Lightie,

Thank you for contacting the Dell Community Forum.  I checked the Microsoft download site for Windows 7 XP Mode (found here), and found that it is supported only under Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate.  Unfortunately, Windows 7 Home Premium doesn't support it. 

That is part of the problem, I have Windows Vista Home Premium (64) bit and it works fine now.  I need it for some work applications I run on my 1545.  This is not right! So, basically I am forced to spend more money to get what I need.  Not right!

:emotion-2:

Compatibility mode works just fine on Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

Lightie, Thank you for contacting the Dell Community Forum.  I checked the Microsoft download site for Windows 7 XP Mode (found here), and found that it is supported only under Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate.  Unfortunately, Windows 7 Home Premium doesn't support it.

It is true that XP Mode is not supported in Home Premium; however, Windows Virtual PC 7 is supported.  If you have licensed install media for Windows XP (or any other OS), you can create your own virtual XP machine.  Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx , and perform step 2 to insure your hardware can run Windows Virtual PC 7.  Then select Windows 7 PRO 32 bit for the OS, and English for language in step 3.  Download and install ONLY Windows Virtual PC 7, then create your virtual machine.

Regards

Walt

frustrated_user,

You are incorrect, right click the program in question and you can set the compatibility mode from the tab.

I see the same confusion I had with this issue.   People are confusing TWO seperate issues.

The most basic version of Windows 7 (the cheapest), has an XP compatability mode for older programs that ran correctly under XP, but might not under W7.  You should be able to right click on the executable file for that program and set backward compatability mode.  I repeat, this is available in the cheapest version of W7.

However, the above is completly different from the so-called "Windows XP mode", which runs only on the more expensive versions of  Windows 7.  The 'virtual' XP mode  in W7 actually runs a virtual version of XP alongside Windows 7 code, and is primarily meant for a few legacy business applicatons that only seem to work on XP.   It is unlikely that the average home user will ever need this.

Typical consumer applications don't need the more complex 'virtual' version of XP mode on Windows 7. 

I see the same confusion I had with this issue.   People are confusing TWO seperate issues. The most basic version of Windows 7 (the cheapest), has an XP compatability mode for older programs that ran correctly under XP, but might not under W7.  You should be able to right click on the executable file for that program and set backward compatability mode.  I repeat, this is available in the cheapest version of W7. However, the above is completly different from the so-called "Windows XP mode", which runs only on the more expensive versions of  Windows 7.  The 'virtual' XP mode  in W7 actually runs a virtual version of XP alongside Windows 7 code, and is primarily meant for a few legacy business applicatons that only seem to work on XP.   It is unlikely that the average home user will ever need this. Typical consumer applications don't need the more complex 'virtual' version of XP mode on Windows 7.

I agree that the typical home user would not need Windows XP mode; however, Windows Virtual PC 7 will run on Windows 7 Home Premium, and as I said, if you have licensed install media for XP or other OS's, you can create a virtual machine, and run it on your Windows 7 Home Premium machine.  In my own case, I have a legacy 16 bit DOS program called Managing Your Money version 12 (that I will never give up) which runs just fine under Windows XP or VISTA 32 bit, but will not run on Windows 7 64 bit.  It runs fine in Windows XP Mode.  I've also run it under DOSBox in Windows 7.  There are minor problems with either scenario, and I haven't decided yet which solution is best.  Unfortunately, I bought Windows 7 PRO specifically for the Windows XP Mode feature, before I found out that I could have bought Home Premium, loaded Windows Virtual PC 7 and used my licensed copy of XP to do the same thing.

Regards

Walt