Windows 7 Professional

[#1]

I have a Russian language tutorial program that simply fails to run under W7 64 bit (but happily does under 32 bit and XP).
I had downloaded VMPlayer with the intention of installing XP but I can't find the Key Code so that's a bit of a bummer.
Now that I am part of the OU I am thinking of purchasing Office 2010 Professional Plus along with W7 Professional at under £65 for both from software4students.
Before I do I was wondering how good the XP Mode is at running 32 bit software on the 64 bit W7 OS. Also, is it similar to VMPlayer where I'd still need n XP Key Code?

[#2]

W7 Pro comes with an XP licence included, so you won't need a Key Code.  I've found that XP mode runs legacy 32bit software without issues (on the limited use I've given it).
Richard

[#3]

Also on the properties sheet for the executable go to the compatibility tab, click the change settings for all users button and try running it in XP compatibility mode and tick the box saying run as an administrator at the bottom. Ok your way out and see if that makes any difference. Thats how I've got several programs working on Win7 Home Premium which wouldn't work but were fine on XP pro.
The options might be different for your version of windows but that should give you something to look at.

[#4]

Thanks for the replies.
I'll try installing the offending program again later and report back...

[#5]

Win 7 Professional includes Virtual PC so you could run a Win XP virtual machine on under Win 7. I have a piece of software that won't run on Win 7 and an old scanner which doesn't have a driver for Vista let alone Win 7 and they both run fine on the XP virtual machine.

[#6]

Thanks jelv.
But wouldn't running XP under Virtual PC mean I would require a licence?

[#7]

Nope - it's included in the Win 7 professional licence.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/

[#8]

Quote from: jelv

Win 7 Professional includes Virtual PC so you could run a Win XP virtual machine on under Win 7.

You also need the hardware capable of doing it, which a couple of my old boxes aren't - though they do run Win 7 happily.