XP Virtual in Win 7?

[Jeff H]

Guys,

I've searched the forum, and found nothing to address my question. So, here goes.

Currently running XP Pro SP3 on PhenomII 3.2GHz, 4GB, 1TB HD, 1GB video card. Looking to go to Win7, but have an app (MS Works 4.5a) that I have serious doubts will work in Win 7. With Win 7 Pro I can run a virtual XP machine.

First question - should I be leery that Works will not run in Win 7? Second question - should I expect any differences in how Works will run in an XP virtual environment between Win 7 32 bit and Win 7 64 bit?

All that aside, the reason Works is important to me is I run a flat file database in Works, which contains a lot data I don't want to recreate. So, third question could be - is there a database that I could run that would mimic the db in Works?

TIA,

Jeff

 

[Steltek]

You likely won't find anything to do a direct conversion of Works databases - Works' file formats were a mess (to the point where even Microsoft themselves never supported a direct conversion).

Here are some old Microsoft instructions on how to convert a Works database over to Microsoft Access 2000. The same process could likely work with other database tools since you'd essentially be opening your database in Works and saving it over to an intermediate format (like dBase III/IV/V) which has wide compatibility support among other database applications.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q197894

They ought to work with newer versions of Access, too. Who knows, it might even work with Libre Office with a little tweaking.

EDIT:

BTW, there is a thread by someone who got Works 4.5 working under Windows 7:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...o-my-new/995c5d88-1229-403c-9ae2-9b630508ad64

 

[Griffinhart]

Well, I can't speak to the Works to Access stuff, but, There is no reason i can think of that would prevent you from running XP in a virtual machine.

If you run Win 7 Pro you can run "XP Mode"
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-xp-mode

It's a VM with an XP license designed to let you run Legacy Windows apps under Windows 7. It will even let you run a specific app under the VM appear and work as if it were a native Win7 app.

Of course you could always use 3rd party VM software as well, but the advantage of XP mode is the free license of XP that it comes with.

 

[mikeymikec]

Guys,

I've searched the forum, and found nothing to address my question. So, here goes.

Currently running XP Pro SP3 on PhenomII 3.2GHz, 4GB, 1TB HD, 1GB video card. Looking to go to Win7, but have an app (MS Works 4.5a) that I have serious doubts will work in Win 7. With Win 7 Pro I can run a virtual XP machine.

First question - should I be leery that Works will not run in Win 7? Second question - should I expect any differences in how Works will run in an XP virtual environment between Win 7 32 bit and Win 7 64 bit?

Works 4.5a is seriously old, it predates Works 2000. However, when I googled for 'works 4.5a' a result came up saying along the lines of 'solved - works 4.5a on Win7', which you may want to check out.

I'm sure that someone you know has a newer copy of works that they're not using and they would give to you. I personally have about three different versions, can't they handle the files you need to work with (I'm not 100% sure but I think Works changed its file formats somewhere down the line). I've seen Works 6.0 work on Win7-64, but =>8.5 is your best bet for compatibility (I saw problems printing to HP printers in older versions on Win7).

All that aside, the reason Works is important to me is I run a flat file database in Works, which contains a lot data I don't want to recreate. So, third question could be - is there a database that I could run that would mimic the db in Works?

There's a db product in LibreOffice, though I've never really got into it, partly because it requires Java and I'd rather use sandpaper on a sensitive part of my body than install Java on my own machine

How much of Works's DB features do you use? Because most of its features can be done by a spreadsheet these days, and you should be able to export the db to CSV and import that into any competent spreadsheet product.

 

[Evander]

Can't newer versions of Works work w/ your database? Version 9 was the final version and was released in Vista's days

 

[lakedude]

Looks like OpenOffice (free) might be able to do it:

http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=66629

 

[Jeff H]

Guys,

Thanks for all the good replies/suggestions. I'll certainly look into the thread on Works in Win7, along w/ converting a Works db to a spreadsheet, as the only real function I use in the db is sorting. I'll also look for a newer version of Works.

 

[mikeymikec]

Yup, definitely a spreadsheet, if there is only one table (I think Works DB can only handle one table anyway). Excel or LibreOffice Calc can sort by multiple columns.

 

[Jeff H]

Guys,

Just saved the db to a csv file, then formatted and saved to Excel 2003. Nothing to it. There went the last reason for not converting to Win 7 <g>.

Jeff