Vista - Will all the programs that work on xp work on vista?

Will all the programs that work on xp work on vista?
I have old fashioned programs which work on xp with no
problem. These are english dictionaries of oxford, collins and so on
which I bought some years ago.
I would be very disappointed if they will not work on vista.
So what will be the situation?

No, not all programs that worked on XP will work on Vista. That is always
the case with a new version of Windows (or any other operating system).
Most programs will work but you will have to do some research and read the
newsgroups to find out. Of course, if you have a spare computer you can
always download RC1 and try your programs.

"exciter" <t24680@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23pinwEo3GHA.1300@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Will all the programs that work on xp work on vista?
> I have old fashioned programs which work on xp with no
> problem. These are english dictionaries of oxford, collins and so on
> which I bought some years ago.
> I would be very disappointed if they will not work on vista.
> So what will be the situation?
>
>

1) No.
2) Some will, some won't-- you won't know until you try them (unless they
are "Utility" type applications that are known to have compatibility
issues).
Actually, I have been quite pleasantly surprised at just how many 'old'
(some dating back to the 90's) apps happily install/run on Vista.

--
Maxwell Bluemeanie
"exciter" <t24680@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23pinwEo3GHA.1300@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Will all the programs that work on xp work on vista?
> I have old fashioned programs which work on xp with no
> problem. These are english dictionaries of oxford, collins and so on
> which I bought some years ago.
> I would be very disappointed if they will not work on vista.
> So what will be the situation?
>
>

"exciter" <t24680@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23pinwEo3GHA.1300@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Will all the programs that work on xp work on vista?

No.

> I have old fashioned programs which work on xp with no
> problem.

If these programs are 16 bit, they will not work with Vista.
Otherwise Microsoft says "Most applications just work".

Also if they work with XP try the Windows XP Compatibility mode.

>These are english dictionaries of oxford, collins and so on
> which I bought some years ago.
> I would be very disappointed if they will not work on vista.
> So what will be the situation?

You could dual boot Windows XP with Vista, or run them both under VM.

>
>

"exciter" <t24680@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23pinwEo3GHA.1300@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Will all the programs that work on xp work on vista?

The vast majority of typical programs will run just fine since the
codebase of Vista is 2003, so compatibility should be similar to
XP/2003.

> I have old fashioned programs which work on xp with no
> problem. These are english dictionaries of oxford, collins and so on
> which I bought some years ago.
> I would be very disappointed if they will not work on vista.

There's no guarantee they will work, but they probably will.

> So what will be the situation?

The problems are going to be with old 16-bit programs that are not
supported, and utility software like CD/DVD burning, antivirus, and
firewall programs that hook into the system. Many of these programs
will need to be updated to work with Vista.

Well exciter,

So far everything I have put on that machine old programs such as
Radmin and Nascar Racing 2003 Season, Office I haven't tried yet I have
Office 2003 Professional, I will install this weekend and let you know. But
the afore mentioned programs as of this point work fine to my knowledge.

I will be hammering it this weekend,

Just so you know the system in Question is a:

Dual Core P4 3
2 GB Ram Dual Channel
800 gb of hd space
Video Card: GeForce MX 4000 128 mb ram AGP

Originally this was ear marked as a game server but then RC1 came out so I
just had to try it.

Happy Beta Testing Folks.
"exciter" <t24680@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23pinwEo3GHA.1300@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Will all the programs that work on xp work on vista?
> I have old fashioned programs which work on xp with no
> problem. These are english dictionaries of oxford, collins and so on
> which I bought some years ago.
> I would be very disappointed if they will not work on vista.
> So what will be the situation?
>
>

Thanx people for swift answers.
How can I understand if a program is 16 bit or 32 bit or whatsoever?

The thing is this:
It may sound strange to you but I am interested in english language
dictionaries
and I use 8 dictionries on my laptop.
They all work fine and date back to early 90s.
And these dictionaries are essential to me that I use them almost everyday.

Now, when I upgrade to vista in excitement and if the my dictonaries will
not work
I will be very disappointed.
I dont want to sacrifice my current convenince in exchange of some fency GUI
graphics stuff.
I hope u understand.

There is confusion about whether 16bit programs can work. They cannot work
in Vista x64. But that is true of all 64bit operating systems, not just
Vista. Vista x86 should not matter.

"exciter" <t24680@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ul6vUap3GHA.1568@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Thanx people for swift answers.
> How can I understand if a program is 16 bit or 32 bit or whatsoever?
>
>

"Colin Barnhorst" <colinbarharst(remove)@msn.com> wrote in message
news:O0TO9np3GHA.3476@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> There is confusion about whether 16bit programs can work. They
> cannot work in Vista x64. But that is true of all 64bit operating
> systems, not just Vista. Vista x86 should not matter.


"Should" being the key word...but they don't seem to work.

:-)