Problem with old programme

Barman58 said:

@Snugglebugs

There is another way, a few of the Open Office type Word Clones still support some earlier rarer file types so may be a solution to your problems going forward (these are, unlike Word, Free to use)

That's a good idea. I already have Apache Open Office on my other PCs so tried it to open a WRI file. It worked better than Wordpad. Still has some odd additions, but they appear only at the start and finish of the document so are easily ignored. I have now installed it on my Win 10 PC and it is OK on that. (The Write text type is called just Windows. Apache doesn't have exactly that; I will have to choose one that works best and then stick to that one.)

I can simply spend several hours opening all the old files and saving them as Word doc next to the originals.. Maybe docx to future proof them?

Thanks - I needed the nudge to get me to remember Apache and experiment with it. Funny how things slip my mind!

Then I will have all my first 65 years ready and can start on the next 21 years to get up to date.

Tony
PS I was lucky that in 2003 one of my then clients licensed me for free to use his copy of MS Office when I had a lot to do for him. Its up to 2007 version and still gets those updates which has been enough for most work.

Snugglebugs said:

Thanks - I needed the nudge to get me to remember Apache and experiment with it...

The last ever version of Write was supplied with Windows NT 3.51. I've just dug it out of an old NT3.51 CD and tried it. I can confirm that even for the 32-bit NT3.51 it was only supplied as a 16-bit app. I can also confirm (if you really must use it) that it will run under x86 W10 version 1903. I wouldn't recommend it though, it is severely limited in that it cannot understand long file names. Its 'File Open/Save As..' dialog can only handle folder or file names in 8.3 format.


I did however create a small .WRI test file which can be opened in my LibreOffice Writer with no apparent odd artefacts.


I can sympathise with your attachment to old apps, I have one I still use as my address book: CARDFILE.EXE which I've copied across all my machines since W3.1. That one however did get updated to a 32-bit version in NT3.51 so I can still use it