Silverlight Games 101

Ok so this isn’t a game development related post, but gamers and game developers are usually more interested in their hardware than the casual user so I hope this isn’t too far off base.

You’ve probably heard already that Windows 7 has an XP mode to run old software. What you may not know is that you need to have “Hardware Virtualization” on your system in order to use it. I’m going to focus on Intel here with their VT technology because honestly that’s where I’ve done my research and I don’t know much about the AMD version of hardware virtualization.

NOTE: Running Virtual PC on Windows 7 also requires Hardware Virtualization.

My research into this started because my current laptop, less that a year old, doesn’t have this capability. Along with being required for XP mode, you can also get better performance out of virtual machines if your machine supports VT. You may be surprised to hear that the top 2 bestselling laptops on Amazon right now don’t support it. The T6500 and the P7350 Core 2 Duo processors are a couple of the most popular right now and don’t have VT support.

So how do you know if your system supports VT? Well on an existing computer, you can run a tool to check. You may also have to go into your BIOS and enable it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/support/configure-bios.aspx

Now what if you’re looking to buy a new system (let’s say hypothetically because your current system doesn’t support VT). If you’re fortunate to find the model you’re interested in at a brick and mortar store, you can check for yourself. If you’re buying online it gets a bit trickier.

I haven’t seen a listing yet for a computer online where the specs say if the system supports VT. I assume this will be coming once people start complaining about not being able to run XP mode on their brand new system. It’s easier to tell if the system doesn’t support VT, it’s harder to tell if it does.

First of all, you can look up your processor on Intel’s site and see if it supports it. They have a list of some of the more common processors here:

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/mobile/specifications.htm

If your processor is not in the list, you can search for it in the search box at the top of that page.

Now here’s where it gets a bit tricky. Even if your processor is in the list doesn’t necessarily mean you can run VT. There also needs to be a BIOS setting to turn it on, and in some systems (specifically some Lenovo and Sony models) the BIOS doesn’t give you an option to turn on VT. So then you need to either find in the forums where someone confirms that the particular system can do VT, or you can contact the manufacturer.

Definitely when you order a new system and receive it, if VT is important to you, make sure you can enable it right away so that you can return it if necessary.

Hopefully the PC manufacturers will start to add entries to their specs concerning VT or whether the PC supports XP mode (which is the same thing, but might be easier for the user to grasp). Until then, do your homework and good luck.