Why cant i use my old cds on with my new windows 7 OS

[haddenp]

Anyone found a way to use older cds on the new windows 7 OS? or is it just not doable?

 

[nukemaster]

If they are 16 bit applications on windows 7 64-bit, they will not work. 16-bit application compatibility was removed from the 64 bit version of windows.

 

[haddenp]

are they music CD's? or are they programs? what is the exact problem and any error code you get?

they are various cds. some are gaming and some of educational. I've heard that they no longer use DOS to start up and that is the problem. Seems like there must be some way to work around that.

 

[nukemaster]

If they are DOS programs, they will run within DOSBOX.

http://www.dosbox.com/

If they are just older 16 bit games like skifree and samegame, Then a VM may be your best bet. Within a VM you can install another operating system like Windows XP. Please note VM's do not perform as well as having the system it self.

Some older games, had 16 bit installers that do not work even with the game being 32 bit, some can be extraced by winrar or similar, but not all.