Dave said:
Some. Many will not run OK on Vista 64, though.
Name them. Other than low-level utilities that want direct access to
the hardware, the 16- and 32-bit emulation layers (WOW = Windows on
Windows) runs the vast majority of those apps just fine under a 64-bit
version of Windows.
That is absolutely true, but the OP didn't ask about drivers.
But your advice is not just misleading but drastically incorrect. Not
everyone's suite of applications is just the old DOS games that you play
that want direct hardware access.
Yeah, Microsoft tried hard to support all the older non-64-bit software.
But there's still a good chance that somoene asking the question will be
forking out at least some money to make all his current 32-bit software run
on Vista 64.
Not with 32-bit apps. I have seen some older 16-bit apps not *install*
but that is because they check for a version range of the OS, not that
their code won't run. If push comes to shove, go use VirtualPC or
VMWare Server, both of which are free to install the old OS in a virtual
machine and run your incompatible applications there. Or use multi-
booting (not Microsoft's stupid dual-booting) to have another primary
partition in which you install the old OS (you'll have to be careful of
OS install order due to one stepping atop the other's MBR bootstrap
code). So it is very possible that:
- The 32-bit apps that the OP asked about (but never bothered to
mention) will run just fine under WOW64.
- Most 16-bit apps will run but they may refuse to install. There's a
difference and some folks sometimes figure out tricks to fool the
installation program.
- For any that don't run correctly, use a virtual machine or multi-
booting to continue using the old versions of your software. That's
what I did for my aunt's WinXP 64-bit platform for some old greeting
card software and an old scanner so she could keep using them.
Vista is great. But 64-bit software for it is still playing catch-up. And
if you are building for Vista 64, you have to research drivers CAREFULLY
before buying any hardware. -Dave
There is extremely few non-vertical 64-bit applications. The vast
majority of programs are 32-bit, and the vast majority of those will run
under the WOW64 emulation layer on a 64-bit version of Windows.