Most readers of this blog will already know about Windows 7‘s XP Mode (despite my not writing about it) which allows Windows XP to run inside of 7.  It is a really cool feature that will be a tremendous help to those running legacy applications.  It is only available in the Business and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 and while it would be nice to have this feature available in all versions, it is not looking as promising as when it was first announced.

To quickly sum it up, Intel Sucks.  That’s right it is not Microsoft’s fault, it’s Intel’s.  Apparently when Intel is creating it’s multitude of processors for different computer manufactures they really like to change up the processors capabilities.  For the XP Mode to work correctly it needs something called Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V).

I realized how big a failing this is on Intel’s part when I tried to use the XP Mode on my personal laptop and found that despite it’s abundance of power, it does not have Virtualization Technology.  Ed Bott from ZDNet also realized how big of a pain this could be for Intel owners and decided to create a list of processors and whether or not they support VT.

Desktop CPUS

Core 2 Duo
E4300/4400/4500/4600/4700NO
E6300/6320/6400/6420/6540/6550YES
E6600/6700/6750/6850YES
E7200/7300/7400/7500NO
E8190NO
E8200/8300/8400/8500/8600YES
Core 2 Extreme
QX6700/6800/6850YES
QX9650/9770/9775YES
X6800YES
Core 2 Quad
Q6600/6700YES
Q8200/8200S/8300/8400/8400SNO
Q9300/9400/9400SYES
Q9450/9550/9550S/9650YES
Core i7/Core i7 Extreme
I7-920/940YES
I7-965YES
Pentium D/Pentium EE
805/820/830/840NO
915/925/935/945NO
920/930/940/950/960YES
955/965YES
Pentium for Desktop
E2140/2160/2180/2200/2220NO
E5200/5300/5400NO

Mobile CPU products

Core 2 Duo Mobile
L7200/7300/7400/7500YES
P7350/7450NO
P7370YES
P8400/8600/8700/9500/9600YES
SL9300/9400/9600YES
SP9300/9400/9600YES
SU9300/9400/9600YES
T5200/5250/5270/5300/5450/5470NO
T5500/5600YES
T5550/5670/5750/5800/5850/5870/5900NO
T6400/6570NO
T7100/7200/7250/7300/7400YES
T7500/7600/7700/7800YES
T8100/8300YES
T9300/9400/9500/9550/9600/9800YES
U7500/U7600YES
Core 2 Extreme Mobile
QX9300YES
X7800/7900YES
X9000/9100YES
Core 2 Quad Mobile
Q9000YES
Q9100NO
Core 2 Solo
SU3300/3500YES
U2100/2200YES
Core Duo
L2300/2400/2500YES
T2050/2250NO
T2300/2400/2500/2600/2700YES
T2300E/2350/2450NO
U2400/2500YES
Core Solo
T1300/1400YES
T1350NO
U1300/1400/1500YES

When it comes to AMD products it is a little simpler to know if you have a AMD-V capable processor.  The general processor “rule” is that “if it is a DDR2 and is not a Sempron, then it has AMD-V”.  - via VirtualIron

Supported are AMD Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 with family “F” or “G” on socket AM2 (not 939), Turion 64 X2, Opteron 2nd generation and 3rd-generation, Phenom, and all newer processors. Sempron processors do not include support for AMD-V. – via Wikipedia

AMD has been struggling as of late but this might give them an edge in the market.  The biggest problem with all of this is that most large corporations that would take advantage of XP Mode typically use lower end CPU’s and machines for their employees.

This is not Microsoft’s fault by any means but it will still affect them in the short term with companies debating whether or not to upgrade.  If a company has multiple processors to deal with it will likely complicate things for them and just encourage them to wait until they can afford to upgrade the hardware at the same time.

Check It Out> ZDNet via WinSupersite

UPDATE: Both Intel and AMD have processor identification tools that you can use to see which processor you have.  Intel® Processor Identification Utility
AMD Virtualization™ Technology and Microsoft® Hyper-V™ System Compatibility Check Utility