Windows 8

[Mequa]

The next version of Microsoft Windows is still some way away. However, it is possible we'll see a beta release some time in 2011.

I was just wondering: Are any WinUAE devs ready to test WinUAE with the new OS as soon as it becomes available?

Of course there may be major issues with the first unstable beta release.
But it might be advantageous to take early steps towards full support for the next version of Windows.
It would be nice to get it almost there by the time a Windows 8 Release Candidate is available.

[Toni Wilen]

I switched to 64-bit when XP x64 was released.
I used Vista beta.
I used Windows 7 beta.
...
Not difficult to predict what happens next..

[SailorSat]

You turn to MacOS? ^^

[cosmicfrog]

glad to see that Toni confirmed my assumption

now if only my crystal ball was as good as his and on that note will you, Toni, be cleaning that Crystal ball for the new year or is just a bright & clean as when you first got it ??

[HonestFlames]

It's entirely possible that Windows 8 will build upon the codebase (and success) of Windows 7. I don't think compatability of older software is going to be a big problem. Microsoft will continue to push the advantages of x64, but it's not going to be until Windows 9 when it will be anywhere near feasible for them to drop 32-bit support.

It's only with Win 7 x64 that 16-bit support got dumped!

[Maccara]

Originally Posted by HonestFlames

It's only with Win 7 x64 that 16-bit support got dumped!

16-bit components didn't work on server 2003/xp x64 already.

[HonestFlames]

Originally Posted by Maccara

16-bit components didn't work on server 2003/xp x64 already.

I stand corrected

[Toni Wilen]

64bit CPUs don't support 16-bit code after it has been switched to full 64-bit mode. MS probably didn't want to write complete dos emulator

[Mequa]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

64bit CPUs don't support 16-bit code after it has been switched to full 64-bit mode. MS probably didn't want to write complete dos emulator

16-bit MS-DOS and Win16 code can be run on Windows x64 using Microsoft Virtual PC, even before resorting to an emulator like DOSBox.
(This even works on home editions, which may give a warning but work anyway.)

The newest version, Windows Virtual PC (on 7), only seems to run DOS in windowed mode, although this can be uninstalled and the earlier Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 installed, which (together with a DOS install) will provide fullscreen support for DOS apps with "near native" performance (hardware virtualization can improve performance too).
Not sure how this works on x64 though, but it does.

I'm sure if MS wanted to, they could have adapted VPC to support launching DOS exe's directly from x64 Windows with full desktop integration (like they later did for XP apps on Windows 7's professional editions).
The fact that MS didn't include this feature (requiring DOS apps to be run inside a VM) seems to suggest that they'd rather see 16-bit apps consigned to the trash.

[LocalH]

Originally Posted by Mequa

16-bit MS-DOS and Win16 code can be run on Windows x64 using Microsoft Virtual PC, even before resorting to an emulator like DOSBox.

I thought that, since it was a hardware limitation, that even VPC (and other virtualization tools) would have to emulate the 16-bit code, as the processor just can't run the 16-bit code directly.

[Mequa]

Originally Posted by LocalH

I thought that, since it was a hardware limitation, that even VPC (and other virtualization tools) would have to emulate the 16-bit code, as the processor just can't run the 16-bit code directly.

Hardware virtualisation solves that problem.
Most modern CPUs (apart from some low-end Atom which don't support x64 either) support hardware virtualisation as an option in the BIOS.

VPC 2007 has hardware virtualisation as a configuration option.
Without hardware virtualisation selected, 16-bit software runs considerably slower on x64 (though apparently not as slow as on DOSBox).

[Dexther]

Mac Os Is A Evil !