

There’s even a Program Compatibility Troubleshooter that will attempt to automatically find the correct compatibility mode settings for your program. This won’t always allow every old program to work, but it’s worth a shot. You can choose the version of Windows that the program run under - Windows will try to trick that program into thinking it’s running on the old version of Windows. Right-click a program’s shortcut, select Properties, and click the Compatibility tab. Use Windows’ Compatibility Settings: Windows has built-in compatibility mode settings that can help get programs working. RELATED: Using Program Compatibility Mode in Windows 7 There are ways you can run these programs anyway. You may have a business-critical application you need to run or may want to play an old PC game. While you should avoid very old software if at all possible, sometimes you just can’t. As Microsoft and other operating system vendors improve their operating systems, old programs are gradually left behind unless they’re updated. Breakage should be expected when running ancient Windows applications on modern versions of Windows. Programs are designed to run on current versions of Windows, not versions of Windows that may exist 20 years in the future. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it should help you understand some of the issues involved. Windows tries to trick old programs into running under limited user accounts, but this doesn’t always fix every problem.

Security Issues: Old programs aren’t used to modern Windows security features and may not play nice with limited user accounts and UAC.Old Library Dependencies: Some programs may have depended on ancient libraries that are no longer included in Windows or may have depended on other old programs that also don’t work properly on new versions of Windows.The Command Prompt window is an incomplete compatibility feature, not a full DOS system. Complicated DOS software and games that depended on real mode DOS won’t be able to run natively on modern versions of Windows. DOS Software: Since Windows XP, consumer versions of Windows are no longer built on top of DOS.This was removed from 64-bit versions of Windows, so those old Windows 3.1 programs won’t run at all. 16-bit Programs: 32-bit versions of Windows contain a 16-bit emulation environment that allows old Windows 3.1 software to run.Programs Refuse to Run: Some programs may refuse to install if they notice they’re being run on a version of Windows they don’t know about.We’ve already covered the high-level explanation, but here are some low-level details that could prevent programs from running properly:
