I have finally had an opportunity to play around with Windows XP Mode and XP Virtual Applications.  All in all, it is a pretty cool setup.  If you aren’t familiar, Windows 7 will have a built-in Windows XP virtual machine.  You can run it as a normal Virtual PC (complete XP desktop) or you can actually run an application that looks just like any other “installed” application but it is actually being run under the covers inside of the XP virtual machine.  It has come in quite handy with an application I had that was broken by the SQL Server Express 2008 install (issues with updated version of the C++ runtime).  I installed the app into the XP virtual machine (you do that from the full VM desktop experience) and I know have an icon that will launch the app directly from my Win7 desktop.  Works like a champ.

Of course, you probably knew all of that already. But there is a small fly in the ointment.  What is it?  Virtual app mode does not like multiple monitors.  The virtual app is restricted to your primary monitor. Grrr…….