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#11
Software compatibility
Microsoft is aware that users of Windows want to run older programs, though, so if you have a favourite program or game from yesteryear that won’t launch in Windows 7, there are a few tools that can help get it working.
Click Start, then All Programs and find the program’s shortcut in the list. Right-click on the shortcut, select properties then the Shortcut tab and click on the Open File Location button. The highlighted file in the window that opens will be the program’s executable file.
Next, right-click on it and select ‘Troubleshoot compatibility’. This will launch Windows 7’s compatibility wizard – follow the steps to see if Windows can automatically detect and fix any problems.
If that doesn’t work, try right-clicking on the file again. This time select Properties, followed by the Compatibility tab. Here you will find a number of manual compatibility options. The trick is to experiment with these settings until you get a satisfactory result. Under where it says ‘Compatibility mode’, put a tick in the box and then choose an appropriate version of Windows from the dropdown menu.