dual boot vs xp mode

What are the advantages/disadvantages of using a dual boot partitioned XP and Win7 vs. using XP mode in Win7?
I recently got a Win7 machine but I have a lot of software for XP that I use all the time. Several of these programs won't run on Win7, and replacing them with newer versions is cost prohibitive.
Dell D620 Core 2 Duo 2Gb x 2 Gb 4 gigs RAM 500Gb HDD partitioned 250/250.
Opinions welcome.

 

have a look a some virtual machines. they are more effective than running in XP mode but save the hassle of dual boot.

 

Can you elaborate on that? How are VMs more effective than running XP in virtual mode in Windows 7?

 

I believe the poster is confusing XP mode running in MSVPC (which IS a virtual machine) with XP compatibility mode on the host operating system. (An understandable mistake, as the language Microsoft uses is pretty similar for drastically different technologies)

I would recommend XP mode, as this will integrate more closely with the host operating system (Win7), allowing you to share a clipboard, move data files back and forth (particularly useful for backup), etc. Not to mention you will not be consuming a "real" license of XP using this method, where you would be in a dual-boot scenario.

I suppose it also depends on the programs going to be run on the XP OS, though. Something more hardware-intensive may be better suited for a "real" installation, in a dual-boot setup.

 

Keep in mind MSVPC (which IS a virtual machine) will only work in Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate; it will fail to function on Home Premium.

 

Indeed.

I have a number of games that ran on XP that I wanted to play but I couldnt run them on either Vista or 7. I tried right clicking and choosing run in Windows XP Compatability Mode which was what I (perhaps wrongly) assumed the OP was talking about. They would not run. However VMWare Player would run them fine.

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

I wasnt aware that Win7 Pro+ have a built in "virtual player" for XP but as I only use home I would never have found it. If you have the right version of Win7 then use that, otherwise I would recomend using VMWare Player ans it is essentially the same thing... appart from you will need a Windows XP CD to create your VMWare image

 

Incidentally VMWare Player will allow file sharing between your Win7 build and the Virtual Machine. I haven't used it for ages and I cant remember how I set it up but it did work.

 

Thank you all.
I am running Win7 Professional and I did mean XP compatibility mode not a virtual machine.
The programs that I am most interested in are not games, but video editing (Pinnacle Studio 14 / AVID), CD/DVD authoring (NERO 6) and photo editing (Paint Shop Pro 9). The video editing programs are listed as being supported on Win7, but the others are not.
I read a Microsoft description of XP mode that said it was not well suited for graphics.
Sharing a clipboard is of little concern in the applications I use.

 

In that case i would recomend dual boot. with virtual machines you effectively have two copies of the os running in memory an graphics and video editing are quite resource hungry. running in a virtual machine will slow the pc down.

you may want to set up a separate partition to store files on which will make accessing the rendered files easier from both os's

 

Thank you all once again.
I first tried the XP mode and found it very slow and had several crashes.
I then partitioned for the dual boot option.
After a number of uses it became obvious to me that Win7 held no advantages for me.
I now have deleted the Win7 installation and am happily using XP Pro exclusively.
Each to their own, I guess.