for all the info. Most appreciated.

Regards,

Rob

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: sysrkm

Hi UNCC,

Thanks for the speedy reply. I didn't realize that the XP compat mode was basically XP pro running in a VM. I build VM servers here at work all the time.

I guess when I ran Sins of a Solar Empire, Battlefield 2142 and COD MW2 that XP compat mode was not required because I did NOT have to set up a VM or any such business to run it. Just installed it as Admin and ran it as admin. No worries.

I have NOT tried Close Combat, SPWAW, Combat Mission or any of my older games that I like to play from time to time, but I can always keep another machine up and running with XP Pro on it for those games if they will not run on Win 7 Home...

Thanks again for all the info. Most appreciated.

Regards,
Rob

I run Win 7 Pro 64bit and Close Combat games work well, even Close Combat 1 from 1996. CM has problems...I think it's due to the graphics, I even tried compatibility mode...no go. It's no problem for me as I don't really play CM for a long time. I would think pretty much a lot of XP games will work just fine in Win 7 except the ones with DRM like tages or securom (certain versions, no games with securom/tages/starforce will be installed on my Win 7 box).

[Andrew Williams]

Confirm Close Combat : WaR and tLD run perfectly on win 7 Home premium 32bit

Haven't tried the othe CC games yet but if the above two work pretty sure the others will run fine.

[htuna]

I have't run across any games yet that won't run on Window 7 for me.. .I think the XP compatibility mode is meant more for applications that hook up to old devices like printers/cameras etc..

[IanAM]

Battlefront have released upgrades for the first three Combat Mission games (CMBO, CMBB and CMAK) which allow these games to run under Vista. They should also work under Windows 7. I've got the CMAK upgrade and it runs fine on my Windows 7 laptop.

Unfortunately these upgrades are not free - $5 each to download if I remember correctly.

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: IanAM

Battlefront have released upgrades for the first three Combat Mission games (CMBO, CMBB and CMAK) which allow these games to run under Vista. They should also work under Windows 7. I've got the CMAK upgrade and it runs fine on my Windows 7 laptop.

Unfortunately these upgrades are not free - $5 each to download if I remember correctly.

Warning:
They also have e-license online activation (with limited number of activations). I did not see that DRM listed when I ordered these updates.

[uncc]

from my previous post...

"There is also another requirement for XP mode: hardware support for virtualization. For Intel CPUs, that means the CPU must be VT-x capable, while AMD processors need to support AMD-V. You'll need to verify if your CPU supports virtualization."

...sounds like an XP Mode update is available that eliminates the hardware support for virtualization requirement.

[Jeffrey H.]

I've found Home Premium 64 bit to be a bit of a hassle for plugins and various and sundry applications. All my games have run perfectly though. I'ts a good OS IMHO.

[Waffenamt]

I think Pro is like Ult, which provides remote desktop. At least with vista you needed that for RDP, which I like for my laptop. I'm using Win7 Ult x64 and have had no isues, but needed the virtual XP to run the crappy clientware to connect to a sonicwall black box. I'm mainly playing Field of glory and "trying" Actung Panzer when patience with lack of tutorial permits [X(], and have had no issues with any of these. I ditched CM a while back so have no need for the Vista upgrade. I've also dabbled with ToWx and it runs fine but I just don't like all the farting around to finish off a battle when all visible enemy has left the battlefield. What fun! [>:]

Regards

[gunny]

ORIGINAL: NefariousKoel
Warning:
They also have e-license online activation (with limited number of activations). I did not see that DRM listed when I ordered these updates.

Their e-license can be de-activated then re-activated for an unlimited amount of installs. True you can have only two active licence going at once for the same game.

[Ron]

The CMs run fine for me on Win7, just have force AA - the patches were only required for Vista and nVidia cards, not sure where the difference lay. As gunny said above e-license can be activated/deactivated an unlimited number of times, and only has to be done once - you don't need to be online to play.