Favourite Old Apps and Vista 64

[Vikendios]

Before taking the plunge to 64 bit, many of us are worried about loosing the possibility to run old favourites, some of them orphans with no current support. I would much appreciate knowing if somewhere on the web you can find a list of applications or games with 64 problems.

Here are my very personal list of worries ;

GIB - (Ginsberg's intelligent bridge player)
Microsoft Office '97 apps (that's how old I am..)
Photoshop Elements 4.0
Age of Empire One and Two
Morrowind
Oblivion
Rome Total War

Any ideas ?

I am currently running Vista32 on a state-of-the-art rig.

Vikendios

 

[Noema]

No 16-bit app will run on VIsta 64-bit. (Though you can always run them in a virtual machine).

As for the apps you listed, I've only tried Oblivion which runs fine.

iTunes is also somewhat broken under Vista (and XP) 64-bit. It'll install and run, but it won't be able to burn or rip CDs.

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines will revert to ultra-low res textures if run in a machine with 4GB of RAM or more (this can be fixed by limiting the amount of RAM available to the OS in Msconfig though).

CoreTemp won't work either, AFAIK.

These are the only issues I've experienced so far.

 

[Mem]

Gaming wise both Morrowwind and Oblivion run fine in Vista x64,I have yet to find a 32 bit game I can't run.

Not sure on Core temp but I use Speedfan 4.33 to check my temps etc...

 

[ViRGE]

CoreTemp will only work before you patch up the OS. MS fixed the driving signing workaround.

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[Vikendios]

OK. So :

(A) Another idea is two have both the 32 and 64 Vista versions installed on different drives or partitions, and boot on 32 when wishing to use old apps. Is it legal with one Vista copy purchased that comes with both 32 and 64 discs ? And, frankly, is it practical ? Predictable issues/problems ?

(B) Since old apps are generally undemanding in processing power, run them in virtual machine mode. How and where can I get the tools to do so when under Vista 64 ?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Vikendios
OK. So :

(A) Another idea is two have both the 32 and 64 Vista versions installed on different drives or partitions, and boot on 32 when wishing to use old apps. Is it legal with one Vista copy purchased that comes with both 32 and 64 discs ? And, frankly, is it practical ? Predictable issues/problems ?

(B) Since old apps are generally undemanding in processing power, run them in virtual machine mode. How and where can I get the tools to do so when under Vista 64 ?

B) It depends on how old the game is. If it's so old it runs in DOS, use DOSBOX. If it runs in Windows, it's going to be 32bit and will likely work on Vista.

 

[Vikendios]

Thanks. To answer my own (B) option, I have looked up Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and it looks promising.