Windows 7 and XP virtualization: What you need to know

Microsoft's new Virtual XP Mode requires hardware virtualization, but with all the news surrounding this feature, users are wondering "Am I able to run Virtual XP Mode?"

Even though people may recommend you run Securable to check and see, the problem is, Securable may not display results accurately, even if your BIOS says that hardware virtualization is turned on as evidenced by this forum thread.

Thankfully, Microsoft is aware of this, and has created this page to help you out. The pages gives you ways to identify if your processor supports hardware virtualization, and gives instructions on how to check the BIOS settings of Dell, HP, and Thinkpad systems to see if it's turned on. Intel users can check if their processor supports hardware virtualization here, and AMD users can check here.

Does your processor not support hardware virtualization? Then you may need to upgrade your processor and maybe your motherboard. Ed Bott wrote up a great article on which Intel processors support hardware virtualization, and AMD has a page about virtualization their processors here.

Now that you've found the processor you wanted, it's time to shop for it. Sites like Newegg are great places to start, and installing a new processor is not very hard at all. Lifehacker has a great guide on how to do so. Also, make sure your motherboard has the latest BIOS version. If you still can't run Virtual XP Mode even after you install the new processor, then you may have to upgrade your motherboard.