How to get Windows 10 to run 16 bit old programs depends on it

Mondo Technology Updated on 2024-01-31

Recently, when I was looking back on old games, I found that Windows 10 had secretly removed the built-in NTVDM emulator function, so I needed to use a third-party gadget to create an execution environment.

In 1995 the operating system was developed by Windows 31 The transition to Windows 95, because Windows 95 is still software created on DoS, and is still essentially a 16 32-bit hybrid system, so it can directly execute old 16-bit applications without modification, while also supporting new 32-bit applications. However, Windows NT-based operating systems cannot directly achieve the above compatibility.

In order to solve this problem, Microsoft provided NTVDM (NT Virtual Dos Machine, NT DOS Virtual Machine) for the Windows NT operating system using the IA-32 processor architecture in 1993, allowing users to execute 16-bit Windows applications and bit DOS applications in the 32-bit Windows NT operating system.

In addition, Microsoft has introduced the Windows on Windows (WOW) compatibility layer, which is able to extend the execution of Windows 3 via NTVDMCompatibility with legacy 16-bit Windows applications developed by X. Later, Microsoft also introduced WOW64, which enabled the 64-bit Windows operating system to execute 32-bit applications.

However, according to Microsoft's official ** "NTVDM and 16-bit App Support" documentation, NTVDM cannot support 64-bit operating systems, so the function cannot be activated normally on 64-bit WindowsY operating systems.

The official documentation mentions how to activate NTVDM in Windows 10.

But 64-bit Windows 10 can't activate the function normally.

Windows 10 cannot be executed as Windows 3 without NTVDM activated1 16-bit application developed.

winevdm** connection

The WineVDM tool developed by the developer OTYA128 is similar to NTVDM in that it integrates components such as a processor emulator and a Wine-based Win16-Win32 conversion codes, which enables the 64-bit Windows 10 operating system to execute 16-bit applications.

*And after extracting WineVDM, simply drag and drop the 16-bit application to OTVDMexe, it can be executed directly. If the message "vcruntime140DLL", simply installing Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2017 (32-bit) will resolve the issue.

In addition, the reader can also execute the unzipped install shortcut, so that the 16-bit application can be executed directly by double-clicking just like a normal program. If the Winvdm registry is overwritten by Windows Update and fails, you can simply re-run Install, or you can run Uninstallreg uninstall.

The author actually uses Glider 40 games for testing, without winevdm installed, executing glider 40 "This application cannot be executed on your computer" error message, and after installation, the game will run normally, but when the button settings are made in the game, it triggers a downtime and no other problems have been found.

* After unzipping winevdm, you can perform an install shortcut (after which you can directly double-click the 16-bit application to execute), or drag and drop the 16-bit application to OTVDMexe.

Execute Windows 3 via winevdm1 version of Glider 40 game, the execution effect is quite smooth.

The only bug found during testing was that making button settings would trigger downtime.

Although it is said that until now it is still necessary to do Windows 31 There are not many programs left, but in case you need it, you can use winevdm to achieve compatibility and save the trouble of installing virtual machines, which is a convenient solution.

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