Playing old games on new PC

[Northbloke]

Cleaning out an old cupboard and came across some old games and nostalgia set in so thought I'd give them a go.

Caesar3 was first up but just get an error message "Not a win32 app" when trying to load it on my Windows 7 PC. The disk says Windows 95/98.

ISTR doing this a few years ago and right-clicking and getting a "run it with another OS" or similar option but can't seem to find that now.

So is it easy to play old games (I've got loads I still like) or is it deliberately made difficult/impossible?

[br d]

Not sure how old those games are but Dosbox if they're really old.
Otherwise right click on the exe, go into properties and faff about with the compatibility modes, that will sometimes get things going.

[CubanPete]

I think the option to run as is only available on win 7 professional and ultimate, not home premium.

[Dave^]

You could try installing Win98 on a virtual machine...