Windows 10: Installers written for W7 - on W10?

Hi all *Smile

I am thinking of building a 64-bit W10 machine; I currently use 64-bit W7.

I remember going from W98 to XP, it was impossible to install many (all?) w98 apps in XP, until the sw dev came out with a new installer compatible with XP. Same with XP to Vista.


I have some apps that have installers that were written for W7, and I was wondering if I am going to have an issue with installing these in W10. I am sure that nobody can say for sure for everything, but as a general rule - do apps that have the ability to install in W7 successfully install in W10?


Thanks in advance.

:)

 

Win Reg Problem

The program was most probably written for W7 or other earlier version of Windows, W10 changed the way apps / programs are written to the OS, so quiet a few older programs may not load correctly, therefore you come up with a registry error, you could try
re-installing the app in Compatibility Mode W/ Admin rights.

It may have run on previous version of W10 but as W10 is modified with updates, more older type programs / apps that will not install correctly, I have two older programs which I require and have to keep a PC with W7 installed to effectively use these programs.

Sadly many older apps will not install correctly in W10, unless the program developer / manufacturer modifies it to run with W10.

 

Unable to activate Windows 10 after upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

Thanx a lot for the helpful answers. The problem was that when the pc-technicians at the shop re-installed MS Windows 7 Home Premium they did not activate them although they had written in the Repair and Maintenance Report they gave me that they had
done the activation. I activated Windows 7 and currently I am installing all the latest W7 updates hoping that it will show the icon for the free upgrade to W10.

Thanx again.

George Papadimitriou

 

'98 and XP had quite different parentage. '98 was the last iteration of DOS/Windows systems, while XP was a development of Windows NT, as are Win7 and now Win10.

Generally I've had no problems installing older software, I run several that date back to 2000. Where problems do occur, they can often be solved by running the installer and/or the software in Compatibility mode, which can go back as far as Win95 if necessary.

Where you may have problems is with really old software where the app is 16/32 bit, but the installer is only 16 bit - it can't run on a 64 bit system (but then you would have had the same problem with your 64 bit Win7).

 

Many well written applications designed for Windows 95 will install and run with no problems on 64 bit Windows 10, no compatibility settings necessary. Many well written 16 bit Windows programs will run on 32 bit Windows 10. The problem was the many were not well written. For technical reasons 16 bit applications cannot run on 64 bit Windows, any version. Most applications written for Windows 7, or XP for that matter, will run on Windows 10 with no issues. That is a good thing because there is a huge amount of software out there that will never be updated. Most software that is labeled as being compatible with Windows 10 was only tested with Windows 10, usually no changes being necessary to achieve compatibility, Of course there are exceptions.

Games are often a problem as a great many of them do not qualify as "well written". Many bend or break long established rules in order to get the last bit of performance. Game developers for the most part have little interest in their software being compatible with any OS beyond the current. Lack of compatibility is often seen as a plus, forcing the owner to update to the latest version of the game. Of course there are exceptions.

 

Win98 was followed by Win98SE/Second Edition which was followed by Windows ME. A test of WinME shows a lot of DOS still in it, can create a bootable System disk just as we could in Win95 through Win98SE. WinME was a consumer-type OS that generally came about as a companion to Windows 2000 for business, most folks didn't like it as not as stable as Win98SE and earlier. In comparison WinME and WinVista could be considered equals in poor reception by the users. WinXP started the trend of having both consumer and business editions.

 

Good history lesson. I forgot about WinME, I skipped that one as I also skipped Vista.

 

For purchasing I did too but I've had some I rehabbed as the hardware worked but the implementation of it such as drivers and other software left a lot to be desired. Win98SE was the one that really got us started in Internet Connection Sharing and support for USB 2.0 drivers. Wife and I used it on 2 computers and the Dial-up Modem in mine, she wasn't too happy with the speed when I was downloading larger files on a 56Kbps connection.

 

I remember those days. My first exposure to a windows environment was Windows 2.x. I wrote a lot of software for DOS back in the 80's, but I needed to provide windows support for a software product that we were marketing. I had looked at Win 1.x - real junk, then heard MS was coming out with 2.x. First introduction into dll's should I say "was eye opening". When Win 3.1 came out, that's when we made a deal with MS to incorporate our product into MS Word. That was about the time the word processing wars were getting hot and we were the only software developer that had the technology to convert word processing files from one word processor to another with minimal loss of document functionality.

 

I also remember the DOS 5 and Win3.1 but the biggy was sharing of .pdf files, gave Adobe a boost in providing company files to widespread offices that could choose and pick any of the many word processors available, no major push for company standards then. I got my start on my first computer with WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows before the local college had switched over fro WordPerfect 5 for DOS, still learned a lot in those community trainings.

 

Thanks guys *Smile

I am happy to say that I have not run into problems installing any apps - even old ones that are "W7 only". It appears as tho W10 handles things very similarly to W7.


Cheers.