VMware OS Compatibility – Upgrading Windows

It’s no fun doing research all day on your only day off, so I took a minute to read Mike D’s VMware blog over at http://www.mikedipetrillo.com/ where I came across some interesting and fun stuff.  The “stuff” is actually just an embedded YouTube video but one that should send you back in time for a few minutes to reminisce about simpler days.  The video shows the upgrade of every major version of Microsoft Windows since — get this — Windows 1.0! He actually started with MS-DOS 5.0 because the earliest Windows versions required it.  One interesting tid-bit is that the launch of Windows 1.0 predates that of the VGA standard and its numerous analog extensions we’ve all come to know and love. Instead, it uses EGA. 

One more cool thing to note is that VMware Workstation was used for this experiment. It shows how well VMware supports legacy Windows hardware requirements.

His conclusion?

It is possible to upgrade from every major Windows version from Windows 1.0 through Windows 7 and have some settings remain intact.  Even DOS games like Monkey Island and Doom II and their program icons remain functional.  The author notes this is nearly 20 years of backward compatibility and gives kudos to Microsoft for such an achievement.

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