run Win98 apps on Win2000

Please be a little more specific about what programs you want to run. There are very few W98 programs that won't run except for some games and programs that were really more DOS than Windows.

Sorry for the lack of info. The applications are win95 and win98 games. Casino games, Emergency by Wizard Works, 3D World Atlas Etc.. I just want my system to be more versitile, being able to run old stuff as well new.

Hi,

Windows 2000 (and NT and XP) are totally different operating systems compared to Windows 95 and 98. One big change is that Windows 2000 doesn't allow programs to directly access hardware.

In the bad old days before more powerful hardware and DirectX, many programmers wrote their own routines to do direct manipulations on the graphics cards to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the machines.

If this is the case for your games, then its possible they wont ever be able to run under Windows 2000 no matter what you do.

You will be able to upgrade to Windows XP which has built into it a "compatibility mode" with the older operating systems which supposedly overcomes some of these problems with comprehensive "Virtual Device Drivers".

I've found that some programs wont install on WinXP (in my case) but will happily run there without having to resort to compatibility mode - it was simply a check in the install process that disallowed installation under anything but Win 98/95

So what I've done for myself is to create a dual boot. One option boots to Win98 and the other to WinXP.

Here are some good instructions for doing that if you want to tackle your problem that way.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/administration/management/mltiboot.asp

(remove spaces from the above URL)

Cheers,
Tim.

dual booting is really the only option I can see . If you know for a fact that the systems will not run on 2k,or xp. Load win98 on your sysytem, have it on a 2 gig partition, create a second partition where you have about a 3 gig partition for thewin2k or xp op system. The rest can be used for programs and such.
Keep the format of all drives fat. that way what ever it there either op system can get to, it.
First install win98 , get the system going a stable. insert the win2k cd while the sysytem is running, select a clean install on the other partition. After install has completed and running. when you reboot you will have a choose to select which op system you what to load. this is a great have to preserve some of the games that run dos more. I have the same thing setup right now. the other option I have seen is vm ware which I have had some issues with. it lets you run a simulated op system with the reboot.

Hi,
Windows XP has application compatibility built in, but not many people realise that win2k has the same feature (I believe it came first with SP1) - it's just not activated by default. Install your app, and create a shortcut to the executable on your desktop. Right click the shortcut, select properties and examine the properties dialogue to see if there is a 'compatibilty' tab. If not, delete the shortcut, open a command prompt and type

regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll

now create another shortcut to your app, and see if the compatability options are now shown. Hope this helps....

Are you running Service Pack 1 or 2?
If so, then create a shortcut to the executable program you wish to run on your desktop. Right-click the shortcut and select properties.
You should see an extra Tab - Compatibility, which should allow you to run in a previous Microsof Opeating System modes.

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