Old games & Windows XP SP2

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Hey, i had enough trouble making old games run on XP now with SP2 i get confronted with some error message telling me somthing about AUTOEXEC.NT isnt suitable for running 16 bit apps or somthing. How do i solve this? The games i was trying to run were GTA(original) and Alpha Centauri, both of which gave me the same message.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Theres a windows XP patch for alpha centauri, which ill need later. But old games dont install to start with, so i cant patch emm. My m8 gets the exact same crap when trying to run certain things on SP2.

"16-bit MS-DOS Subsystem
path to the program you are trying to run
C:\WINNT\system32\autoexec.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application. "

thats almost exactly what it says. The microsoft help site instructions didnt help much either :( has noone else had this problem?
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
174
106
I don't do winXP, partialy because of these types of probs. But you might try setting-up a dual boot system with win98se. Pretty radical (you'll prolly to reinstall XP) but effective.

Fern
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Well id go for that actually. If i had 98SE and if i knew how. Then i could install all the old games there and keep the new ones on XP. Id rather they all ran on the same op tho, what happens when longhorn comes n nothin runs on it? treble boot?
 

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
find another computer that has autoexec.nt on it (same OS/SP)

copy it onto a thumb drive and replace the one on yours

fixed the same problem at school by doing this
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
Woohoo! a solution. Ok well i spose i could do that. Is my file corrupt? Why did this happen? Why dosent windows detect this?
 

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
Originally posted by: Soviet
Woohoo! a solution. Ok well i spose i could do that. Is my file corrupt? Why did this happen? Why dosent windows detect this?

the computer at schools file was gone, replaced it and it worked fine