Run programs meant for Xp+ on windows 95/98?

Question

I am wondering if it is possible to run a program (specifically rainmeter) on Windows 95/98 but is meant to run on at least XP. The reason being is that I have an old computer with limited ram, and I want to minimize the system impact by running the earliest version of windows possible, so I can run rainmeter on it without major lag, and hook it up to a spare monitor to display random data (such as date, time, ect.) I would just hook it up to my main computer, but my video card is already maxed out in terms of ports. The computer in question is an AMD Athlon XP w/ 1gb ram and some sort of integrated graphics, and a 160gb hdd (which I am probably going to swap out with an old 30gb I have).

Answer 1

Two things: First, an Athlon XP with 1 GB RAM is a really, really powerful machine for the time. Windows 95 was intended for 4 MB Machines, while Windows 98 required 16 MB. Windows XP required 64 MB and came out at a time when machines with 128 MB RAM were standard and 1 GB was the real "Why do you need so much outside of a Server?!" amount - there is really no reason not to run Windows XP on it and save you all the headache.

Secondly, running an app meant for Windows XP on Windows 98 may be as trivial as "Just copy it over" or impossible. There are some runtime things that aren't part of Windows 98 but can be installed on it, for example Internet Explorer 5, the Visual C++ Runtime or the .net Framework 2.0. However, there are some system APIs that simply do not exist in Windows 98 and there is no way to add them (this also includes .net Frameworks newer than 2.0 or the Visual C++ Runtime since at least 2010).

it is also of note that Windows XP is based on Windows 2000/NT while Windows 95/98 is based on a completely different kernel with different APIs, introducing further incompatibilities.

It would be an exercise to find out exactly what prevents the app from running on Windows 98 and checking if there are redistributable components available for it, but as said, with a machine as powerful as yours, there is no reason not to install at least Windows XP.