Sony Laptops Devoid of Windows XP Mode

It was just last week that Microsoft announced the availability of Windows XP Mode Release Candidate and the Windows 7 RTM had already reached to PC Makers. While most PC makers would be including Windows XP Mode support in the PC hardware, Sony has surprisingly decided to disable hardware virtualization in the Sony VAIO Laptops.
Xavier Lauwert, senior manager product marketing for Sony, stated in a blogpost comment that the step was taken since very less number of requests for enabling virtualization were received and they were concerned about exposing the system to malicious code if virtualization technology (VT) was enabled. At this moment, all Sony VAIO laptops are sold carrying BIOS with VT disabled.

This means that the Sony VAIO notebooks which were sold claiming to be Windows 7 Ready won't be able to run the Windows XP Mode, that is in virtualization mode. Lauwert mentioned, "Our engineers and QA people were very concerned that enabling VT would expose our systems to malicious code that could go very deep in the Operating System structure of the PC and completely disable the latter." Is this indirectly hinting that using VT on Windows 7 isn't safe? We know not about this at the moment but Windows XP Mode RC testers would certainly come up with some insight on this matter.

Well, all those who had purchased Sony VAIO laptops for using Windows 7 (when it releases) on them won't be able to run Windows XP Mode on it. This ignited flames from grunting consumers to claim refunds on their Sony machines and also inquire about the models that will be sold with hardware virtualization disabled. Lauwert stated to relook the situation since the uproar might damage Sony VAIO's brand image. However, the VAIO Z series wouldn't be part of Sony's VT-enabling enabling effort.

It's unsure how Sony's going to take forward VT-enabling effort against the outage of disabled hardware virtualization bearing VAIO laptops.