More on Windows 7's 'XP Mode

 Microsoft on Tuesday offered up a few more details on its once-secretive project to use virtualization to offer an "XP Mode" for Windows 7.

As noted on Friday, Microsoft is using its Virtual PC technology to allow Windows 7 users to run programs that work in Windows XP but not in Windows Vista. On Tuesday, it noted some more of the fine print regarding the product.

As far as technical requirements, XP Mode needs a beefier system than that required to just run Windows 7 or XP alone, including at least 2GB of memory and a system that has chip-level virtualization from either Intel or AMD. One of the challenges is that today it is often not that easy to tell whether one's PC has such support.

A screenshot of Windows 7's XP Mode, which allows programs designed for Windows XP to run inside a virtual machine within Windows 7.

(Credit: Microsoft)

"Some PCs have it and some don't," said Scott Woodgate, a director in the Windows unit. "It's not as clear as it should be relative to which PCs have (hardware-based virtualization) support and which don't."

At its core, XP mode consists of two things, the Windows Virtual PC engine and a licensed copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 as a packaged virtual machine. Although neither piece will be included in the Windows 7 box, XP Mode will be a free download for those who have a license to Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate.

Microsoft is aiming XP Mode primarily at small businesses, Woodgate said."That's a class of customers that may have Windows XP apps that they may want to run on Windows 7," he said.

Larger businesses may also have need to run older applications, but typically want control over things like who can install programs on their machines and other management issues. For them, he said, Microsoft has a product called MED-V that allows such control. An updated version of MED-V, due to be in beta within 90 days of the launch of Windows 7, will add support for Windows 7's XP Mode, he said.

One of the benefits of XP Mode over Microsoft's existing virtualization products is the fact that, after a setup process, the Windows XP virtual machine runs in the background so users don't have to manage multiple desktops. XP Mode automatically installs shortcuts for XP programs in the Windows 7 start menu. The experience from that point on is similar to the one offered by VMware's Fusion and Parallels in their virtualization products.

Woodgate noted that XP Mode isn't a security solution. Indeed, to protect their systems, users will need antivirus software running both on their Windows 7 desktop as well as a copy running inside their Windows XP virtual machine.

The beta version of XP Mode is debuting alongside the Windows 7 Release Candidate that is going to developers this week and being made publicly available on May 5. Microsoft said a final release will depend on the feedback to the beta, but Woodgate said Microsoft hopes it can be ready for download at the same time Windows 7 is made broadly available.

Microsoft has been working on the XP Mode as long as it has been developing Windows 7, and Woodgate said even he is surprised it stayed secret for so long. 

Display 2009: 37" and 46” Full HD Multitouch TVs

Far from being new, these 37" and 46” Full HD Multitouch TVs are still impressive to see in action… A bit sluggish with Google Earth, I really hope to see more and more LCDs and TVs like these.

Princeton's Latest Ugly iPOD SoundWall

Designed for iPod and iPod Touch, the SoundWall is the latest audio 2.1ch and video cradle for your beloved Apple DAP. It offers a Video Out (Composite and S-Video), Audio In and Out, a remote control, and a nice little LCD…  Interested, but it's WAY too ugly for me.

Adieu to the old-fashioned desktop computer?

Some giants of the PC industry are just beginning to sell tiny and cheap Netbooks and all-in-one desktops, which have the monitor and processor in the same box.

But little-known Averatec, based in Orange County, Calif., but part of Korean parent company Tri Gem, has been at it for several years. So you'll have to pardon Averatec CEO Tae-Hyun "Tiger" Cho if he believes he has a few insights to share regarding this small but growing market.

Averatec's first all-in-one desktop was introduced in 2004. But the company's main business before jumping into Netbooks last year was making 12-inch ultraportable notebooks--when most were churning out 14- and 15-inch portables--and it was making them cheaply when the competition was charging hundreds more.

ow Averatec is charging ahead with the majority of its production in just two of what happen to be the fastest-growing areas of PCs: all-in-one desktops and tiny, low-power Netbooks.

Netbooks are forecast to comprise one-fifth of the 133 million notebooks to be shipped in 2009, and the more than 3.5 million all-in-one desktops shipped in 2008 is expected to double by 2010, according to market research firm DisplaySearch. While all-in-ones are still a small part of the desktop market, it's one of the only desktop form factors that's actually growing.

The next Averatec Netbook model, due to arrive in August or September (pictured below) has been developed "from scratch" in-house at Averatec, Cho said. Besides increased attention paid to design, there's something on the inside of the forthcoming Netbook that will be markedly different from most of the field.

Averatec's upcoming 10-inch Netbooks with mystery operating system.

(Credit: Averatec)

"The OS is going to be a surprise," Cho said. While he would not confirm or deny that the OS will be Android, the company will say that it will be "a merger of cell phone and PC technology."

Averatec won't be the first if it is indeed Android. Chinese PC maker Skytone announced over the weekend that it would offer a $250 Android-based Netbook, and there have been rumors of MSI doing the same. HP, Asus, and others have also said they are "experimenting" with Android on their Netbook models.

Averatec is positioning itself to take advantage of thrifty consumers and people who would welcome less intimidating approaches to technology. Cho believes all-in-ones and Netbooks are the answer.

Speaking in a mellow Australian accent, Cho calls himself a big believer in all-in-one desktops. In an interview with Crave, he said their "plug and play" capability is attractive to consumers. That is, they come in one box--no hunting the aisles for a tower and a monitor--and they have a bigger screen than most notebooks. In fact, Cho says he sees a day in the near future when traditional desktop systems will disappear from the home entirely.

"I believe that the all-in-one category is going to eclipse the (traditional) desktop category," he said, though he isn't claiming to know exactly when that will be. "But the desktop category will be split between home servers and all-in-ones, and the day we buy a tower and a screen will go away."

Averatec currently has a 22-inch standard all-in-one desktop, and another coming next month with an AMD 3250 dual-core CPU and Vista Premium, which entitles the owner to an automatic update to Windows 7 when it does finally arrive. It's just $599. That's only $100 more than the company's other 18-inch all-in-one, which falls under the category of Nettop--a desktop outfitted with Intel's Atom processor, a cheaper, lower-power CPU.

By offering cheap, self-contained PCs, Cho thinks his company is ahead of the curve. Of course, it's not the only company making them: MSI, Asus, and Shuttle each also make all-in-one desktops for between $500 and $600. All of them hope to steal market share from giants like Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Apple, which often charge more than $1,000 for their versions of the all-in-one PC.

An 18-inch Atom-powered all-in-one desktop.

(Credit: Averatec)

Cho is adamant that most consumers generally don't want to pay that much for a desktop--even the ones with a touch screen. Now, with the economy the way it is, timing couldn't be better for a budget version of those expensive all-in-ones. At that price, "HP has done a great job, but the volume, I think, is not really there," he said.

The arrival of cheaper touch-screen Atom-powered all-in-ones--or Nettops--is well-timed, he said.

"A year ago if we tried to do this, (we) wouldn't have been able to because there would have too much explanation as to what a Nettop is. But this market here understands that Netbook is a very good value proposition."

Averatec wasn't first to market with a Netbook. And when it did get there, the company's offering, the Averatec Buddy, which debuted for $449, was essentially a rebranded MSI Wind. But Cho, whose company has been in the business of selling smaller, budget-price laptops for several years, says the trend toward Netbooks has been helpful.

"The Netbook has done our business a very big favor. It's taken focus on 15.4- and 14-inch (notebooks) and focused on more light and thin form factors."

And while Averatec is venturing into 10-inch Netbooks, Cho doesn't plan on going much smaller than that because that's when Netbooks will begin to clash with smartphones, which can be a confusing value proposition for consumers, he said.

Instead, he said, he's happy to stick with 10-inch Netbooks, 12-inch laptops, and all-in-one PCs.

"As today's niches become tomorrow's mass markets, we hope to grow with that."

Mozilla releases Firefox 3.5 beta

Mozilla on Monday released beta 3.5 of Firefox, a revamp of the open-source Web browser designed to include better performance, several new Web programming features, and a private browsing mode.

The earlier betas had been numbered 3.1, but Mozilla switched to the version 3.5 name after concluding the changes were more significant than it envisioned earlier. Mozilla has said earlier the fourth beta will the last, with more polished release candidates expected before the final version of Firefox 3.5 is released. You can download Firefox 3.5 beta 4 from CNET Download.com forWindows and Mac.

The software emerges amid what's become a fiercely competitive browser market. Microsoft has released a significant new version, Internet Explorer 8, while Google has entered the market with Chrome and Apple is trying to secure a Windows foothold for its Safari browser. Firefox holds second place in market share to IE.

Among the changes compared with the current Firefox 3.0.x versions are the faster TraceMonkey engine for running Web sites' JavaScript programs; built-in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) technology for exchanging data between servers and browsers; support for tags to describe audio and video content the way images have been available for years; the private browsing mode for leaving no traces on your computer while surfing; support for technology to let permitted applications know the user's location; and support for the Web workers standard for letting a browser perform processing in the background without holding back a Web application's user interface.

There are a number of known problems with Gmail and with AVG SafeSearch v8.0 on Windows, and as usual, many of those extensions that are so popular on Firefox could break.