Setting up a Windows 3.1 program in Parallels for MAC 7

I am attempting to run a setup program(Windows 3.1) from a floppy disk. This program will not run on my Windows XP virtual machine.

Back ground.... previously used Parallels 3. My virtual machine would run any Windows 3.1 program.

I am currently using a trial version of Parallels 7.

Can anyone assist?



Thank you,


Reed

 

Can you give any more information? What is the name of the program you are trying to run? What happens when you try to install / run it? Do you get an error message?

Andrew

 

Windows 3.1 program in Parallels

The Windows portion displays a message it cannot load a 16 bit program.
My program is called Computest. This is an academic test generating software program.



Thank you.

 

This sounds like the sort of error you get when running 64 bit Windows as this does not support 16 bit programs. You can check your version of Windows (32 or 64 bit) using this Microsoft knowledge base article.

If you are using 64bit Windows then there is one other thing you could try, from your initial post it sounds like it is the setup program that is causing the error not the actual program itself. If this is the case you may find that the setup program is 16 bit (and therefore will not run) but that the program the setup program is trying to install is 32 bit (and therefore could run if only we could install it). Take a look on the install floppy disk do you see a 'setup32.exe' file? If so try installing with this file. Failing that are you able to copy the program's folder directly over from the 'c' drive on a computer where it has been installed already and try double clicking the exe file directly from its folder? If this still does not work you will need to create a new virtual machine containing a 32 bit Windows install to use the software. It should be noted that if you are using 64bit Windows you would not be able to run 16bit applications even if you were using a physical computer instead of Parallels.

If you are running 32bit Windows then you should be able to run 16bit programs (list of Windows versions that support 16bit) without a problem. Take a look at this Microsoft knowledge base for some troubleshooting steps.

Andrew

 

Dear friends, I live in Lima Peru, I have a MACBOOK PRO 8 GB RAM OS I7 LION, I downloaded the trial version and it seems the file does not drop completely, only lower 77MB of 304Mb which I think has the program, when I try to run the installation, a message appears warning that you can not mount the disk image. Try to download for Windows on another machine and the result was the same. Can you help me, thanks.