How to Run an Older Program in Windows

Windows 11, 10, 7

Windows 11, 10, 7 uses a special technique for running older programs.

Open an Explorer window and navigate to the .EXE file for the program. Then...

• Right click on the program file (the .EXE or .COM file).

• Select Properties from the menu that pops up (#1).

• Select the Compatibility Tab in the dialog.

• Change the options so the program opens in Windows 8 - 95 compatibility mode. Note the other options in the dialog as you may have to experiment a bit and change some of them as well (#2).

• If this doesn't work, then try checking the "Run the program as an administrator" box (#3). This defeats the security in Windows however and should be a last resort.

If you are concerned with running older DOS programs you may need an emulator or virtual computer (see below). Older DOS-based programs, in order to speed up the display, wrote directly to the computer's hardware. These, Windows will not allow to run at all.

DOSBox

There is another developing option for running older DOS programs under newer Windows operating systems: the DOSBox project. DOSBox emulates an Intel x86 PC.

https://www.dosbox.com/news.php?show_news=1

FreeDOS

An MS-DOS emulator called FreeDOS can be downloaded as an ISO file that can be burned to a CD and used as a boot disc so the computer is then running DOS. While you will likely not be able to correctly access your hard disk if it's an NTFS formatted disk this is another option for running older software on a new computer.

http://www.freedos.org/

If these suggestions don't work for you, you are back to finding a computer with an older operating system.