Is there any way to run Lotus 1-2-3 on Windows 7?

[UpstateNewYorker]

Well, I understand this is a strange question. My mom works at a small business that’s entirely our family. Since the 90s she’s run Windows 98 and used Lotus 1-2-3 for various spreadsheet tasks. The printer connected to this computer has broken, and obviously it is proving too difficult to find a compatible printer.

 

A move to a more modern system poses the issue that Lotus 1-2-3 is now a discontinued program. Attempts to convert the files to Excel-compatible formats have failed. Opening the files in Quattro X8 (part of an office suite made by Corel, makers of WordPerfect) is possible, but does not retain formatting and would require days of manually resaving spreadsheets without their password protection.

 

I understand trying to run such an old program on a much newer system is a big ask. But asking here is a last ditch effort to save her and the business time and potentially money. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

According to information I could gather, the install disks we have say it is version 1.0a of Lotus 1-2-3. It is saving files under the .wk3 extension, if that gives any sort of indication.

[sazrocks]

1.0? Holy crap that is pre 1991. You are literally trying to run a 27+ year old piece of software designed for windows 3.0...

I guess you could try running it in compatibility mode, but you have a lottery's chance at getting that to work. Have you considered running it in a vmware win95/98 VM?

[AnonymousGuy]

^ VMWare would probably be the best bet.

 

And holy hell she just needs to bite the bullet and move to modern software.

[UpstateNewYorker]

Quote

I guess you could try running it in compatibility mode, but you have a lottery’s chance at getting that to work.

We have tried that on both a Windows 7 and Windows XP machine. Sadly, we lost the lottery, at least today.

 

Quote

Have you considered running it in a vmware win95/98 VM?

We have not. I will keep that in mind, thank you.

[UpstateNewYorker]

1 minute ago, AnonymousGuy said:

And holy hell she just needs to bite the bullet and move to modern software.

Trust me, we've tried to get her to. But I think it was the fear of it not converting properly that made her not. Sadly, as I could’ve told her, she was just delaying the inevitable.

[sazrocks]

2 minutes ago, UpstateNewYorker said:

We have tried that on both a Windows 7 and Windows XP machine. Sadly, we lost the lottery, at least today.

 

We have not. I will keep that in mind, thank you.

Literally pretty much any vm could handle that software. It requires only 4MB of ram for crying out loud. I would go with vmware for the best experience though. 

[Tsuki]

my dad uses a software called Family Origins that shouldnt be working on Windows 7.

 

the key is to install it on an older computer, then copy the installed files over to the newer computer.

its not garunteed to work, but it often does.

[UpstateNewYorker]

2 minutes ago, Tsuki said:

the key is to install it on an older computer, then copy the installed files over to the newer computer.

its not garunteed to work, but it often does

We also tried this on both the XP and 7 environments. It gives a General Protection Fault, even in compatibility mode when installed on its own, and if you try to run it off a flash drive, it simply won’t open at all.

[Tsuki]

12 minutes ago, UpstateNewYorker said:

We also tried this on both the XP and 7 environments. It gives a General Protection Fault, even in compatibility mode when installed on its own, and if you try to run it off a flash drive, it simply won’t open at all.

that sucks. its time to update to newer software then honestly. unless you want to run it from a VM

[ehhthing]

Maybe you could get an intern to convert it all. 

[UpstateNewYorker]

26 minutes ago, ehhthing said:

 

Maybe you could get an intern to convert it all. 

 

The business has 3 employees. This is not an option.