When he ran VMware Player for the first time and saw his Windows XP machine boot up inside a window on his desktop, he thought it was magical! When I showed him how to run an application and hide the VM in Unity mode he was blown away. This is sort of like “Picture in a Picture” on your TV, only in this case, it’s a “PC in a PC.” This will make it very simple for him to access old applications or files when needed, even at the same time that he is working in Windows 7.

VMware Player will then run the virtual machine containing his Window XP desktop on his new Windows 7 laptop, in a window. How will these two great products help? VMware Converter will quickly bundle up his entire Windows XP desktop–including files, applications, and the operating system–into a virtual machine. And the best part? Both of those VMware applications are available for free! Instead, this would be a perfect opportunity to use VMware Player and VMware Converter to painlessly migrate him to Windows 7. While VMware Workstation could work, it might have been overkill for his particular needs. After a few minutes of consideration, it hit me He needed to be able to access all of his important files spread across the hard drive and also needed to understand which of his applications (if any) would require upgrades in order to run on Windows 7. So I immediately started thinking about how I could help him. He didn’t want to be forced to keep the old PC sitting under his desk if he needed to run an old program or to constantly have to search through a backup drive if he missed a file. However, he had been using this machine for about 3 years and found the thought of migrating all of his files daunting. A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a less technically savvy friend, “I finally convinced my company to buy me a new computer.” With the positive buzz generated by Windows 7, he was very excited to replace his extremely aged desktop PC, running Windows XP, with a fast new laptop.

How to access windows xp mode windows 7