How to make old programs and games work on Windows 10
Microsoft launched Windows 10 earlier in 2015, a much improved version of Windows than previous versions, and the company is putting all its efforts into making it the best operating system on the market ever for desktop, laptop and tablet computers.
While Windows 10 is not completely different from previous versions when it comes to running programs, sometimes older programs designed for previous versions (for example, Windows XP or Windows 7) may not work properly or will not run at all. This is most likely because Windows 10's operating system is somewhat advanced and does not support the old standards that programs and games use.
But fortunately, there are many easy ways to make old programs work again on Windows 10 without any problems, so let's review them for you through this topic.
A word of advice before diving into the following lines, it is important to take some time to search the Internet and check if there is any new update available for the program you are trying to run, perhaps the new version supports running on Windows 10 and therefore you will not have to follow all the steps mentioned below.
Method 1: Run the program as administrator
Many programs that were developed to run on Windows XP are supposed to work properly on modern versions of Windows,
But there's one small problem. In the Windows XP era, regular Windows users typically used their computers with an Administrator Account all the time.
This approach has caused software developers to program their applications assuming that they have administrative access, or in other words, always run as an administrator program, while the launch process fails if this does not happen.
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 executable file (which is in .exe format ) and then select the " Run as administrator " option from the menu to run it with administrative permissions.
If you find that the program is acting this way, you can set the program to always run as an administrator using the compatibility settings we discuss in the next paragraph.
Method 2: Adjust compatibility settings for the 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 modern versions of Windows, by providing the requirements that the program needs to work on a newer, more advanced environment without problems.
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 go to the “Compatibility” tab to display all the compatibility settings.
If the program appears in the Applications column in the Start menu, you can right-click on the name and then choose "Open file location" from the drop-down menu, which in turn takes you to the folder that contains the program's run file.
Under the Compatibility tab you can click the Run compatibility troubleshooter button to launch a simple tool that will automatically adjust the appropriate compatibility settings to run this program, or you can ignore it to adjust the options yourself.
For example, if a program doesn't work properly on Windows 10 but works fine on the older Windows XP environment, select the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" option by placing a check mark [✔] and then select "Windows XP Service Pack 3" from the drop-down list.
Then click on 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 adjust many other options as well. If you're trying to play very old games, you may need to enable "Reduced color mode." Or if you're using a large, high-resolution monitor, you may need to enable "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" to disable Windows' "scaling" and make the program look normal.
Don't worry, there are no options in the Compatibility tab that can harm your software or your computer — you can always reset these options back to default if they don't help solve the problem.
See also: Top 5 reliable recovery programs to recover deleted files
Method 3: Run an old version of Windows as a virtual machine
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 create virtual systems easily.
We recommend VirtualBox as it is completely free, easy to use, and works on almost all platforms. After installing it on your computer, set up a virtual Windows system and install it virtually via the ISO file of your old version of Windows.
When finished, you'll be able to run your 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 the computer's hardware (such as the graphics card, network, or sound) directly. Virtual systems tend to have limited support for peripherals.
See also: - Permanently delete files from the hard disk and ensure they cannot be recovered
In general, if your old programs and games don't work on Windows 10, it's a good idea to try to find a modern alternative that will work properly without problems on modern operating systems. However, there are some programs - especially old PC games and business programs - that you may not be able to find a suitable replacement for. In that case, we hope that some of the methods we've listed in this article will get these programs working again.