If you wish (or have to) work with 16bit software - you may get in trouble...

A little bit happiness is in 32bit Vista if you install the old software in ordinary user mode - that might be help if it doesnt belong to direct system access.

Vista-x64 needs that you install Win95 in Virtual PC cause lackness of 16bit support of the M$-64bit OSes... Than any system call belongs to the VPC.

If wish to know more about tests of my oldapp - tell me here. I could snip when running and then upload the screenshots.

But if you are interested how odd an old progman replacement goes in Vista try ckTool while installing the 32bit-Installer available in my download area of my homepage.

Either you install the full source code version without any deinstalling routine but Win9x compatible Startmenu folder. In this case you may delete its created program directory and the folder under your startmenu if you want to get rid.
You should install the newer version with a few bugfixes which includes a better installer (deinstalling via control panel) if you are not so interested in the source but in running for testing purposes.

Anyway, i am very happy if anybody tells me what he expects or sees or mean beside to the project of the both years 1996/ 97.

XP's support for 16bit applications was limited, and Vista's is even more so. You're emulating an 8086 environment running 16bit code on a 32bit OS, which is very likely running on a 64bit processor. It isn't going to go well, especially with Vista x86 having very limited 16bit support (and of course no support for 16bit apps that require hardware access - you might be able to make it work with virtual devices or mapping trickery, but that's not a very good long-term solution).

I expect that, since 16bit support on Microsoft platforms has existed since the days of Windows 1.0 in 1985 (and 16bit protected mode in Windows 3.0 in 1990), and the shift to entirely 32bit applications was done in Windows 95 in 1995, that 16bit applications (DOS or Windows-based) should not be expected to run on a new OS released 4 versions (NT4/2000/XP/Vista) and 12 years later.

Also, with Vista and Server 2008 likely being the last 32bit OSes from Microsoft going forward, finding a 32 or 64bit replacement for that app would be wise to do soon. I know that most of these applications are likely not easily replaceable, and for that you're stuck with Virtual Server or Virtual PC. Honestly, I find that Virtual PC running my 16bit applications on XP x64 or Vista x64 work great, and are a good solution. If you need something more enterprise, consider Windows 2003 x64 running Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1.