Windows 7 Any Compatibility Fixes for Windows 7?

[bountyhunter]

I just had my emachine blow up and had to replace it with a new HP Pavillion. I (involuntarily) went from the XP operating system to Windows 7. Now, I have software I can't run and some of it was very useful and not replaceable like my audio processing software Cakewalk Pyro. I have the disks to load it, but I just get error messages.

I understand I can spend another $150 to "upgrade" the windows 7 home version to professional and that supposedly will enable me to create a "virtual" XP system that can run old software. I am not thrilled about dumping in even more money or making the OS any more complicated than it already is.

I just got off the phone with microsoft "support" and they said that the problem was HP's fault which is quite a coincidence because about ten minutes before that HP support line said it was simply a software incompatibility which it obviously is.

Anyway to run prior software without making this more complicated and expensive?

I have the old hard drive as an external drive, I tried directly starting the apps but they don't run on the new OS.

 

[Joe S]

Did you try installing in compatibility mode for XP? Do the software makers have updates for Windows 7?
Joe

 

[bountyhunter]

Did you try installing in compatibility mode for XP? Do the software makers have updates for Windows 7?
Joe

The only "update" available for Windows 7 is service pack 1 which is already installed.

I am not sure what this means:

"Did you try installing in compatibility mode for XP?"

I just inserted the disks and got error messages about the non compatible operating system.

 

[davehc]

You must right clcik the executive on the disk ("Setup.exe"; Install.exe": or similar). Select "properties and you will see a "Compatibility" tab. Click the first, upper square and select one of the XP choices (SP3 is good). Also.at the bottom, select "Run as Administrator. Don't concern yourself with any of the other choices. Apply and now run the install program. Fingers crossed, it should work without problems.

 

[bountyhunter]

Thanks, I tried every compatibility setting in the list and still getting error messages. It won't load the program. It also won't open from the old drive.

 

[davehc]

Sorry. Bad News. I had a browse and the program, if it is Ver 5, is totally imcompatible with Windows 7 and there is no plan to upgrade it. Only choice is to run it in a XP virtual machine, or get Pyro 7, which does run in Windows 7,as I see it.

 

[bountyhunter]

I was considering the "virtual" thing but it would cost about $100+ to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional to be able to do it. Also, I read that some cpu's support virtual and some don't. Mine is an AMD Athlon and I don't know if it does. The other thing is the mother board has to be set up specifically to support it. I don't know if this AMD machine is. And, on t top of it, I don't know if the software would run in virt This whole thing is so complicated, I will just have to punt the software and eat the loss.

 

[davehc]

It isn't one of my specialities, but I do believe there are third party virtual machine programs which might work for you. Anyone help?

 

[Andrew Butler]

I Use Oracle VM Ware (Not Workstation) and installed a copy of XP with SP3 to run my old programs, and it works fine. Very Simple To Use, Your Computer Should Support Virtual Machines, Especially if you just bought it, the only thing that I would question, is if you had a netbook. Which you don't so you have nothing to worry about.

Best Of Luck To You.

 

[Glowry]

The only "update" available for Windows 7 is service pack 1 which is already installed.

I am not sure what this means:

"Did you try installing in compatibility mode for XP?"

I just inserted the disks and got error messages about the non compatible operating system.

Sometime window 7 did not support the software that window xp support. The same problem with window vista. I also faced this type of problem many time then i uninstall the window 7 and continued with window xp.

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