Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Frank Slootweg Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.misc,alt.comp.os.windows-xp,alt.windows7.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general Subject: Re: Windows 32-bit Date: 17 Nov 2023 16:16:59 GMT Organization: NOYB Lines: 33 Message-ID: References: X-Trace: individual.net 2Ecy//4XFPMHZwfVq0/RKgz9PKK8V8ab90R6YG5Yw55FRtaDZ3 X-Orig-Path: not-for-mail Cancel-Lock: sha1:yciFs7VtA7fL5OfV97Vk2+nesZI= sha256:amp4b/lFhIjr5Cv8OJRMsGg+MuRWOebYdBV++zdLBgU= User-Agent: tin/1.6.2-20030910 ("Pabbay") (UNIX) (CYGWIN_NT-10.0-WOW/2.8.0(0.309/5/3) (i686)) Hamster/2.0.2.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.os.ms-windows.misc:628 alt.comp.os.windows-xp:7783 microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:161280 Steve Hayes wrote: > Someone stole my laptop computer, and I'm beginning to be concerned > that it may be irreplaceable. > > It was running Windows 7, 32-bit, and it seems that most, if not all, > laptops sold nowadays with Windows installed are 64-bit, which means > they won't run a lot of my software, and that means that they won't > allow me to access a lot of the research data I have collected over > the last 30 years. 64-bit Windows systems can run 32-bit software/programs just fine, so I think you mean you (also) have *16-bit* software/programs which you need to run. Correct? If so, tell us a bit what kind of software/programs those are, so maybe 'we' can suggest other methods than setting up a Windows 7 (or 8? or 10?) virtual machine. > People have told me that it is possible to run a virtual machine on a > Win 64-bit computer that will emulate a 32-bit OS, but before I spend > money on a computer that might not work for me, I'd like to hear from > someone who has had experience in running such things, to find out how > well they work. > > The nearest thing I have found to that was OS/2, now more than 25 > years old, which had built in emulators that ran MS-Windows better > than Windows, and MS-Dos better than DOS. But there the emulators were > integrated, so they worked well. > > Do today's third-party emulators work as well as the OS/2 ones, or do > they have hidden disadvantages? Is there anyone here who has had > experience of using them who would be willing to answer a few > questions?