• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

confusing Windows 7 features

V

VorpalBunny

Member
I'm pretty confused on the Windows 7 editions, but I suspect a lot of people were at first.

I'm looking to buy a retail laptop, but I could use help in deciding which Windows7 edition will meet my needs. I'll be doing photo editing, playing games, and developing software.

For instance, what value does the feature to run apps in Windows XP mode really have? The video Microsoft provides says they run a virtual machine copy of XP. But is that really necessary? Has anyone run into this case where the only way to run the software is to run the virtual machine? I'm thinking at some point I would want to run Master of Orion 2 on this new box and that might not be very happy running under windows 7.

And what is domain join? I don't fully understand what that's doing. I have a home network and I might take my laptop to LAN parties and such. But I can't imagine needing any additional software to connect to another domain. In fact, the video they have showing that feature in action looks just like what I already have on Windows XP Pro. huh?

Thanks for the help.
 
Home Premium should work for you. XP mode is more for businesses that run proprietary apps on XP, which would be expensive/impossible to replace. I haven't needed XP since I installed Vista at release. Joining a domain again is for businesses. Home networking won't be an issue without that feature.
 
The other place the a virtual XP license can come in handy is when browsing "iffy" web sites. If your virtual PC gets trashed by malware, you just delete it and open up a clean copy. Or "turn off" the virtual XP without saving the (bad) changes that just occurred to it.
 
Last edited:
RebateMonger said:
The other place the a virtual XP license can come in handy is when browsing "iffy" web sites. If your virtual PC gets trashed by malware, you just delete it and open up a clean copy. Or "turn off" the virtual XP without saving the (bad) changes that just occurred to it.
Click to expand...

I use sandboxie for that, not that I visit dodgy web sites. ()🙂

Honest 😳
 
home premium should be enough for you.
Should you ever need xp, use virtualbox.
Might be less integrated, but works if you really need it.
 
Murloc said:
home premium should be enough for you.
Should you ever need xp, use virtualbox.
Might be less integrated, but works if you really need it.
Click to expand...

Great call on the virtualbox. I'll keep that in mind. I guess I won't worry too much about the professional version then. Thanks everyone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top