With Vista and up, 64-bit versions of Windows no longer support 16-bit programs, but 32-bit versions can still run them. Windows 8 has changed a lot of things from even Windows 7, and there were rumors a while back that it would only be available in 64-bit[1][2] which seems not to be the case anymore. It’s no secret thet Microsoft is pushing users to migrate to 64-bit systems. Have they dropped 16-bit support from Windows 8 altogether (including 32-bit versions)?
3 Answers
As per Windows 7, 16-bit applications simply cannot run on a 64-bit Windows 8 installation.
However, the NTVDM required to run 16-bit applications is still available on 32-bit Windows 8 systems:
The NTVDM is present in all 32-bit NT-based Windows versions including Vista, 7 and 8, except for in 64-bit versions.
As Synetech noted, this feature is disable by default and must be manually enabled.
This is the same as Windows Vista or Windows 7. If you have a 64bit version of Windows, you cannot run 16bit applications. If you have a 32bit version of Windows, you can run 16bit applications.
Workaround for 64bit systems: In Windows 7 64bit you could just download the Virtual PC XP Mode and run your 16bit application there. I'm not sure if Windows 8 also provides an XP Mode (I don't think so) but (some versions?) of Windows 8 come with Hyper-V support. So you could easily run e.g. Windows XP in your Hyper-v to have 16bit support.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx Link
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Yup, there’s already plenty of that. I guess people are still using 16-bit programs. ☺– SynetechOct 21, 2012 at 15:06
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files or programs compiled with Pascal for DOS that do things likeecho
without a newline, move the cursor, set text colors, print the date/time, parse a file, etc. These work just fine and while some functions may now be built-in, many/most are not and it is not always feasible (or even possible in some cases) to update and/or re-compile them for 32- or 64-bit.