using older programmes

i have recently purchased a new laptop which seemed the bees knees, but it has a Windows 7, 64 bit O/S. I hadn't realised that this would give me real problems loading my older software. I have two other machines running the software quite happily and naturally I want to use the same ones on my new machine. The operating system is Windows 7 home premium, has anyone any ideas on how I can use my programmes on this machine? perhaps by a conversion to 32 bit to use them? Any help would be appreciated.

peterwith

Hi peterwith!
Welcome to the forums!
Ok, so there are a few options to make it work.
You can try running the softwares in compatibility mode. To do so, right-click on the file and select properties. Then navigate to the "compatibility" tab and you can choose to run it in compability mode for the other windows version.
If that doesn't work, you can upgrade to Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate to run the softwares in XP mode, which is always 32bit.

Have a look at this thread: Windows7 64bits upgrade to 32bits

Cheers,
Fire Cat

Thanks for your reply, I will have a go at what you have suggested. To upgrade the operating system is one answer but having only just bought the machine pre-loaded that would be a bigger step. Thanks again.
Regards.

If you have a legal copy of windows xp laying around you can install it in virtualbox and accomplish the same thing as XP mode... The difference? Virtualbox is free and you don't have to upgrade the the more expensive Pro or Ultimate just so you can use XP mode.
Now keep in mind that you need a legal copy of windows XP, XP home edition runs around $60 now adays I could be wrong though.

I'm still looking for an easy way to load my older app's into Win7 64bit. Why wasn't a solution included. I wonder how many 10's of thousands of us are stuck with good 32 bit prog's that we now can't access. I have discs of just clip art that Win 7 won't open. 150,000 clips arts to the bin? What a bummer. Simple Solutions I look forward to reading, Tx.

What format is the clip art in? You could try searching or someone here might suggest a free downlaod program (there are many) that could open your clip art files for you.

If the old software is 16-bit software then it cannot run in a 64-bit OS. This issue can likely be solved switching to the 32-bit W7 OS but I personally discourage this because 64 is the future and you are holding back your system (including limiting the maximum available memory to approx 3.25GB). Consider the Virtual PC or VirtualBox option instead (more on this below).

There isn't actually a lot of non-gaming 32-bit software that won't run in W7. If the old software is definitely 32-bit (not 16-bit that you just had running in 32-bit XP) then there is the possibility you could install this software as well as execute it in compatibility mode ... right click on the exe and edit the properties to run in the most recent OS on which it will function: example Vista SP2 or XP SP3.

If you are still having problems there is the ability to run a virtual environment ... basically under Windows 7 you can run a copy of XP (or Vista, or other OS). As firecat mentioned, Virtual PC - XP mode is a free download from Microsoft if you have Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise (in this case you do not need a license for XP). If you have Home Premium or Starter or if you simply prefer it you can install Oracles VirtualBox (free w/ registration) but you will need your own licensed copy of XP (or whatever OS) to install in VirtualBox plus your hardware must allow virtualization.

Here was Microsoft's advice for Vista - it still holds for W7