software compatability

[rici1]

Hi, I am wondering about software compatability with windows 2000. Will software that, on the box says that it is compatable with windows 95/98 work with windows 2000 even if it is a few years old? I have got very vague answers when I have asked people in the store (probably because there biased!)
Thanks
Richard

[Midknyte]

the best thing to do would be to contact the manufacturer or just visit their website.

you can run this command from the win2k cd to check for compatibility before you install win2k.

winnt32 /checkupgradeonly

[jmichna]

Unless you get a confirmation from the s/w manufacturer, you'll just have to try it out. I've come across a handful of W95 games that would not work in W2K or WinXP. Seems like most stuff that was designed for W98 or WinMe era works for W2K and WinXP, in my experience.

Having said all that, I have even had a couple older games/progs that were W3.1/W95 compatible work in WinXP.

[AllGamer]

Technically you can run anything that you want.

as long as these conditions meets:

- does not require direct hardware access
- does not have a routine that checks what version of Win you are running
- does not hang your OS cuz of a extremely BAD coded 16bit routines.

that's it

Like jmichna, i have all kind of software from win3.11 that still runs in 2k or XP
yet a few games from W95 wont run, cuz they have that annoying feature that checks what OS you have.
The software works, after you kill that portion of the program,
but that's not something you can ask help for, since they Deem it illegal

oh well....