No Windows 7 XP Mode for selected VAIO owners

Stuart Turton Read more October 7, 2009

Sony has confirmed that owners of VAIO laptops will not be able to run XP Mode in Windows 7.

No Windows 7 XP Mode for selected VAIO owners

The Intel Core 2 Duo processor powering the current generation of VAIO laptops supports Intel’s Virtual Technology – the feature required to get XP Mode running in Windows 7 – however Sony has admitted it has disabled the technology.

“We have received very little if any requests to enable VT technology up until very recently. Our engineers and QA people were very concerned that enabling VT would expose our systems to malicious code that could go very deep in the operating system structure of the PC and completely disable the latter,” says Xavier Lauwaert, senior manager of product marketing at Sony on the Windows Partner Blog.

“For these two reasons we have decided, until recently, not to enable VT. However, with the advent of XP virtualisation, there is impetus for us to relook at the situation and I can share with you that we will enable VT on select models. Though, I fear to say that the Z series will not be part of our VT-enabling effort.”

Unsurprisingly, the comments drew the ire of Sony VAIO owners. “My Vaio Z11 is in all other respects a fantastic bit of kit, but when I upgrade to Windows 7 – which I intend to do – I will be missing out on one of the most important features,” notes one poster on the blog.