Sony :: Why It Disabled Intel VT In VAIO Laptops

Sony VAIO product manager, Xavier Lauwaert, addressed the issue on the Windows Partner blog. His post [answers] to a specific comment about the lack of VT capability provides an astonishing explanation and fix roadmap:

It's great that Sony are "looking forward to leveraging [Windows 7] on their platforms." However some of their recent laptops are unable to leverage all the features of Windows 7.

Sony's decision to disable Virtualization Technology on the Intel chips on their high-end notebooks makes little sense when you consider that these machines are targeted at business consumers. It was also annoying to find this out _after_ I had bought the machine, since none of the pre-sales literature mentioned it.

Even more so when you realise that Windows 7 will include a virtual Windows XP installation to provide backwards compatibility. This will run with impaired performance on any Sony laptop where VT has been disabled. I would be interested to know what the Windows 7 team think about Sony crippling their customer’s ability to use their carefully constructed backwards compatibility feature?..........