I would then simply virtualize the machine, load that virtual image on a desktop hyper-visor such as VMware Player, or whatever your preferred virtual desktop application system.
I would first try obtaining installing this on Windows 7, it seems most XP apps will work in Windows 7, but I am going to assume that it will for certainly not run on Win 7, which does happen so. Also does it really make since to continue support outdated hardware. what happens when that laptop finally dies, and it will. Well from a Disaster Recovery and even a simplification standpoint, I would get rid of the hardware.
DosBox, FreeDOS, virtualization can all help in those edge cases. Microsoft has tended to maintain binary backwards compatibility, though they do eventually drop support for things that are simply too old (like 16 bit API).
Worst case scenario is that you are running afoul of UAC, and most of the time there are workarounds to that which do *not* include disabling UAC. The sysinternals suite of tools is your friend here.
I have many applications that will NOT even install in Windows 7 that run fine in XP. On that note AJKochev, I don't believe I have ever seen an older program not run on a newer OS.I mean Microsoft basically just layers a new OS on top of the old.right? I good thing with the later scenario is you can back up the virtual HD and when they foobar it up or it needs moved to another computer its a piece of cake. When that failed I made a VM build of XP and ran it on the host using VMware player or Virtual box.
I've gotten lots of old software to run on newer versions of Windows by playing with compatablity settings, particularly run as admin. This crap seems to always end up being connected to the network. In my 20+ years that has never been a correct statement, even with gear that did not initially have networking hardware. I would also question anyone who tells me that a device will never be on the network. There are almost always better solutions to the problem (as have been documented in this thread) than needing to maintain an XP install. Having said that there are so few *good* reasons to run XP anymore that you can safely consider it gone from your list of potential solutions. In XPs case, it ended up being mostly OK after a decade of patches and major changes of some subsystems (like the network stack rewrite for SP 2 as an example), so you could argue that XP has never been in better shape. Going EOL does not magically make software bad. EOL does not change that, it just means that it won't get patches going forward. The writing appears to be on the wall for XP to be a buggy mess after patches dry up, (see ) but it refuses to play the part just yet.XP was a security problem throughout it's entire life cycle. The funny thing about the XP EoL, everyone keeps saying its gonna be really insecure, but I have yet to hear of a specific major vulnerability yet. Telling the staff that they can't use some software is a no. The key is to keep on top of the risks and do what is required to mitigate them. Guess what? your Windows 7 and 8 machines that are actively talking to the network are more of a risk because of flash, java and other stuff. It's a common myth that because security support has ended it'll be slammed with issues. There is nothing wrong with using Windows XP. There are many apps that an organization cant operate without. (App Compatibility Tool.) Don't just say an app does not work without running it thorough the proper procedures.
(This works for a lot of programs.) In Hospitals, there are many software packages that don't like Windows 7, so you are forced to stay on XP or migrate all of those software pieces over to a virtual environment if at all possible.īefore any migration is done, you HAVE to test all software in either a virtual environment on Windows 7 machines, OR use Admin Studio which is awesome, or a free tool from Microsoft called ACT.
Some Banking software is XP only, we ran within Windows 7 in XP virtual mode. On factory floor pc's that can only control robots through software written for XP or 98. Mainly because the vendor does not support Win7 or they have stopped updating the software. Having migrated thousands of PC's from XP to Win7, for various types of environments, there are programs that don't run on windows 7 and will only run on XP.