As you may probably know, 64-bits Windows cannot run 16-bits programs, contrary to 32-bits Windows. This is why you can no longer run Win 3.x games on modern OS.

The usual solution to this kind of problem would be to run a virtual machine with an old Win 95 / 98 / XP, or run Win 3.x under Dosbox.

Yet, I just discovered an alternative to running a whole VM with an OS on it. Instead, you can use winevdm.

Download, unzip somewhere where you want to keep it, double-click install, it will add a few registry keys that you can remove anytime by double-clicking the uninstall.reg file if ou want, and there you go, you can run 16-bits programs.

I tested it with 2 games, and it seems to work quite nice.

Enjoy.

It's about time something like WINE is being utilized in Windows itself, not just Linux and MacOS. I think there is a game or two on GOG that actually use some kind of WINE wrapper in Windows, but I forget which.

I want an official compatibility with 16 bit apps, not this...

There's no such thing due to how 64-bit Windows works on the modern "AMD64" architecture:-

32-bit Windows - Can run 16-bit and 32-bit programs, but not 64-bit.

64-bit Windows - Can run 32-bit and 64-bit programs, but not 16-bit.

Microsoft removed the virtual DOS machine subsystem (NTVDM) from 64-bit OS's because it relied upon the ability to use "virtual 8086 mode" that can't be used simultaneously in 64-bit mode used by Windows. Likewise, it's possible for 64-bit CPU's to run 16-bit programs natively in "Legacy mode" (eg, FreeDOS) but that means acting like an older x86 CPU (no 64-bit and maximum 4GB address space). You can't run both 16-bit and 64-bit code "natively" at the same time.

Winvdm, DOSBox, PCem, the choice is endless here...

*I still prefer the emulation way though...*

DosBox works pretty good at running 16 bit games I thought.

There are limitations there though. You can get Win 3.11 working through it, but where you tend to get stuck is on Windows 95/98 (95-97 had a rash of 16 bit Windows games - although in some cases, luckily it was only the installer that was 16-bit). You can run Win95 in vanilla dosbox, but I've not had great luck with it. I think there are forks that are better, but at that point, you might as well just run PCEM and emulate a high end pentium with a decent 3DFX card.

A necro, but a belayed thank you. Works perfectly to run 16-bit installers on Windows 10. Have a ton of old games on CDs and the problem was getting them to install. You can fiddle with them with wrappers and such once they're installed, but this allows one to get through the brick wall of 16-bit incompatibility. Just installed Outlaws from my CD thanks to this.

Also a bump for anyone interested who missed this thread back then (I have it favorited).

Since this has been necroed, first, thanks for the suggestions. Secondly, how about PCem (https://www.pcem-emulator.co.uk/ )? Anyone tried working with that?

Never used it, but the winevdm method from this thread is extremely convenient. You just install it and then it automatically catches any attempt to launch a 16 bit application and also automatically runs it in vm session. No need to manually start anything or fiddle with any settings.

I'll definitely be testing it out. Thanks!