Vista - Windows Vista Software compability

Hello, I've planned to build a new computer later this year, and I think that
I'll be buying Windows Vista Home Premium for my computer.

But I've got a LOT of games on my shelf, and I like playing them all. Some
of them are made for earlier Windows versions(like 2000 and XP), and a lot of
people around the internet is telling me that they doubt that they will be
compatible with Windows Vista. Is this true? And if it is, why?

"Vitdom" <Vitdom@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C93A4BD2-74CB-477B-9D04-222493938053@xxxxxx
You will have to try them to see if they work. Most games do work. Some of
them will need to be installed under XP compatibility mode. Others will
just work. A few will not work at all. Most older games can also be run in
an XP virtual machine using Virtual PC. I run several games that way. As
to why some games won't just run? It depends on how the game was written.
You would need to research that on your own on the game mfg's website or on
the web generally, but I think you would be putting the cart before the
horse to try to figure that out now. Considering that you have a lot of
older games, I suspect that you should make sure that you have an extra copy
of XP or Win2000 (or both) and plan to run many in virtual machines. There
is a newsgroup at microsoft.public.virtualpc where you can get plenty of
advice about how to set up and run these games. VPC also comes with good
help files. VPC is free and you can create virtual machines on your present
computer that you can continue to use when you adopt Vista.

Hi Vitdom,

You can look up each game at their publisher's website to check to see if they are compatible with Vista or not. Plus, you can check at this Microsoft link to see if they are listed as compatible.

Windows Vista Compatibility Center

Even if they were not made for Vista, you may be able to get them to run using Compatibility Mode. This tutorial will show you how to.

Compatibility Mode

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thank you for all your answers, I've searched the game developer's webpages
and I've found out that they are compatible(at least those I checked) with
Windows Vista.

Thanks.

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:58:03 -0700, Vitdom
<Vitdom@xxxxxx> wrote:


There is no answer to a question like this. The answer depends on the
specific games. The best way to find out is to check with the vendors
of the games.

That said, most software written in the days of Windows 2000 or XP
*does* work under Vista.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Your welcome Vitdom.

"Vitdom" <Vitdom@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46C5C8A5-5AA4-47A4-A624-1E6E9D58B866@xxxxxxYou can also keep your current box, just to run those games.