Getting Programs to Work Using Old Hard Drive

[Jim in Spokane]

I have a new eMachine D620-5133, Model No. MS2257, which is made by Acer.
The operating system is Window Vista Home Basic SP-1 and it has a 32-bit
operating system. I connected the hard drive from my old Dell with Windows
98 to my new computer. I used an Airlink101 3.5†USB 2.0 SATA/IDE HDD
Enclosure, Model AEN-U35SE to make the connection. I am able to access the
files on the old hard drive, but the programs don’t work. The whole point
was to be able to use MS Word in the old format, rather than the new format,
which looks completely different. Other programs don’t work, either. What
can I do to make them work? Does anybody have any idea how to solve my
problem?

 

[Gordon]

I have a new eMachine D620-5133, Model No. MS2257, which is made by Acer.
The operating system is Window Vista Home Basic SP-1 and it has a 32-bit
operating system. I connected the hard drive from my old Dell with
Windows
98 to my new computer. I used an Airlink101 3.5†USB 2.0 SATA/IDE HDD
Enclosure, Model AEN-U35SE to make the connection. I am able to access
the
files on the old hard drive, but the programs don’t work. The whole point
was to be able to use MS Word in the old format, rather than the new
format,
which looks completely different. Other programs don’t work, either.
What
can I do to make them work? Does anybody have any idea how to solve my
problem?

Two things - a) you can't run Office applications from an external drive or
a slave drive (and many other applications come to that) and b) you need to
re-install them on the new computer to use them. Why would you think
otherwise?

 

[Jim in Spokane]

Dear Gordon,

I would think otherwise because it only seems reasonable that I paid for the
software and I ought to be able to continue using it. Why is that illogical
or wrong? I tried re-installing the programs as you suggested, but little
messages with obscure objections kept popping up --- such and such is
missing, etc. --- and nothing works. Maybe it's because the software was
designed for Windows 98 and I'm using Windows Vista. I'm sure you know
better than I as to why none of this works, but I'm guessing the root cause
is the desire of Microsoft to sell more software. Understanding this and
assuming that is what I need to do, I'm willing to pay. But the software
that's offered is so different from what I'm used to in the case of MS Word
that there's no point. So are you're telling me there is no solution to my
problem?

 

[David Vair]

One way to do this is to download VitualPC, install a Windows98 Virtual
Machine and then install the older version of Word into this.

 

[Gordon]

Dear Gordon,

I would think otherwise because it only seems reasonable that I paid for
the
software and I ought to be able to continue using it. Why is that
illogical
or wrong? I tried re-installing the programs as you suggested, but little
messages with obscure objections kept popping up --- such and such is
missing, etc. --- and nothing works. Maybe it's because the software was
designed for Windows 98 and I'm using Windows Vista. I'm sure you know
better than I as to why none of this works, but I'm guessing the root
cause
is the desire of Microsoft to sell more software. Understanding this and
assuming that is what I need to do, I'm willing to pay. But the software
that's offered is so different from what I'm used to in the case of MS
Word
that there's no point. So are you're telling me there is no solution to
my
problem?

There may be a solution. As you have found out - there can be problems
installing and running old legacy programs in Vista. (Certainly programs
designed for Windows 98 - that's two versions ago and XP was MUCH more
forgiving to legacy software).
What you need to do is to do Start-Help and Support and in the search box
type in "Compatibility" (without the quotes). One of the options that comes
up (it's no 6 on mine) is
"Make older programs run on this version of Windows". Read that and see if
that helps.

 

[Manny Weisbord]

Dear Gordon,

I would think otherwise because it only seems reasonable that I paid for the
software and I ought to be able to continue using it. Why is that illogical
or wrong? I tried re-installing the programs as you suggested, but little
messages with obscure objections kept popping up --- such and such is
missing, etc. --- and nothing works. Maybe it's because the software was
designed for Windows 98 and I'm using Windows Vista. I'm sure you know
better than I as to why none of this works, but I'm guessing the root cause
is the desire of Microsoft to sell more software.

No. The software doesn't work because:

1) it's not reasonable to expect MS to make every freaking OS 100%
backwards-compatible.

2) the authors of the software have stopped updating it to current
standards.

3) MOST software requires that it be installed in the current OS...
which won't be possible if it's too old.

It has nothing to do with MS wanting to sell more software.

 

[LVTravel]

I have a new eMachine D620-5133, Model No. MS2257, which is made by Acer.
The operating system is Window Vista Home Basic SP-1 and it has a 32-bit
operating system. I connected the hard drive from my old Dell with
Windows
98 to my new computer. I used an Airlink101 3.5†USB 2.0 SATA/IDE HDD
Enclosure, Model AEN-U35SE to make the connection. I am able to access
the
files on the old hard drive, but the programs don’t work. The whole point
was to be able to use MS Word in the old format, rather than the new
format,
which looks completely different. Other programs don’t work, either.
What
can I do to make them work? Does anybody have any idea how to solve my
problem?

In addition to all the other posts, when a program as sophisticated as
Office is installed onto a computer it puts links into the operating system
control files (in this case the registry) to enable the program to use the
facilities of the operating system better. Since the program wasn't
installed onto your Vista system those links do not exist and Vista doesn't
know about the program. Some of your other programs will have the same
limitation.

Which version of Office are you trying to install? Have you uninstalled any
trial version of Office 2007 prior to attempting to install an older version
of Office? Some people have indicated that they have installed Office '97
onto Vista but I have not successfully installed it yet.

 

[Richard Urban]

1. The program MUST be "installed" onto the computer where you wish to
use the program.

2. If the version of Office is older than Office 2003 you will/may have
problems even if you do install it onto the new computer.

3. Upgrade to the latest version of Office or one of the FREE (but not
100% compatible) alternates, such as Open Office 3.1