How to make Old Softwares run in Windows Vista

One of the most common issues about Windows Vista or even the Windows 7 is that most of the older programs or software no longer run on this system.It has some pretty big software compatibility issues, and nothing is more frustrating than purchasing a new Vista based computer system or upgrading your old PC to Vista only to find that the applications which are essential to your daily needs are incompatible.

So what are the reasons that make Vista incompatible with older software or even games.There can be many reasons for this. Perhaps the program uses DOS calls that Vista does not know about. or it could be for graphic hardware considerations.But One of the major reasons that older applications might fail to work, is Vista's new set of extensive security features. User Accounts Control (UAC), the ever-present 'confirm or deny' permission boxes that pop up when you try to install a program or open a program that changes system settings is one of these.A common situation where UAC becomes a problem is during legacy software installation. You may encounter error messages during the installation procedure, or it may fail altogether and suddenly de-installl itself half way though.

So what can you do about it? Luckily, there is this Program Compatibility Wizard in Windows 7/Vista that can make things slightly easier. What the wizard does is to make the Operating System behaves like an earlier version of Windows so older programs can run on it smoothly. or In other words, we need to tell Windows Vista to run the installation files for your program "as Administrator".

Follow the steps to make older programs run in Windows 7/Vista.

• Open Control Panel from the start menu of Windows 7/Vista.
• Click on “Programs” from the right pane.
• Now you can see “Programs and features”. Under this header, click on “Use an older program with this version of windows“.
• The program compatibility wizard will appear with a caution message.
• Click “Next” to continue.

• Now 3 options will appear. You can run program compatibility wizard for those programs that are already installed but not running properly by choosing the the option”I want to choose from a list of programs“. There is another option that allows you to choose the location of the setup file of the application which you are going to install in Vista.
• After choosing the appropriate option, you have to select the operating system in which the program is compatible. Here I have chosen Windows XP service pack 2.

The next window allows you to change the display settings for the application. This is only necessary if you experienced any problem with the display.

If your programs need the administrator privilege to run, check the box Run program as administrator and click “Next“.

• Windows will now check if the program compatibility settings work fine for the older program. Once it is done, it will show a UAC security prompt. Click “Allow“
• If it finds any compatibility issue, it will show an error message.

If everything is fine, go back to the compatibility wizard page and choose “Yes, set this program to always use these compatibility settings“. Click “Next” and then “Finish“.