Windows XP Mode, for those that don't know, is a free downloadable "virtual XP environment" for . It's provided mainly as a way for businesses to migrate to Windows 7 without worrying about that one application they rely on that just won't run on Vista or Win7. We gave five reasons why it's back in April, and went with the feature back in May. Microsoft has made several improvements to the software since then, including:

Of course, Microsoft still recommends that customers run everything that they possibly can natively in Windows 7, and leave XP mode for the "last mile" applications that simply can't be made to function properly in the new OS. Given the overhead of XP Mode (it's basically a virtual PC under the hood) and the system requirements (you need a CPU with hardware virtualization, for starters), I think that's probably good advice.

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