THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

XP mode/remote apps with your OLD Windows XP desktop.

The ingredients are... a Disk2VHD image of the existing running XP

The proper licensing (OEM's flipped to SA, Retail, etc etc) to allow you to move the XP off the oem box.  Remember an OEM license can't be moved from the OEM box.

You then go into the Windows virtual interface and build a new drive pointing to the VHD.

Once you start the moved over XP it will want to activate.  If you have a retail/vl key it will normally activate again just fine.  OEMs on SA (at least in my experience hopefully someone will tell me if I'm doing this wrong) you can take the COA off the unit and tell the system you'll call in the key, then scroll down again and change the product key.  Now you can either activate by phone, or log out/log back in and it will activate over the Internet.

Now inside the XP image you go into tools and ensure that the virtual integration is installed (this allows for better mouse and monitor control)

Finally at the end you'll be offered up - An update is available that adds support for RemoteApp to Windows XP SP3 virtual machines on a Windows 7-based computer:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961742.  Once you install that final piece your Windows XP apps will be "exposed" to the desktop of the Windows 7 machine.

It's a little geeky to set up, but once you have all the pieces in place, it's a very cool way to

a. ensure that older apps that only work on XP can be deployed on your Win7 boxes

b.  ensure that you haven't forgotten anything in the migration from XP to Win7

An update that adds RemoteApp support is available for Windows Vista-based virtual machines that are running on Windows 7-based computers:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961741/EN-US  You can also do this with a virtual Vista.