Windows 7: Buying Advice, Bittedness

I'm not sure where to post this, but if it belongs elsewhere, I hope someone will tell me.

I'm in the process of purchasing a new system for a family member, and I have found a vendor who will sell me the system with EITHER the 64 bit or the 32 bit version of Windows 7 installed. In broad general terms, I understand the advantage of 64 bit over 32 bit--ability to use more memory, better performance, expecially on applications designed for 64 bit systems, etc. However, here is my dilemma. This family member has a couple of old DOS programs she uses regularly, and three or four old 16 bit Windows programs. She does NOT use any particularly resource intensive applications--photo editing, video editing, etc. She uses mostly Microsof Office and IBM Lotus data base, spreadsheets, word processing, etc, and of course, accesses the internet and does e-mail. So with that introduction, my questions:

1. Can I assume that if I opt for the 32 bit version of Windows 7, she will be able to install and use her old 16 bit Windows programs?

2. Same question for the old DOS programs, (which run just fine on her current Windows XP System)?

3. A special question concerning Outlook Express. She is used to using OE, and of course, has all her current e-mail in Outlook Express. If I get the 32 bit version of Windows 7, will it run Outlook Express OK? And if so, how exactly do I go about getting Outlook Express installed on the system? I'm assuming that the system will come with IE 9 installed, and that Outlook Express is NOT provided with IE 9. Assuming that it will run at all, how would I get it installed, or would I need to install an older version of IE to get OE to work? I realize that there are other e-mail solutions--Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, etc. But IF I could get OE to work, it would be much simpler, since it would not require any conversion of existing e-mail files, and she is already familiar with it.

Any help on any of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

PS. I AM aware of the XP Mode solution (use it myself on my own system). But it is a level of complexity that I would rather avoid with this family member of possible.

Hi,

I see SeaVixen is probably busy with a reply, so I'll concentrate on the Outlook Express question.

The only way to run Outlook Express is using XP Mode in either Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate:

How to use OE in Windows 7

If you use Windows 7 Home Premium, then you could install XP as a virtual machine and then run Outlook Express in that.

My recommendation would be to shift from Outlook Express and go with Thunderbird.

Regards,
Golden

Windows Mail is very much like Outlook Express and might be a better migration path.

My girlfriend liked Outlook Express and when I lost that I downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird which is very similiar to OE. You might give that a try.

Golden--

Thanks. I'm familiar with Thunderbird (been using it myself since I got the Win 7 System). But migrating my OE mail to TB initially was a hassle. Since I figure I'll end up doing it, I was looking for something with a faster/easier transition. But I have a hunch she'd have more trouble with XP Mode than with the transition to TB, so, depending on what else I get in the way of answers (regarding the DOS and 16 bit Windows programs), I'll probably go with TB.

Ztrucker--

Thanks. I'll take another look at Windows Mail. But a couple of folks have told me that they had problems with it. But it's worth another look.

Bigmc--

Thanks. I use TB myself, so I am familar with it. Though it can be a bit quirky at times (I've had to clean out my .msf files a few times when the program got sluggish). But right now, it looks like our best alternative to OE.