Windows 7 How to run an application made in 1990's, .exe with set up

[moh mabrouk]

I have an application CD with .exe and set up files made in the 1990's
for Window 3.1 and above

window 7/window 8 would not run the application file
1- How could we run this program under window 7 /window 8 platform?

 

[Joe S]

On something like XP mode or a virtual machine with XP. What kind of program is it? I have a program to keep track of my bicycle mileage and I can't install from the file in Vista or Windows 7. If I go to an old XP machine with it installed I simply copy the program file to Windows 7 open the file then click in the registry entry there and it works.
Joe

 

[moh mabrouk]

thanks for the reply will try xp
the program, a CD in the back of a book that contains 1,000 article from a physics review magazine date back to the last century, where the articles not available in libraries or in data bases. Most the knowledge of physics arrived from mid 1800 classical, then the 1900-1930's the German quantum period developed (that period literature needed to be known by students because every thing we do comes from that period) till 1940's where the 2nd generation began by Feynman and Schwinger, the American age, the more advance modern physics period.

 

[zirkoni]

You could also use DOSBox and install Windows 3.x in it:
http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=9405

 

[Pauli]

Not to underestimate, a book should be quite easily transformed, especially if it's of value. Google, and you may find a new version. Contacting persons of your faculty might produce result?

Hard for me to believe that no one has scanned them.

 

[Fixer1234]

... then click in the registry entry there...
Joe

Joe, can you explain this part? Thanks.

 

[Joe S]

Basically this is just a log file nothing complicated. When I copied the folder from a PC where it was installed to Windows 7 I just went into that file and there was one registry file. I simply double clicked it and the program worked. I did test on a VM first, they are handy for that. I may have to put in my license code I'm not sure. The company I got this from is long gone and the floppy disk no longer worked and the Zip file probably had a 16 bit installer and wouldn't work either.
Joe

 

[Fixer1234]

I'll have to check out this approach. I gave up on a number of programs I really liked because they wouldn't install the conventional way in Win 7. Some I expect won't work--some of these old programs to try to interface directly with the hardware rather than working through the infrastructure, and Windows doesn't like that. But if I can get any of them working, I'll be happy.

 

[Joe S]

I think this was basically a spread sheet type program. You entered your ride date and distance and it kept track of a bunch of things. Total mileage, monthly mileage, number of rides, different bikes, fastest ride etc.
Joe

 

[Fixer1234]

So was that something you could have recreated in Excel in less time than trying to get the old program to work?