Old Games on Vista

I'm sure this question has been asked before. However, is there a way to get
older Windows 95, 98 and/or XP programs to run on a Vista computer? I can't
even get them to load.

John Sisker
jsisker@sprynet.com

John Sisker wrote:

> I'm sure this question has been asked before. However, is there a way to
> get older Windows 95, 98 and/or XP programs to run on a Vista computer? I
> can't even get them to load.

It depends on the game. You can try installing/running the game in
Compatibility Mode. Look in Vista's Help & Support for details.

If the game will not work even in Compatibility Mode, if the game doesn't
use 3D acceleration you may be able to run it virtualized. This is done by
installing a program like Virtual PC 2007 (free) or VMware Workstation (not
free but I like it better) and then creating a virtual machine running
whatever operating system you need. You must have a licensed copy of that
operating system of course. You can get information about VPC/VMware by
going to their respective websites and reading about virtualization. To
give you an example of virtualization, I'm writing this post to you using
SUSE Linux which is running in a virtual machine on my MacBook (OS X).

The third way is to multi-boot your computer with different operating
systems. This can be harder in some cases than virtualization because you
must have drivers for all your hardware that support the older operating
system and some OEM computers do not. So you need to do your research
there.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!