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Hey guys been thinking about this for a long time actually and wanted to get a second opinion about this. I am no expert in the line of having multiple Operating Systems and so on but I wanted support for some old games/software I have needed to use for some time.

There are a bunch of old applications that either work partially on my Windows 7, or not at all and was wondering what the success rate or opinion would be regarding another added OS? Not for core use of my time but if I had things or specific programs I wanted to run that 7 no longer supported, is this a valid option and use of my time? I had been looking at getting the full version of 98, or XP installed (with all the partitioning stuff to go with it) so that I might be able to run software in one of those versions if all else fails.

Opinions and links to other sites that cover this topic would be awsome. Thanks in advance.

You'll have a lot of trouble getting win98 to run on any recent pc. Xp will still work, of course.
Try virtual. Virtual xp on windows 7 (prof version only iirc) or virtualbox. Succes rate is mixed. Nothing is guaranteed.

Never heard of virtualbox, but just on a basic search about it reveals a bit more. I was interested in predating XP slightly but XP may just have to work since it ran most my old programs before I upgraded.

Epifire wrote:Never heard of virtualbox, but just on a basic search about it reveals a bit more. I was interested in predating XP slightly but XP may just have to work since it ran most my old programs before I upgraded.

Virtual box creates a virtual pc on which you can install different osses (like win98, xp, linux, osx, etc). Mostly for experimenting, but you can run most programs on it. Virtualbox even has (limited) 3d support. I'm told someone was able to run doom3 on xp on virtualbox on xp. Or something like that. Its inception man.

Sounds intense. Isn't there a way to also chose which installed OS to use on reboot? I heard there was a way of doing that, although the Virtualbox sounds more quick and accessable.

I know from experience it sucks having to restart your pc everytime you need to switch from gameA to gameB because one is only compatible with an older OS. Whereas in virtualbox or virtualpc you can even enable seamless mode; Basically, you start your program in your current windows and on the background the virtual pc kicks in and starts your program in a virtual os. Multiboot OSses really isn't that great, trust me.

You could always try running the software in compatibility mode?

Do note that the virtual OS will be far slower than a real installation.

Obviously using a virtual OS to do something demanding like playing games or compiling maps will drastically slower.

Gary wrote:Do note that the virtual OS will be far slower than a real installation.

Obviously using a virtual OS to do something demanding like playing games or compiling maps will drastically slower.

I understand your point, but these titles and programs will usually be ran exclusively on their own and are mainly my nostalgia kicking in when I want to play something very old.

This is the kind of stuff where either a whole installation will not work, or I get a lot of glitches and bad displays because the stuff I wanna run is so old.

If you're planning to install an older OS on a machine that has a newer OS, you'll need to modify your Master boot record manually.

The old Os will overwrite it on installation and since it doesn't know the newer OS it won't be available anymore.
Make sure to do some research on that topic before the installation.

I got winxp and win7 on the same machine and once i had to reinstall xp, kinda fun.

Yeah this is part of my research in action. Kinda makes me wonder how on earth some programs would try and run on 98. I doubt my Steam would run on it, but one good thing about Steam is that when there is a really old game added to it the developer company usually moddifies the game to run on newer OS systems.

There are some old mod tools among my Star Wars Battlefront modding days among some old titles that do not run, and those are some things I miss doing.

Epifire wrote:Yeah this is part of my research in action. Kinda makes me wonder how on earth some programs would try and run on 98. I doubt my Steam would run on it, but one good thing about Steam is that when there is a really old game added to it the developer company usually moddifies the game to run on newer OS systems.

There are some old mod tools among my Star Wars Battlefront modding days among some old titles that do not run, and those are some things I miss doing.

A lot of pre-winxp programs rely on direct communication with hardware. Since these routes are no longer used (OS does it all) a lot of newer hardware simply doesn't support the old communication methods. Not even when you install an older OS. Sometimes you can get around this by using a virtual pc, but the virtual pc cannot simulate everything, so some programs wont even work on virtual pcs. Just a heads up

So I am guessing the true way to get an old OS to work is running it on old hardware as well?

Well that would certainly be interesting to say the least, having a retro rig would be an awesome project imo. It's not everyday people try to purposefully build a old computer. XD

I can see it now picking up a bunch of unused dated hardware that no one wanted and going that route. I can imagine most the stuff dating to that time is about long gone. Makes me wonder what that kind of stuff goes for, cause any retailer would just love to get rid of parts that are that dated. Just makes me wonder if that is becoming like collectors items for PC enthusiasts.

Funny odd kind of idea.