Old CD Rom software compatibility on new Laptop

Channel Hopper

Channel Hopper

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A disc my daughter plays a dinosaur hunting game on CD rom on this PC, but is using the family laptop more and more for school stuff.

Is there a software converter available for the 64 bit operating system that will allow 32 bit games/programmes to run/ stored on the drive ?
 
Many 32 bit programmes will run quite happily on 64bit - we use many 32bit progs with no problem on the 64bit machines at work.

So give it a try.
 
I have, but this one stops in both auto and manual install.

To be honest, only the second of the two discs containing the virtual dinosaur landscapes fails to run, but even so it would be good to find a solution as I could keep desktop just for work.

 
Which 64 bit OS? Assuming you mean Windows the higher spec versions of Win 7 have an XP compatibility feature. This was deleted on Win 8 unfortunately.
 
PaulR said:
Which 64 bit OS? Assuming you mean Windows the higher spec versions of Win 7 have an XP compatibility feature. This was deleted on Win 8 unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Er, the laptop is Win 8.

Will Win 10 bring it back ?
 
If you have an old 32bit windows disc around you could run that in a virtual machine on the win8 machine.
 
I may need help setting that up. Would a Win 8 laptop read an original XP disc and allow programmes from it to be loaded up ?
 
You can load any operating system into a virtual machine. Its basically an operating system running in ram within the original

I have to admit I know the theory but Ive never actually tried it -none of my computers have ever had enough ram in them to experiment with it.
 
Ditto.

I downloaded these two guides from somewhere. I haven't yet tried them out in anger but please let me know it goes if you decide to go down this route.
 

Attachments

Don't think that'll help CH. If I've read it correctly, that article merely says that 32 bit versions of Win 10 will be released, not that the 64 bit version will run a virtual 32 bit environment.
 
Damn. I was hoping 'XP compatibility' would mean I could run any XP programme on the Win 10 platform, regardless of whether it was originally a 32 or 64 bit application.
 
Back to files in my Zip then?
 
I reckon your CD still uses 16-bit DOS code. If it would be plain 32-bit, it would run on W8.

Depending on your Hardware go to Programs and functions and then click on Windows components. The install hyper-v which is the virtualisation platform. Then use an old XP (not OEM unless ist the same manufacturer) and install XP on the VM.

Windows 10 will not Change anything.
 
There is also VMWare with he free Player. If you have Windows 8 Home then Hyper-V will not be available anyway.
 
You could always dual boot the XP os ...assuming there is enough room on your HD..
I've never used win8 ..but I assume there is this facility as in Win7 ?
 
Microsoft did not implement the XP mode in W8/8.1. You can still use the virtual machines but you will need a XP CD & license. That should not be hard to come by.
 
I have the XP professional disk and a couple of valid 25 digit keys.

I didn't realise I could run it on a laptop that was only manufacturered a year ago (fast core processor / SATA hard and DVD drives / HDMI output etc)
Will the 8GB of onboard RAM be problematic or will XP simply use only 3.2 GB of it?
 
Channel Hopper said:
I have the XP professional disk and a couple of valid 25 digit keys.

I didn't realise I could run it on a laptop that was only manufacturered a year ago (fast core processor / SATA hard and DVD drives / HDMI output etc)
Will the 8GB of onboard RAM be problematic or will XP simply use only 3.2 GB of it?
Click to expand...

When you set up the virtual machine one of the setting is the available RAM, that the VM uses. The VM channels the hardware through and pretends to be a proper PC. I use the same system to run an old PC on my new PC. If you have a working PC with XP on and use VMWare you can also just make a copy with a special utility to create a virtual PC . Then just run the file with VMWare player. Ist just like a PC in a PC.

Many servers nowadays use this feature to run several servers on one piece of hardware, i.e. file services together with Exchange and a SQL Server. Its quite simple to set it up with a Little bit of PC knowhow.
 
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