Emulator Windows Xp Software Support Is

Jon Martindale has been a feature tech writer for more than 10 years.

Hes written for publications such as Digital Trends, KitGuru, and ITProPortal.

There is a way you can have the best of both worlds and run a Windows XP emulator on Windows 10.

Microsoft has designated Windows XP as EOL for all but a select few customers.

Emulator Windows Xp Software Support Is

This means there havent been any significant security patches for Windows XP in years and software support is close to a decade out of date.

That also means modern drivers wont work with it, a lot of modern PC hardware wont run it, and youll run into all sorts of problems trying to run modern applications using it.

Windows XP is far less secure than Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10, and with no security precautions made for it in recent years, its less safe than ever.

As such, emulating Windows XP is a much safer way to use it, because if you become infected with malware, you can simple wipe the install and start again without risking the rest of your system.

The best way to emulate Windows XP in Windows 10 is to use a virtual machine.

This lets you run a virtualized computer inside your existing Windows 10 install.

In this case, it means running a version of Windows XP on the same system, but siloed away from the Windows 10 operating system and files.

There are a number of great virtual machines you can use, but for this guide well be using Oracle VMs VirtualBox.

Download the latest version from its official website and install it as you would any other application.

Give your virtual machine a nameit can be anything, but setting something memorable would be a good idea, especially if you plan to create multiple virtual machines in the future.

Choose where you want to install the virtual machine too, choose the Windows XP version you plan to install, then select Next.

Select Create a virtual hard risk now, unless you have already set one up.

Choose the size of your virtual hard drive.

GB is enough if you only plan to install a couple of basic applications, but if you want to play big games on it, adjust to what you think youll need, then select Create.

A small window will appear and ask you for the XP startup disk.

Insert it in your optical drive if you have one, otherwise use the file selector to find your XP disc image, then select Start.

If all goes to plan, you should have a Windows XP install you can use whenever you like.

To close it down, shut down the native install, or close the XP window and it will offer to shut it down for you.

When you want to use it again, just select Start as you did to install it, and the XP emulator will boot up.

Mac Emulator Windows Xp