Microsoft launched the Windows 10 operating system earlier in the year 2015, which is a much advanced version of the previous versions of Windows, and the company is making all efforts towards making it the best operating system in the market at all for desktop, laptop and tablet computers.
While Windows 10 is not
very different from previous versions when it comes to running programs,
sometimes older programs designed for earlier versions (for example, Windows XP
or Windows 7) may not work as they should or won't work at all. Most likely the
reason is that the Windows 10 operating environment is somewhat sophisticated
and does not meet the outdated standards of software and games.
But fortunately, there are many easy ways to make old programs work again on Windows 10 without a problem, so let us show you through this topic.
Before we dive into the
following lines, it is important that you take some time to search on the
internet and check if there is any new update available for the software you
are trying to run, as the new version may support running on Windows 10 so you
will not have to follow all the steps mentioned below.
Run the program as administrator
Many programs developed
with the intent of running on Windows XP are supposed to work correctly on
recent versions of Windows.
But there is one small
problem. In the era of Windows XP, regular Windows users usually used their
computers with an Administrator account all the time.
This approach has made
developers program their applications assuming they have administrative access,
in other words always acting as an admin program, while the process fails to
run if it doesn't.
This means, if the old
program is not working properly on Windows 10, it is because it does not have
administrative access.
So, to solve the
problem, all you have to do is right-click on the program's run file (which is
in .exe format) and then select "Run as administrator" option from
the menu to run it with administrative permissions.
If you find that the
program works this way, you can set the program to always run as an
administrator using the compatibility settings we discuss in the next
paragraph.
Adjust compatibility settings for a program or game
Compatibility Settings
is a setting in the Windows operating system that allows you to run programs
that were programmed for previous versions on recent versions of Windows, by
providing the requirements that the program needs to run on a newer and more
advanced environment without a problem.
To access the
compatibility settings, all you have to do is right-click on the main files
responsible for running the program, then click on the “Properties” option to
open the properties window, where you will go to the “Compatibility” tab to
show you all the compatibility settings.
And if the program
appears under the Applications column in the Start menu, you can right-click on
the name and then choose “Open file location” from the drop-down list, which in
turn takes you to the folder containing the program’s launch file.
Under the
"Compatibility" tab, you can click the "Run compatibility
troubleshooter" button to launch a simple tool that adjusts the
appropriate compatibility settings to run this program automatically, or you
can ignore it to adjust the options yourself.
For example, if a
program doesn't run properly on Windows 10 but works fine on legacy Windows XP,
select "Run this program in compatibility mode for" with a tick [✔] and then select "Windows XP" Service Pack 3"
from the dropdown menu.
After that, press the
"OK" button to save the settings, as the program will work on the
Windows XP environment, but at the same time you can run any other programs on
Windows 10 as usual.
You can set many other
options as well, if you are trying to play very old games you may need to
enable the "Reduced color mode" option. Or if you're using a large,
high-quality screen, you may have to enable the "Disable display scaling
on high DPI settings" option to disable Windows' scaling and make the
program look normal.
Don't worry, there are
no options in the Compatibility tab that could harm your software or your
computer — you can always revert these options back to default if they don't
help.
Running the old Windows version as a virtual system
Microsoft offers Windows
7 users a feature called "Windows XP Mode", which is a free program
that allows Windows XP to run as a virtual system to facilitate the
installation of many programs designed to work on Windows XP only and run them
directly from a computer running Windows 7.
Unfortunately, Windows
10 does not include such a feature to run Windows XP or even Windows 7 in
isolation. However, you can still install third-party software to easily create
fake systems.
We recommend VirtualBox
as it is completely free, easy to use, and works on almost all platforms. After
installing it on your computer, prepare a fake Windows system and install it by
default via the ISO file of your old version of Windows.
When you're done, you'll
be able to launch old programs and games from a window on your Windows 10
desktop.
This is a somewhat more
efficient solution, as the program will run in isolation and very efficiently,
unless it needs to interact with computer components (such as a graphics card,
network, or sound) directly. Virtual systems tend to have limited peripheral
support.
In general, if your old
programs and games are not working on Windows 10, it is a good idea to try to
find a modern alternative that works properly without problems on modern
operating systems. However, there are some software - especially old computer
games and business software - that you may not be able to find a suitable
replacement for. In this case, we hope that some of the methods we listed in
this thread will get these programs working again.