To make your Windows XP system integrate with Windows 8, click the Player menu in VMware Player and select Unity. Just wait and let the process complete on its own - VMware Player will handle everything, including installing the VMware Tools package that enables the desktop integration features. VMware Player will automatically install Windows XP inside the virtual machine, so you won’t have to do anything during the installation process. Go through the setup process, providing either a Windows XP installation disc or a Windows XP disc image in ISO format.Įnter your product key, username, password, and other information. Once it’s installed, launch it and create a new virtual machine. Setting Up Windows XP Mode With VMware Playerįirst, download and install VMware Player on your computer. However, VMware Player offers Windows XP-mode-like integration features - you can create direct shortcuts to Windows XP applications and have unique taskbar icons for each virtualized program. You could also use VirtualBox or another virtual machine solutions, like the Hyper-V virtualization feature included with Windows 8. Windows XP mode isn’t available on Windows 8, but you can reproduce it pretty closely with VMware Player. Microsoft one-upped their competitors by including a fully licensed copy of Windows XP, offering a nicer experience than installing Windows XP in VirtualBox and having all your old Windows XP applications confined to the virtual machine window. Applications you install in Windows XP mode run inside the Windows XP virtual machine. On Windows 7, Windows XP mode is actually full copy of the Windows XP operating system running in Microsoft’s Virtual PC virtualization software. Microsoft pitched this feature as a way to run old applications in “ Windows XP mode,” but it’s not just another Windows compatibility feature. RELATED: Our Look at XP Mode in Windows 7 You can virtualize Windows XP with almost any virtual machine program, but we’ll cover a solution that gives you Windows XP-mode like desktop and taskbar integration on Windows 8. However, you can easily set up your own Windows XP mode in Windows 8. Microsoft will soon be discontinuing support for Windows XP and doesn’t want anyone using it, even in a virtual machine.

“Windows XP Mode” isn’t included with Windows 8.

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