It is a real instance of Windows XP running in a virtual machine, and it must be treated as such for security purposes. The takeaway here is that "XP Mode" is not a magical "feature" in Windows 7. Jacobs says if you use XP Mode, "now you are managing twice as many PCs as before" and charges that XP Mode "increases cost and complexity." You may indeed need to install anti-virus software on the virtual OS, but he is quick to point out that "licensing is not a problem for Sophos products." Sophos is not unique in this other vendors also license their security software on a per-physical machine basis, rather than per-OS instance.
Jacobs' other complaint is that Microsoft "didn't provide tools to help manage all of this." Of course, since the XP Mode VM does appear to the network like a separate machine, it can be managed in the same way organizations manage their non-virtual Windows XP machines. That's true, of course - but that's true of any guest OS running in a VM on any host. Jacobs says XP Mode "risks undoing much of the progress that Microsoft has made on the security front in the last few years." Jacobs' big complaint seems to be that XP Mode is essentially a separate logical computer and thus doesn't share the Windows 7 host's security settings, security software, patches and so forth. You have probably seen the headlines on the web, proclaiming that XP Mode is a "security disaster." Sophos CTO Richard Jacobs has been widely quoted as saying exactly that in this blog post. The bad news is that it you need Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate edition to use it it does not run on Home Premium edition. More good news: you do not need to buy a license for this instance of XP the free download is already licensed. What is special about it is that you do not have to create a VM and install the XP operating system all of that is done for you. It is actually a separate application, Windows Virtual PC, running a special virtual machine (.vmcx file) provided by Microsoft. It is not something that is built into the operating system.
There has been much talk in the IT world about the new "XP Mode" feature in Windows 7 - an implementation of a new version of Microsoft's Virtual PC with a free licensed XP virtual machine that can be used to run older applications - but what are the security implications? In this article, we'll examine both the good and the bad (in terms of security) related to running this special VM on your Windows 7 computer.įirst, it is important to understand that despite its name, "XP Mode" is not a mode in which Windows 7 runs.
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