I used 7-Zip to find and extract the necessary file.

Embedded inside two layers of compression is the virtual hard drive I needed. Since I wanted to run XP under Windows 8.1, I didn’t run the exectuable-I tucked it away in my Downloads folder. I downloaded WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe from my Microsoft link above.

The file is still available from the Microsoft Download Center (click on my link), and it contains a virtual hard drive with an XP installation-so to get XP running under Windows 8, 8.1 or 10, all you have to do is retrieve that VHD. Microsoft offered a Windows XP Mode for Windows 7, which could be installed and run under that operating system. The fact that you can run a virtual XP machine in a window under Windows 7, 8 or 10 is not as well known as it should be, and it has let me continue using some old software from that era that has resisted running in “compatibility mode” under later operating systems. When Microsoft are willing to pay me for the time I’ll spend on their “free” upgrade, then maybe we can talk.īut at present, I’m much cheered to be running Windows XP again, which marked the last occasion I ever felt a new Microsoft operating system actually constituted an “upgrade”. I don’t want it because it offers nothing I need or am even curious to see, while promising inconvenience and hassle during the upgrade process. Why don’t you want it? For pity’s sake, why? Why?“ The experience is a little like having a weeping software engineer repeatedly grip your lapels, shake you gently, and sob: “But it’s cool.

I am so looking forward to that day, in the hope that it’ll mean an end to Microsoft’s intrusive little pop-up messages in the lower right corner of my monitor, and their increasingly devious attempts to trick me into accidentally upgrading. As I write, it’s only another month until Microsoft’s free upgrade offer on Windows 10 expires (on 29 July 2016).

Windows xp on windows 10 virtualbox