Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

I have a unuasual requirmernt for windows 7

Jun 7, 2010 3:53AM PDT

In my job I have to program on site several sorts of equipment but some equipment can only be programmed with Windows 7 And Windows Vista some software will only run on windows XP this is not a problem as I run windows 7 ultimate so I have got XP mode my main problem is that some of the Hardware will only run in dos or windows 95 and Windows 98 I am looking fof somthing like windows 98 mode to run from windows virtual machine on windows 7

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Something similar
Jun 7, 2010 4:20AM PDT

Something similar might be just setting up some virtual machines in a VM program like VirtualBox. You're on your own with regards to getting properly licensed copies of the operating systems you need to use. There's always FreeDOS for DOS type functions, but I can't help with Win9x.

Another option would be to check sites like Freecycle and Craigslist for people in your area who might be looking to offload some really old machines. Then you have one workstation dedicated to DOS stuff, one for Win9x, and a third for everything else.

- Collapse -
I cheated.
Jun 7, 2010 4:56AM PDT

I picked up a cheap notebook to run classic Windows 98 for that last system. Since it's all for pay work I just added it to the first bill as a NRE item.
Bob

- Collapse -
The problem is
Jun 7, 2010 3:14PM PDT

At the moment I used to have to cary 3 laptops to where I have to work and at a lot of sites I have to visit requirs climbing laders carring the laptops Thanks to Windows 7 I now only have to cary 2 Laptops and if posible I want to only have to use 1 laptop running Windows 7 enulating all the opperating systems.
Gary

- Collapse -
Let's hope
Jun 7, 2010 10:07PM PDT

VMWare and other solutions work out for you. My experience has been that most things can work under the new Windows 7 if we try. I've found folk give up at the first sign of trouble and declare it works on Windows 98 only. Yes, that may be the only supported platform but I know to try anyway.

But here's a problem, I write apps for the field. I wrote code, I implement these systems for the field. Just this year I ported my code from PalmOS to Windows and Windows Mobile. So this is my edge in getting old apps to run under the new OS.

For example one service tech didn't know how to change the COM port number of the USB to RS232 adapter so he was always going around telling everyone those adapters didn't work. And that only XP on a machine with RS232 was the only solution. Finally we had a sit down with him and shared the working system on Windows 7.
Bob

- Collapse -
I have a unuasual requirmernt for windows 7
Jun 7, 2010 1:21PM PDT

Install sun xvm and run xp on top of it which has compatibility with 98 progs.