Create an XP Mode for Windows 7 Home Versions & Vista

In Windows 7 we have a new cool feature which is XP mode and it only works in Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions and Home edition and Vista are unable to do so. So we can create our own XP mode for Vista and Windows 7 Home Premium although they are not licensed to run the free XP Mode available at Microsoft site.

Now as we know that VMware Player helps us to run XP Mode but it doesn’t when we have 7 Home Premium or Vista but we can use this VMware Player to create that kind of mode which only can be created by the help of a legal copy of Windows XP.

First we have to register at vmware site and download VMware Player from the website, then install it and it will prompt to restart so after restarting start the VMware player and insert our Windows XP legal CD in CD drive. Now we have to click the first option in VMware Player which is Create a New Virtual Machine.

Player will automatically detect our Windows CD and will install it in Easy Install. First it will ask the CD key and username password, after adding this information it will ask us the location to install Windows. Now we have to choose how large our virtual hard drive to be, default value is 40 Gb although it won’t take that much space just 1.4 Gb will be needed for installation. All the settings are complete and we can review them on this last page. We’ll press Finish at the end and It will start installing windows by itself and finish the installation in almost 20 minutes and our Windows XP desktop is ready to use.