16-bit Windows (Windows 1.x, 2.x, 3.0, 3.1, etc.) on 64-bit Windows
84 points by doener 8 hours ago | 15 comments
haunter 2 hours ago
Installed MS Office 2.0 some months ago with it just for fun. It actually works pretty well apart from the dictionary files, for some reason those are not recognized
replyhttps://files.catbox.moe/dy4bqy.png
I’ve used it for a week just I was curious:
1, is it good enough for modern day to day word processing (mostly emails)? Yes it is
2, can the modern word processors (Office 365, LibreOffice, Google Docs) recognize and open the files created with it? (doc, rtf anything but plain text) Yes they can
pjmlp 42 minutes ago
For work, not due to other requirements, however for personal documents I fully agree with your first point, MS Office 2.0 is good enough to type in some snail letters, school reports or CVs.
replyhaunter 39 minutes ago
Also there is security. I think, I just guess, these old 16bit file formats are all exploitable to some extent
replypjmlp 31 minutes ago
Yes, however if you are only using them privately as a modern typewriter for stuff that is anyway going to be sent on paper, there is less of a concern.
replyNow sharing files with others is another matter, and I fully agree.
gabmartini 3 hours ago
Nice, I will be able to play Civ2 on Windows 11!
replyIn related news, with the latest WINE on Linux 16 bits/32 bits applications are supported, so I was able to run my beloved Civilization 2 without problems.
yako21000 4 hours ago
Oh my good, windows 3.1x.... good old times and a word application that never crashed!
replytonyedgecombe 2 hours ago
>a word application that never crashed!
replyYou must have lived in a different reality to me.
16 bit windows wasn't complicated, and a simple VM and API translation layer could have kept compatibility going back 30+ years for not many engineering hours.
Yet instead they dropped 16 bit windows support and probably spent more engineering hours to support all the ancient software trying to update, and users who held back upgrading windows because they needed said ancient software, etc
Microsoft says at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winprog64/ru...:
> Note that 64-bit Windows does not support running 16-bit Windows-based applications. The primary reason is that handles have 32 significant bits on 64-bit Windows. Therefore, handles cannot be truncated and passed to 16-bit applications without loss of data. Attempts to launch 16-bit applications fail with the following error: ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT.
winevdm on Windows eschews that level of integration, but perhaps MS should have shipped WoW16 with limitations instead of nothing.