therwol Loc: USA

If the issue is that it's a 16 bit app, it will likely run in the 32 bit version of Win 10. The problem is that no one really uses the 32 bit version of 10. The RAM limitation is crippling. I have one old laptop that I've upgraded through XP, Vista, Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, all 32 bit. When it started acting weird, I put a clean install of Win 10 32 bit on it. I don't actually keep it to run ancient games, though it runs my wife's favorite 16 bit Scrabble game just fine. I keep it because of the Firewire input it has, and I still have some digital video to transfer. If I ever finish that, the machine goes.

After typing all of that, I might suggest installing the 32 bit version of Win 10 on a second partition or drive on one of your primary machines and trying to run your old software on it. If you have Win 10 64 bit already on the machine, it will activate just fine.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

True that 32-bit Win 10 or 7 can be made to run a 16-bit app. They can be installed on a dual-boot machine, and as virtual machines, in Win 10-64.

But....
I don't have 32-bit 7 or 10.

Even if I did, I don't like dual-booting, as it has complicated changing OSes or deleting one. I'm a tester/experimenter.

I use VirtualBox and have a virtual XP on one 10 machine, and the 3.1 program runs okay on it. But I've found that using USB devices, internal optical drives and other peripherals in a virtual machine is a hassle.

I have multiple laptops with easily-swappable hard drives, extra hard drive caddies, and a collection of hard drives I've accumulated over the years. This is how I can test OSes and software so as not to risk corrupting my primary computer. I have XP drives, 7 drives, Linux drives, extra 10 drives, all legal, legitimate, and activated.

SX2002 Loc: Adelaide, South Australia

I use 7 as well...doesn't worry me if they don't support it. I'll keep using it...I have my updates turned off any way..every time I downloaded one it shut my PC out of the internet, still had it to my modem though...had to do a restore every time. I thought it was just me but talking to others, they had the same problem. Even read a post on these pages about others having the same issue.

therwol Loc: USA

I'm not sure about Win 7, but if you have Win 10 activated on a machine, you can download Win 10, 32 or 64 bit with the Media Creation Tool. If you're running 64 bit, you tell it that you don't want the same version that's on your machine, and then it will let you download 32 bit. (You can download the ISO for burning to a DVD and I believe set up a USB stick as options.) If you have extra hard drives that are easy to swap, you can install 32 bit on one of them, and because you've only changed the hard drive and not anything else, it should still activate on the same machine. The message is that it's free. I think it gets more complicated with virtual machines where the OS can't really see the actual hardware. I've been there. I've never had good luck with virtual machines, mostly VMWare. You've got two operating systems running at the same time eating up resources and slowing things down. They don't always work seamlessly with some peripherals.

All of my operating systems on several computers are legal and activated. When I was working, people in the IT department would give Enterprise versions of Windows to their friends. I tried to explain to someone the risk to the corporation, talking to deaf ears. I won't go into how corporations and Microsoft now keep track of activations and can be fined heavily if the numbers purchased don't match the numbers used and someone realizes that non-company computers are being activated. I passed on this trap several times.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Two people in this world that actually liked Vista. It was almost as much of a disaster as ME but to each his own... 😏

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

That many???

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

As my oldest daughter is fond of saying:

“I know, right?”

Lol

therwol Loc: USA

Vista was too bloated for the hardware generally available at the time. It ran like a snail on machines that just flew along with XP. There were articles in abundance concerning how to turn off everything you didn't need running in the background. A simplified view of Windows 7 is that it is Vista with the bloat removed. I believe they're based on the same code.

carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

Why did you what so long ??

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Why did who wait so long???

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Even the self-appointed kings of all that is are not immune to retardation Therwol. I love my iPhone but why should you have to turn off things that are unnecessary (my opinion, of course) and annoying and WHY, two Ios updates ago, did they take out the left and right arrows from the keyboard?

Oh yeah, it was to bloat the os with more stuff that most of us won’t use. 😏

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Side tracked did we get?

therwol Loc: USA

Windows 8 came into being during the initial tablet craze, and Microsoft bet that everyone would prefer and therefore use touch enabled PCs. Wrong, of course. The uproar was deafening. Anyone who needed to do heavy data input, even heavy typing, still needed a mouse and keyboard. This was nearly everyone who used their computers at a desk at work. Not a trivial number of people.

You could set Windows 8 to boot to the desktop view, but you had to use third party software like Classic Shell to get a "normal" start menu. The sad thing is that under the hood, Windows 8 was an improvement over Windows 7, very solid. It was just difficult to use, even after getting used to its quirks.

Windows 10 gives the best of both worlds. If you want a "classic" start menu, you still have to install something like Classic Shell, but the start menu that is given is usable.

There are many reasons why people hate Windows 10, some having to do with privacy issues. MS tries to keep track of everything you do like never before. I won't go into how to turn most of that off because it would involve a lot of typing, but it's on the internet.

Microsoft makes it clear from the beginning how long they will support an operating system, and they are under no obligation to extend that support, though they did with XP when businesses complained that they didn't have enough time to switch their large enterprises to something newer. That support finally went away, as will the support for Windows 7.

But other users are right. Windows 7 computers will not suddenly die when support ends. Since there won't be any further security patches at that time, care must be taken when connected to the internet. (Don't click on links in unknown e-mail. Don't open attachments unless you know who sent them to you. Make sure your antivirus software is up to date. You may have to resort to third party antivirus software. Anti-malware software may also be useful.)

Or just use your Windows 7 computers for things you can do offline.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍 well said.

Almostageezer Loc: USA

Windows 7 made it easy for me to switch away from Mac OS.