Old programs won't work in 7

[cuginovin]

I tried to load several of my old programs in XP and they wouldn't load in Seven. I was told that If I upgraded to Win 7 Professional, they would work. Is this true?

 

[patio]

No way to tell unless you let us know what apps these are...

 

[alphanumeric]

Need some clarification here? When you say "Load" do you mean the programs won't install or won't run? Did you do a clean install of windows 7? Technically you can't upgrade from XP to Windows 7 and retain all of your previously installed programs, like you can if you do an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. You have to re-install them. If some of those apps are really old you may have to use compatibility mode. If they are really really old they just may not work.

 

[bobkn]

I tried to load several of my old programs in XP and they wouldn't load in Seven. I was told that If I upgraded to Win 7 Professional, they would work. Is this true?

I suppose that whoever mentioned Win7 Pro was thinking of "XP Mode". That's XP running in a virtual machine under Windows 7. It's included for free with Win7 Pro and Ultimate. (I believe that you can also do it under Win7 Home Premium, although you'd need to come up with a separate XP license.)

I have never used XP mode, but it was included so that companies could run older software rather than updating it for Win7.

 

[seavixen32]

Tutorial on Windows XP Mode here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8247-windows-xp-mode-install-setup.html

If you're considering using it you'll need to download Virtual PC and XP Mode.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/

Virtual PC creates a virtual computer that shares resources with the host computer (Windows 7) and XP Mode is installed to the Virtual PC.

 

[cuginovin]

Thanks for all replies. I had a Win7 machine and gave it away, because I couldn't load several of the old programs that I use...some are 4 data bases in an old Microsoft Works program, They won't convert to the New Works, Microgragfx Picture Publisher, Calendar Creator, Word Perfect 8 Office suite, and a couple of others... All of these will load in Windows Vista premium on my laptop. I hate the look of Win 7 and prefer the old Classic look. That works in Vista too.
I'm trying to prepare myself for when this computer dies...All the new computers have Win 7 only. If Win 7 is so good, why are they already working on 8.

I know I"ll get some static on this post from the Seven Lovers, but it isn't for all of us!

 

[mjf]

This is not meant as "static" or criticism in any way.
You have quite an ancient suite of software. I bet the old software suites you fine but sooner or latter you will need to bite the bullet and upgrade (money permitting). You may find some freeware alternatives to bridge the gap.

Edit: By the way I have been in exactly this situation. I had some old 16 bit software I would have needed to go:
{Windows 7 x64 bit - XPmode - Virtual PC} and then no guarantees.
I considered it time to move on.

 

[bobkn]

That sounds odd. I thought that compatibility for Win7 and Vista were almost identical.

I don't suppose that your Windows 7 machine was running the 64 bit version? That brings another level of compatibility issues. (One is that you can't install 16 bit applications, or a 32 bit application that uses 16 bit code in its installer.)

As regards the look of Windows 7, it's configurable. There were some XP features that were dropped, but if you wanted the Classic look, you could have pretty much had it.

Windows 7 went retail in October of 2009. Microsoft wants to release a new version of Windows about every 3 years. They were probably working on Windows 8 before Windows 7 became available.

Have you considered Linux? I've never tried it, but I believe that one of its strengths is maintaining support for old hardware and software. You'll have a learning curve there, but it could be a one-time thing, rather than being locked into the endless upgrade cycle of Windows (or the Mac OS).

 

[seavixen32]

It's a pity you gave the 7 machine away as you could have kept it and dual-booted it with XP, which would have given you the best of both worlds: you'd still be able to use your old applications with the advantage of benefiting from a good operating system for any new applications.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html