Old program, not a valid Win32 application in XP, even in Win95 compatibility mode

We have an older game program that ran fine under Win95 and Win98. We upgraded to XP Pro, and now same program installs successfully, but will not run. Get error message that it's "not a valid Win32 application. "

I was under the impression that Windows XP was backwards compatible with most things. I tried it with compatibility mode set for both Win95 and 98, and neither worked. Tried various options (256 colors, turn off advanced text services, etc.) Nothing worked.

Any suggestions, before I resort to a dual-boot to go back to Win98?

Thank you!
- IK

 

what type of game or program are you trying to run

 

You got it, XP backwards compatible with MOST things.
Interpret that most rather loosely.

Older programs sometimes had to directly manipulate hardware and memory. XP got away from dos based environment and is totally intolerant of that. Wants everything to go thru it.
Makes things a lot easier for programmers.

Dual boot probably only option.
However be aware – if also converted HD file structure to NTFS during upgrade – program may still not work.

If dual boot – make sure you have the old config.sys, autoexec.bat files to load specific sound, mouse drivers. XP doesn’t use those files.

Luck
May think about upgrading game.

 

Yeah... I just bought a discounted copy of a runs-on-XP game collection because I used to love an old, DOS, Sierra card-games program that I haven't run for years. They changed the little animated card-players, though.

D_Spider

 

Mentioned in this weeks Windows Secrets newsletter - DOSBox

 

Thank you, everyone!

To answer the questions:
- The game is Edmark's "Strategy Challenges 1 ", and so far I have not found any upgrade options for it. There are old copies still available, but as far as I can tell they are the same thing I have. Edmark seems to have been bought out 2 or 3 times in the interim, so who knows.
- Luckily, filesystem is still FAT32.

If anybody happens to know where I can get an upgraded copy of Strategy Challenges, that would be great.
I'll try DosBox. Sounds good.
Thank you!
- IK

 

Help on dual boot?

Well, DosBox didn't help but if I go into setup and tell it to boot from the 2nd disk, it boots into Win98 and runs the game fine. So I'm trying to create a dual boot (without going into setup every time.)

I created another line in boot.ini on the XP disk by just copying the XP line down and changing disk(0) to disk(1) with the title "Win98 ".

But when I select that second boot option on startup, I get an error and it cannot boot from that disk. Anybody know what the Win98 line in boot.ini should look like? I imagine I need different parameters for Win98.

Thx.

 

First, make a backup copy of Boot.Ini, might save you some grief later.
Please note that the space in the word "Microsoft" is not there, for some reason this forum software insists on it being there.

This is my Boot.Ini with 98 on C: and XP on G:

[boot loader]
timeout=8
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\ = "Windows 98 Second Edition "

If you have 98 on drive D:, you would need it like this;

[boot loader]
timeout=8
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
D:\ = "Windows 98 Second Edition "

I believe this helps, you can verify at this link.
http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/bootini.htm

 

Thanks for the info, Mark

My XP is loaded on the master physical drive, and Win98 is on the slave. I tried adding D:\= "Win98" into the boot.ini. It lists on bootup, but when Win98 is selected, it just reboots itself and goes back to the same boot menu.

When I set it in the setup to boot from the second drive, it works fine and boots right into Win98, considering that drive as C: and the XP drive as D:

Anythink else I could do to make it actually boot into Win98 from the XP boot menu? If not, I'll just leave it in the setup and change setup when I need to go to XP.

 

Was curious – did a search
Seemed like should be easy problem to solve.
Could have told how to do that in DOS but XP – LOL.

Seems like everything addresses different operating systems on different partitions of just 1 hard drive. Not 2 physical drives.

UNTIL came across this: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Boot_Switcher_d3754.html
Then did search for a boot loader. Returns MANY programs. Some free some not. Seems like should be something there to fit your needs.