If you have Win 7 Pro, Ultimate or Enterprise, you can download XP Mode at no cost, and that would give you a copy of 32 bit Windows XP running in a Virtual Machine inside of Windows 7, so you could install your old software inside of XP running under Win 7. If they're 32 bit, you may be able to use some older 16 bit software by using the compatibility mode settings available.īut, if you're running 64 Bit versions of Vista and Windows 7, your best bet would be to install XP in a Virtual Machine to run your older software. IOW, let us know if your Vista and Win 7 installs are 64 bit or 32 bit. I'd give users more info about your existing computers and their operating systems for starters.
64 bit Operating Systems can run 32 bit programs, but they are unable to run 16 bit programs (and again, many 32 bit programs used 16 bit installers, which would not run in a 64 Bit version of Windows).
You can't run 16 bit programs on a 64 bit version of Vista, Win 7 or Win 8, period. A lot of older programs (and their installers) designed to run on Operating Systems like Windows 95 or 98 were either 16 bit programs, or 32 bit programs using 16 bit installers. Be sure to backup before making changes to your disk. If for some reason, though, your motherboard doesn't support hardware virtualization then yes, dedicating a separate partition would be the better option. Lastly, it's just not as convenient as a Virtual Machine There's also a risk of losing your Windows partition if you resize it to create a new partition. There are also some inherent risks of destroying the MBR or accidentally formatting the wrong partition if you install on the same disk, though they aren't common if you pay attention to what you are doing. The drawbacks would be the inability to use your current version of Windows at the same time. Third, you'll be able to confirm that all of your hardware works in Windows 7 圆4. Second, you'll have no overhead from virtual or emulated hardware. First you'll be able to take advantage of 3D acceleration and Aero (given you have the proper DirectX 9 capable graphics card, with exception to the Intel 910 and 915 series). There are some positive sides to installing on a separate partition over virtualization. Hopefully you don't have a motherboard that wouldn't allow you to enable this feature. Usually it's called "Hardware Virtualization", "Virtualization", or something synonymous to virtualization. Forgive me if I didn't make myself clear initially. You should be able to enable it in the BIOS setup.
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