Legacy Software, 32-Bits vs 64-Bits by John Dunn

I got a little surprise the other day, not one to my liking at all.

 

As some of you know, I still like to use GWBASIC from DOS 3.3 and Paintbrush from Windows 3.1 for all kinds of reasons that have arched some number of eyebrows. An older PC purchased late last year uses "Windows Vista Home Premium Edition" and although the GWBASIC wouldn't work on it, at least the Paintbrush program worked.

 

Later, I tried to load Paintbrush onto a newer machine, also with "Windows Vista Home Premium Edition" and there, to my dismay, it did NOT work. I found out why.

 

The first machine had a 32-bit version of the operating system, but the second machine has a 64-bit version. That means that at least some old software which works fine on the one, may NOT work on the other. I don't know if Paintbrush is the only old program to exhibit this behavior, but there is a cautionary tale here if you are trying to bring older programs to later machines.

 

Also, I understand that the new Windows 7 uses 64-bits.

 

John Dunn  -  Ambertec, P.E, P.C.

Comments

[Jerry Brown]

John,

I found a discussion of a similar problem on an obscure forum. You will find it at the URL below. You'll have to scroll down near the bottom of the thread to find his solution.

http://www.groupsrv.com/computers/post-953137.html

Good luck, Jerry