>>>>>>FPW won't start on my Windows 7 (x64) installation. What am I doing wrong??
>>>>>
>>>>>Trying is what you are doing wrong :)
>>>>>
>>>>>I run it on XP Mode on my W7 64 installation for AFAIK it won't work in windows 7 64 as it is a 16 bit app.
>>>>
>>>>I tried every compatibility mode. None works.
>>>
>>>To expand on Hugo's comments, Windows 7 64-bit will not directly run 16-bit apps - only 64- and 32-bit apps.
>>>
>>>If you want to run FPW on the 64-bit machine, one way is to:
>>>
>>>1. Create a virtual machine on your 64-bit computer
>>>2. Install a 32-bit OS on that virtual machine (usually Windows XP)
>>>3. Install and run FPW on that XP VM
>>>
>>>If your copy of Windows 7 is Professional or higher, it includes so-called "XP Mode". This is steps 1 and 2 above rolled into a single installation, and you don't have to buy any more software. XP Mode is not installed by default on Pro or higher, as Hugo points out you have to download and install it. Once you do so, you in effect have a 32-bit XP computer that you can start and stop at will. You can install anything you want (32- or 16-bit) on that virtual machine.
>>>
>>>There are other virtual machine managers (VMMs) available. One I've used a bit is Oracle VM (formerly Sun) VirtualBox. That gives you step 1 above. Once that's installed, you use it to manually create one or more VMs. On a suitable VM you install XP. Going this way, you have to have a separate license for Windows XP.
>>>
>>>VirtualBox is far more powerful than XP mode. You can install a wide range of "guest" OSs, not just 32-bit Windows XP ( http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes ). You can install 64-bit guest OSs on a 64-bit host, or even a 32-bit host (!) if you have the right hardware. One of its most useful features is the ability to create snapshots, which is terrific for testing. If you have enough CPU and RAM you can run multiple VMs simultaneously, and configure virtual networking between them so you in effect have a "network in a box".
>>
>>Many thanks to you and Hugo for the info. I indeed already appreared to have Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode pre-installed on my laptop, but they were not yet activated. They were also sort of hidden in the Start Menu. Only after typing in 'virtual' and later 'xp mode' in the Start Menu's search facility they revealed their location in that menu. See the 1st screenclip.
>>
>>After starting Windows XP mode, it configured itself, by installing an XP version. XP started up in a window and I was able to start FPW by going to 'C:\Program Files'. The funny thing though is that this C:\ is different from the one that XP created. See the 2nd screenclip.
>
>C: drive difference - yes, that is expected. The "hard drive" for a virtual machine is actually a single large file in the host's file system - usually with a .vhd (Virtual Hard Disk) extension. The Virtual PC/XP Mode virtual machine manager redirects VM file I/O operations to that file; the guest OS believes it's writing to actual disk hardware.
>
>It's best to remember that the XP Mode virtual PC is, in effect, a completely separate computer. XP Mode is "user friendly" so, by default, it shows the available drives on the "other" computer - the host - as network drives. The "C op Vostro 3700" is the actual physical C: drive of your Win7 64-bit host computer, which, as far as XP mode is concerned, is a drive on another computer. The "Lokaal station (C:)" drive is the VHD used by XP Mode, which is physically stored somewhere on "C op Vostro 3700".
>
>If you create a file C:\SomeFile.txt on "Lokaal station (C:)", it is written to the VHD file and appears only on that virtual drive in XP mode. It is not created on the C: drive of the host computer ("C op Vostro 3700"). The two hard drives are separate - one real, one virtual - on two separate computers - one real, one virtual.

Is it smart enough to have C:\SomeFile.txt available again on a next session?