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No Windows 7 XP Mode For Sony Vaio Z Owners
Voyager529 writes "While virtually every Core 2 Duo processor supports the hardware virtualization technology that powers the Windows 7 XP Mode, The Register UK reports that the Core 2 Duo processors in the Sony Vaio Z series laptops had the virtualization features intentionally crippled in the BIOS. Senior manager for product marketing Xavier Lauwaert stated that the QA engineers did this to make the systems more resilient against malicious code. He also stated that while they are considering enabling VT in some laptop models due to the backlash, the Z series are not among those being retrofitted."
VT is a HUGE security risk that malware writers exploit and can write rootkits for. Its disabled on my desktops for good reason. HP also disables it.
Most I.T. departments request VT to be disabled and I was not aware that Windows7 used the hypervisor to run XP (makes sense). I will add its possible to reflash the bios to support using it but I would not recommend it. In this day and age and I am shocked at the amount of malware out there and how easy it is to get infected. Its like the wild west and most users do not know about security and will click on things that look like Windows pop ups or read email from trusted sources that have links for browse by infections. These are Sony's customers not to mention after the bad press with the rootkit fiasco Sony probably overeacted by making there laptops they way they are.
With VT you can not remove the malware without a complete wipe as its undetectable by any anti virus package and its as scary as the lojack bug that runs at the bios level and can't be disabled.
There is no real use of VT anyway since cores are now dual.
http://saveie6.com/
Intel charges more for chips with VT enabled, they use it as an up sell. Many laptop manufacturers are choosing not to pay the extra, especially on low end laptops with razor thin margins. This isn't just a Sony problem. As any Apple fanboy can tell you, Apple pays for the good stuff.
Some technology disabled in some laptop is somehow presented as Windows flaw! Sometimes I am amazed by your journalism skills.