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Windows compatibility modes (Win 7) - what do they *actually* do??

Anonymous
2010-02-16T18:52:22+00:00

I've been wondering about this for awhile, but it came to a head last weekend when I've been trying to get an old game to work successfully.  One set of people are recommending set compatibility mode to "Vista SP2", another group says "no, that won't work, you have to use WinXP SP2 mode, but *not* SP3".

So, what exactly do each of these compatibility modes do to Windows 7 ??

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-02-24T22:55:53+00:00

    So what does it mean, that no answers are available for this question?  I felt it would be reasonable to ask what the different compatibility modes do on the machine; is it classified information?  Or does nobody really know?

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-02-17T17:52:45+00:00

    Yep, that's certainly what the Microsoft website says, but I was actually asking what these modes *do* to the system, not what is the generic conceptual reason for having the options present.

    I think most people have had the experience of trying to run an older program under Windows 7, find it doesn't work, get told to use compatibility mode, switch to "Vista SP2" compatibility, find that it fails differently, try "XP SP2" compatibility, find that it fails yet differently again, try "Windows 98 SE" compatibility, find that it fails the same as one of the other modes, and just give up.

    That's why I'm asking this technical forum what are the actual differences, in the settings of the operation system, in the different compatibility modes.  I'd be satisfied just to have answers for "Vista SP2" and "XP SP2", compared with non-compatibility modes.  That is the answer that I cannot find on the MSDN site.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-17T16:16:36+00:00

    Hi,

    Program compatibility is a mode in Windows that lets you run programs written for earlier versions of Windows. Most programs written for Windows XP also work in this version of Windows, but some older programs might run poorly or not run at all.

    If an older program doesn't run correctly, start the Program Compatibility Wizard to simulate earlier versions of Windows.

    1. Open the Program Compatibility Wizard by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Programs, and then clicking Use an older program with this version of Windows.

    For more information: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-is-program-compatibility

                                 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Make-older-programs-run-in-this-version-of-Windows

    Thanks and Regards:

    Swati Keni- Microsoft Support

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