Você pode executar SecurAble para determinar se sua máquina possui recursos de virtualização de hardware.
Se o seu computador não tiver essa marca verde, o modo XP não funcionará. Você também precisa de alguns recursos extras para virtualizar coisas também.
Trecho do GRC:
• How does Hardware Virtualization help with security?
“Virtual Machine” technology is used to create fully contained environments that can be used to insulate the real hosting operating system from any actions taken by software running within the “virtual” environment. Although this security benefiting virtual machine technology has been used for many years, its widespread adoption has been slowed down by the significant performance overhead imposed by software emulation of the virtual environment. Intel's and AMD's native hardware support for virtual machines means that virtually all of this emulation overhead can be eliminated from both the host and virtual environments. This makes the use of virtual machines for security containment much more practical.*
The second benefit of hardware support is that even malicious software running with maximum privileges in the system's kernel is unable to escape from virtual containment. Thus, hardware support for virtual machine technology introduces the possibility of creating a “hypervisor” to operate at a hardware-enforced level below the operating system “supervisor” which opens many exciting possibilities for further enhancing the system's security. It will likely be several years before these capabilities are offered natively within Windows, but we might expect to see third-party security software publishers taking advantage of these features in the near future.
Para responder às suas perguntas:
1. Ao ler isto, acho que requer HV devido a motivos de segurança.
2. Bem, se o seu HV ausente, então não vai funcionar.