Microsoft stopped supporting XP,and stopped making software for that O.S.
In the past Microsoft tried to make people by Vista by making Halo 2 an exclusive,and right now it puts pressure to software developers to stop making software for xp to make people buy 7.
But 60% of Windows users,still have the old XP,and personally I have programms for XP that I need and can't run at Vista or 7,at least not without (xp mode) that is only available at Windows 7 Proffesional.
And I just' don't want to pay 350 euros just for an O.S. with better looking task bar.

I hope Bethesda makes TESV playable at XP.

XP will still be supported until 2014 I believe.
However, we are not sure on the specs yet so we will just have to wait.

I doubt they wouldn't. Unless they were going DX10 only, this will never happen. Heck, I even doubt they are going to use DX10, it's most likely it will stick w/ DX9.

That is a good question, but I have a feeling they will still support XP. According to the latest Steam survey, 25% of people still game with XP. That is a large chunk of people to not include in your game. I plan to play on XP unless they have Direct X 10 & 11 features in the game.

Windows 7 is more than just a better looking taskbar, it has significantly improved security (As XP's was a joke), a new driver model that makes it much harder for poor drivers to crash your entire PC, filesystem caching that can improve performance by orders of magnitudes, better support for just about everything, and more efficiency with modern hardware. DX10/11 relies on the new driver model to get better effects at a lower performance cost - it isn't a marketing thing, it's that XP's driver model is old and inefficient.

You don't need Win7Pro to run an "XP mode", it's just a fancy name for a VM, of which there are plenty of methods of doing, such as VirtualBox or VMWare - and if you can't run vista or 7, you certainly can't run a modern video game.

With it basically being designed for consoles, of which the Xbox 360 uses DX9 as its API, I would say there will still be support for XP. But we never know, since Windows 7 is becoming the new standard now.

As for you saying Windows 7 is just an OS with a better looking taskbar, please at least do some research on it before you come to that conclusion. After using Windows 7, XP feels vastly inferior compared to it, and I don't think I'll ever go back to it.

dont they have to stick with DX9, because thats what xbox 360 uses

No, Just Cause 2, for example, is a DX10-only game on PC, and a less-pretty version still runs on consoles.

Technically, the Xbox 360s DX9 API allows for some DX10 features to be implemented, but not entirely in its true or full capability.

Case and point, Just Cause 2. Strictly DX10 for PCs, but runs perfectly fine on consoles with even some DX10 features to boot.

Just Cause 2 used DX9 on consoles and it was DX10 only on PC. This is an example of the possibility of the same thing happening to Skyrim. Though I highly doubt it... So yeah, you are kinda right.

I'm running XP, if TES V doesn't support XP it's only a hundred bucks to upgrade to Win7 and that has a lot of advantages beyond playing TES V . . . it would also let me play Shattered Horizon! I kid, eventually I'll upgrade to Win7 but I'm happy to wait until I have a solid reason to.

I used to think XP was the be all and end all and that I would always resent having to use windows 7, but I couldn't go back now it makes life that much easier.

In relation to the question I don't see any reason they wouldn't allow it to run on the 2nd best OS made

I'm running XP on my home computer, so I hope that the game support DX9 as I would prefer to not do an OS upgrade. Although I'm sure that if Skyrim doesn't make me change OS, some other game will during the lifetime of Windows 8, which is rumored to be released during the second half of 2012.


I'm curious what programs that might be? The only programs that won't work are pretty much only the 16-bit software (DOS software and Windows software with some Windows 3.x code in it) from the 90s if you run the 64-bit version of Windows 7. But for 32-bit software, nothing really changed.

Oh, and the so called XP mode svcks, it's nothing anyone would need.

And even if it's DX10 only, you could still play it on XP with the unofficial DX10 for XP.

Not entirely true. In most cases, when a game is built on a certain API, it's build on an OS that fully supports that API. Thus, if it was developed primarily using DX10, it would probably be rendered incompatible with XP because of some kernel changes from XP to Vista and various other not entirely obvious changes.

Also, on a side note, I'd be very weary of unofficial API patches, as most of them are either viruses in disguise, or if they're not, then they have the chance of severely screwing up your OS. It's always better to go with proprietary API updates and graphics drivers than it is unofficial.

There's no unofficial DX10 patch for XP. There been a lot of talk from some people that made some news a few years ago, but they never delivered. And the only reason they got Halo 2 to work in XP was because it wasn't a DX10 game to begin with, it just used an OS check.


Indeed.

I hope it is somewhat supported, but the engine supports DX10 and DX11. At least DX10. Seriously, DX9 is so outdated now, it's frustrating to see a game developed only for DX9.

Inb4 MGE Screenshots.

Bethesda might be kind and throw in legacy support.

But Windows 7 is quickly taking over and is currently at over half of Windows XP's usage share (around 25% for 7 compared to around 44% for XP), and is well on track to surpassing XP by the middle of this year. According to the latest steam survey, the most popular OS with those users is Win7 64-bit. Heck, 7 and Vista combined is almost neck and neck with XP. By the time Skyrim comes out, XP definitely won't be king anymore.

But it'll all come down to how deperately they want to take advantage of DX10/11, if at all. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

If worst comes to worst, and you don't want to deal with a VM, then just dual-boot.

I had Vista installed at my computer for 4 months,I tried them,and I went back to XP.

First of all,my soundcard's bundled software didn't work.

It contains a "what u here" record utility that lets me record any song at any webpage without having to download.
Except that,I'm a musician with a home recording studio and E-MU does't have drivers for 7 yet,and they just released Vista drivers at 2010.
I can't just make useless so much expensive equipment I got.

And if it wasn't just the proffesional programms,Vista also didn't run Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Quake Live,which are the only online games I play.

And last but not least,the framerate of most games dropped too much at Vista.

Why having Vista where I can play Crysis at medium settings,when I can have XP and play it at High with 8xAA ?

>Vista
Well, there's your problem right there. I'm definitely not afraid to admit that Vista is truly a piece of crap OS. It's basically the alpha to Windows 7.

Trust me, once you try Windows 7, you'll more than likely not want to go back to XP.

Ah, ok. But Vista and 7 both use the same driver system, so the Vista drivers should work with 7.

No bloody idea. But that's an interesting question, as I'm on it and quite unwilling to make the change unless necessary (got a lot of other computer related expenses coming this year).

Extremely dumb question : if I change a lot of hardware on my computer, will my version of xp still work ?

I'm a fan of XP (using 32 bits), and I'm a bit reluctant to upgrade to W7, but my future system will have 8-16 GB's of RAM so an upgrade is mandatory. Although I know a 64-bit version of XP exists, I think I'll just install W7-64.

I hope there's an option to disable all that graphical parafernalia and leave it at max-performance mode.

what about us linux users, su much discrimination.