Windows 7: Can't Install Older Software Versions

Three days ago, I bought a new pc because my 5 year old pc with XP was finally failing, in addition to being slower. I don't particularly like Windows 7, but I could accept it if I could continue using my older software which worked on Windows versions 95 through XP. After trying to install my older software on Windows 7, with no success, I learned that Windows 7 Home Premium, which I have, is not compatible with any of my older software, which I used constantly. I was told that I would either have to spend almost $100 for Windows 7 Professional, just to install older software or purchase newer versions of my software. Well, my favorite photo editing software (Ulead iPhoto Plus) is no longer available and what is available on the internet under that name is not the same software. This old software does everything I want, need and more, for my photos and it was very important for me personally and for my business. My WordPerfect software (older version), also very important and used a lot, doesn't install. I can buy a newer version for over $100 (prefer not to). There are free word processors on the internet, but I cannot find one that is just as good as WordPerfect, free or purchased, and that includes Word, which I had the opportunity to use on a regular basis where I formerly worked. It simply didn't stand up to WordPerfect which I continued to use at home and I gave Word a fair chance to win me over, but it didn't. I have more older software programs that I used, and can't install on Windows 7. I don't understand why Microsoft would do this to it's customers with Windows 7 and older software. I'm hoping Microsoft will realize the problem they caused by making Windows 7 incompatible with older software and provide a fix or patch to correct this. Anyone know if this will happen? Thanks.

Download the free application "Virtual Box" virtual machine software and setup a virtual machine then install windows xp. Once xp is installed into the VM you can load all your xp apps. If you want the best VM software and are willing to shell out some cash then go with VMWare's Workstation (much matter)

If neither of those two are the way you want to go then hop over to the Tutorial section here on the forums and read up on installing xp along with 7 doing a dual boot.

BTW, "Welcome to the Seven Forums." . .

Hi Janesdf, welcome to the Seven Forums.

As Lee already told, you can run most of your legacy applications on an XP virtual machine in VirtualBox, free download here. If you want to test the VMware solution for virtualization, they also have a free version called VMware Player, free download here.

That said, I want to tell you I disagree with your statement. Like everything else in life and this world of ours, computers, too, are developing. New technology makes it possible to do more with less, handle documents, images and videos in a way we could only dream in 10 - 15 years ago. One key factor to this evolution of computing is computer architecture. Some of your older software might be designed to use 16-bit architecture which makes it really difficult to computer and operating system manufacturers; it's simply not a sound business decision to take all old software and users in consideration. There would be too many compromises, end result would make everybody unhappy.

Remember, IBM released the first PC not 30 years ago, Microsoft published Windows 95 some 15 years ago, a few years after birth of the World Wide Web. Compared to for instance cars, demanding that support for 15 year old software should continue is about the same than demanding that Ford still should produce parts to that pick-up of mine from late 40's, or that broadcasters should still send my favorite shows using old enough technology for me to be able to receive the signal with a TV-set my grandpa bought for Christmas 59.

Read more about computer architecture, processors and bits:
Microprocessor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Computer Architecture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here are two links that might interest you:

• Paint.Net

  An excellent free application to create, edit, manipulate and correct all kind of images

• OpenOffice.org

  Maybe the best available free integrated office suite

  Includes wordprocessor Write, spreadsheet application Calc, presentation application Impress, graphics editing Draw and database program Base

You have found your way here to the Seven Forums. We are at the moment over 100,000 volunteers from all continents, all around the world, learning together to use this marvelous new operating system called Windows 7. Not all of us were happy in the beginning, some of us will never be happy with Seven. But at least this is the best place to try to adapt, to find out what to do when your old methods and tools no longer meet the demands of the modern day.

Never humble, mostly honest, always sincere,

Kari

The extra $100 for Windows 7 Pro is for XP mode, which is running XP in a virtual machine. I imagine that the performance would be slower than running XP natively, but the new PC is probably enough faster than your old one that it'd be OK.

I'm not sure whether XP mode would solve driver incompatibility issues, but I expect that it would not. I hope that wouldn't be an issue for you.

Windows Vista was probably incompatible with your old software. It was released in January of 2007. That suggests how likely it is that Microsoft will build an OS that maintains backwards compatibility with all third party software published since 1995.

Perhaps the most satisying course for you would be to go back to XP. That would require you to come up with a copy of the OS, which (I think) is no longer available at retail. (It's readily available on eBay.) You'd also need drivers for your new PC. They may well exist - my new company workstation has XP Pro, and it's up-to-date hardware (quad core Xeon, Socket 1366).

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for responding to my Windows 7 concerns.

I downloaded OpenOffice and though it opens my WordPerfect documents, it doesn't offer the same features as WordPerfect. In addition, many of my WordPerfect documents included graphics and OpenOffice removed all of them, changed the fonts (some of the fonts included in WordPerfect are not available in OpenOffice, including the font used for my business). Actually, OpenOffice reminds me more of Word.

I also downloaded Paint.net, tried it and it is very close to my old iPhoto software, so it looks like Paint.net will work. Thanks for suggesting it.

My old pc came with WinXP pre-installed, so I don't have a disc copy of WinXP to install after downloading "virtual box", but I might find a copy on ebay. However, after reading bobkn's comments, it sounds as if I won't really know if it will work until I go through the process.

To Kari, I have to disagree with your comments, specifically in regard to cars and tv programs. New TVs can still receive old TV programs and movies (especially with cable or satellite). Radio stations will play and some are exclusively dedicated to playing music from the last century, and classical music is even older, and you can easily find stations playing it. As for cars, well, there are lots of old cars (decades) on the road with parts still available to keep them running and more than enough people who prefer old cars. You see them on the road in every one of the US states and more than enough old car enthusiasts. Windows 7 is new technology, but in this case, it cannot run my older software, so, your analogies don't apply. Jane

Hello Janesdf,

Just a couple of things, you might find useful.

1) If you plan to buy a copy of XP, you can simply install that on your new computer, replacing the Windows 7 it came with instead of running it in virtual mode. To do this, you can backup the Windows 7 install as an image using free tools, so you dont loose the OS you paid for and can revert to Windows 7 anytime in the future. If this interests you, please ask and our imaging and install gurus will help out.

2) It seems WP is very important for you. I came across this thread that discusses the problem (though i dont exactly which version of WP you have).

Older version of Word Perfect 5.1 will not display in full screen mode

It also has a link to a website which is dedicated to running WP on various windows editions:

WordPerfect for DOS Updated

3) Support for XP will be phased out by 2014. That means security patches and hotfixes will no longer will be released by MS after that for this OS. So after that migration to a new OS will become a necessity.