Old Windows Software -- The Likelihood of Full Operability in Win 7 or 8

[BonzaiDuck]

Every couple years, I rifle through my CD/DVD boxes to further organize OS and software installation discs -- in case I'll ever need them. In this process, I also throw away software that has been upgraded or replaced, or otherwise lapsed into total obsolescence.

But I discover things that might have continued use. For instance, I had made a collection of digital dictionaries, including the two recognized universally for scholarship: the OED, and the Webster's 3rd New International.

For some of these, like the Webster's 3rd, I upgraded the software to the latest version, with less thought about platforms. I just now discovered the earlier version amid my optical disc archives.

Is there any hard and fast rule for current OS operability pertaining to Windows software from the Win-95, Win-98, Win-2000 or XP eras?

 

[code65536]

Is there any hard and fast rule for current OS operability pertaining to Windows software from the Win-95, Win-98, Win-2000 or XP eras?

No. It's very specific to what the program does and how it does it.

Programs written by good programmers who actually read the MSDN docs and follow the guidelines and whatnot should remain compatible indefinitely. Sometimes, though, a well-written program might still have a bug that was hidden but was then later exposed (e.g.).

The best way to know is to try it. I have some programs from the 90's that still work fine on 8.1.

And if they do break... well, that's what VMs are for, right? Hell, even the Bay Trail Atom in my 8.1 tablet has VT-x support.

 

[cubby1223]

There is no "hard and fast rule". Try it and see. Most software works. The stuff that doesn't may interface with hardware devices in ways that are not allowed anymore. Or you run into an issue where, the size of hard drives when it was written were just approaching 1gb in size, and the software wasn't written to accurately read the free space of a 1tb drive and kicks back there is not enough free space available. Some very old software was written before cache memory, and how they were written, produce errors when cache memory became available in newer computers.

Or if they were written in a framework that is no longer available, a common example are apps written in early versions of .net framework that Microsoft doesn't make available in Win7 & above.

For DOS software, the dosbox emulator does a very good job.

 

[mirageracerx]

dosbox or my virtual PC. good luck

 

[Imaginer]

No. It's very specific to what the program does and how it does it.

Programs written by good programmers who actually read the MSDN docs and follow the guidelines and whatnot should remain compatible indefinitely. Sometimes, though, a well-written program might still have a bug that was hidden but was then later exposed (e.g.).

The best way to know is to try it. I have some programs from the 90's that still work fine on 8.1.

And if they do break... well, that's what VMs are for, right? Hell, even the Bay Trail Atom in my 8.1 tablet has VT-x support.

For sugars and grins, I ran the standalone .exe of Skifree (redone for XP from the 16bit program where I first got acquainted with it) on Windows 8.1 64bit. Ran just fine.

Much more complex programs may have caveats, but it comes down to installing it and trying it, and if not working right away, setting various compatibility modes or placing in the Visual C++ Redistributables needed or .NET framework that it uses.

Though, a general rule of thumb for me, is that if it is good in Vista, it is good onwards. There was a time (if I remember correctly) where I had to find Vista drivers for 7 and it worked with no problems (I think it was for a scanner I had). XP, to a less certain extent, may work but not a greater sure guarantee. Anything for Windows 95/98/ME shouldn't be expected to work in my opinion.