I haven't upgraded to XP yet, but my tech friend keeps wanting me to go XP and says I don't have to worry about my older programs, (some DOS, some Win95 and Win9
. He says XP has a built-in simulation.
I can't check this out because I don't have access to an XP machine, but I think he said all you have to do is right-click the program's icon, go to properties, and select 'use the appropriate simulation mode'.
On my Win98, in the DOS program icons (right-click) the properties section has a tab for "program" and in the 'advanced' section it has a box that can be checked which says "suggest MS-DOS mode as necessary". So you should look for something like that (you might even check the HELP on XP Start Menu (?) to find how to use the simulation mode.
Hope this helps to point you in the direction of what/where to look.....