Solutions for running ancient Windows programs on Win10?

[0culus]

My lab computer runs win10 professional 64 bit. I hate it but it gets the job done for running most things I want to run around the lab. However, what's really pissing me off is that "compatibility mode" appears to be a total lie. Windows has forever prided itself on being able to run the most ancient software with no problems, yet now it appears that they have totally broken this.

I want to to run the HP 53305A phase analysis software for the 53310A modulation domain analyzer (K04BB has it). Naturally, trying to run it in every conceivable compatibility configuration results in the dreaded full screen, focus stealing "This App Can't Run on your PC" message.

I could go the virtual machine route I suppose, but I have no idea where to get trustworthy machine images or the like of old Windows versions.

Any ideas?

[Ian.M]

64 bit Windows has lacked 16 bit application support since the days of XP. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/896458/64-bit-versions-of-windows-do-not-support-16-bit-components-16-bit-pro

See https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/hp-53305a-phase-analysis-software/ for a better idea of its requirements.   I'd go with setting up a 'bare' VM and installing the desired legacy OS on the VM from either genuine install media or install media ISO images, as checksums for the latter can be widely found on the WWW, and for any install media that was ever publicly released, if there is a general consensus on one valid checksum for a particular version (and language/region) of the install media, its highly unlikely to be 'tainted'.  You may have issues with your VM solution's ability to pass through the bus your GPIB interface is on, and with finding legacy drivers for it.

N.B. Remember MD5 and SHA1 hashes have both been broken.  It would be difficult for an attacker to craft a payload to pass both these hashes simultaneously, so in the absence of contemporary hashes that are still secure, I wouldn't use any ISOs which don't have *BOTH* MD5 and SHA1 hashes valid.

[edpalmer42]

Depending on your tolerance for frustration ....

Virtual Machine -> Linux -> Wine -> Phase Analysis Software which may or may not run under Wine

or

Virtual Machine -> ebay -> Windows CD with Key -> Phase Analysis Software

[Gyro]

After a bit of searching, you can still get the 'license free' version of XP for use under the Win7 Virtual machine. I downloaded it a couple of years ago but didn't realise that it was still available. Irrc it's a self-extracting .exe which creates a .cab file which can be opened by the VM - I use the Microsoft Win7 one, I don't know if it will also work with others...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8002

You also need a copy of winfloat.exe to avoid a General Protection Error with some applications. Details:

http://lifeofageekadmin.com/fix-general-protection-fault-module-win87em-dll-running-windows-7-vmware/

[Rasz]

you can run wine on windows https://liliputing.com/2019/08/wine-on-windows-lets-you-run-windows-apps-on-windows-through-windows-subsystem-for-linux.html

you can also try otvdm if its ancient 16bit software http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/otvdm.html

[bobcat2000]

MSDN subscription used to provide all the OS images in the DVDs they mailed to you.  But this was a long time ago.
They don't mail you the DVD anymore.  You have to login to your MSDN account to download the image.  I know they have the recent OS but I am not sure if they still have the old OS anymore.

[bobcat2000]

https://archive.org/details/Windows3.1_201906

This site has the Windows 3.1 image.

[Le_Bassiste]

and this is WFW 3.11 in DOSBOX in Windows 10   

[Tony_G]

As stated above NTVDM never ran on the x64 versions of Windows but is still available on the 32 bit version of Windows 10 (though the 32 bit version of Windows 10 is itself unsupported I think) - You can read how to enable it here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/ntvdm-and-16-bit-app-support

Personally I use VMWare to run downlevel Windows on my Win10 x64 machine - You can get VMWare Workstation Player for free for non-commercial use though it seems pretty much a commercial use in your case so you'd have to technically pay for a license (I license the full Pro product myself). A cool feature they offer is Unity which basically strips all the other Vm desktop and chrome away from an app running on the VM so it appears to be the same as any app on your host machine.

At some point you were allowed to run the previous version of Windows in a VM on your machine but that use right seems to have gone away in the latest use terms (this was while I worked on Visual Studio so I may be incorrect on that). However the use rights do allow for a "downgrade" right so if you have another Win 10 Pro license then you can downgrade to Win 7 Pro for your VM.

TonyG

[TinkeringSteve]

Not sure about trustworthy. I have used one of the readily made virtualbox images from archige.org, just not 100% sure whether it was that one.

https://archive.org/details/xp51_20191108

After installing also the guest extensions, USB stuff should work ok. But in the past I have had some USB woes with a handful of devices.

[coromonadalix]

Virtual machines are the way to go,   i have all the windows iso's from windows 3.1 and up: 3.11, 3.11 32bit, nt 3.51, nt4, 2000, XP  etc ...

Win 10 can run some win95, win 98 xp stuff,  you have compatibility mode  who can sometime help

[S. Petrukhin]

I have been using the free Oracal VirtualBox for many years https://www.virtualbox.org.
A beautiful machine, it stores XP classic theme with clear fonts and programs that stopped working in win10.

[gooligumelec]

After a bit of searching, you can still get the 'license free' version of XP for use under the Win7 Virtual machine.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8002

Alas: "We're sorry, this download is no longer available."

And that's a real pity, because although I have a legit, paid-for copy of XP, I can't run it in a VM for very long because the authentication server is long gone...

[Ian.M]

The original file from MS downloaded from that URL was:
    File: WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe
    Size: 492,597,008 bytes
    MD5: bf3726d684d3acb98185665123c9efcf
    SHA-1: bf9ae7899a332c083676d7d973a4ab68ea4143b1
    SHA-256: 0388d943f037c832fc205f514f1c1c1f076963b1a9249af05b3bd001f09e713f


Try https://download.cnet.com/Windows-XP-Mode/3000-18513_4-77683344.html
The checksums are identical.

If *NOT* using the resulting VM (VirtualXPVHD) under Win 7 Pro, you'll probably need an activation hack for the XP VM, which I cant post here. Hint: Google OOBETimer XP activation hack

[coromonadalix]

or  removewat   for xp  ... beware of tons of fake links