How to run newer software on older operating systems?

Question

This is a kludgy problem, but I'm hoping there's a way to do this:

Windows 2000 doesn't support the level of encryption that allows writing to encrypted Office documents. It can read them, it just can't write to them. Possibly there's some way to hex-edit it with XP replacements, but it involves kernel32 and the like, so it seems like a recipe to nowhere.

This is really the only thing I've found I cannot accomplish in W2K. I'm looking for a way to run Office 2010, perhaps in a compartmentalized way, in W2K in a way that uses the fewest resources/overhead possible.

I started with VirtualBox 1.5.6, and was able to install Windows Server 2003 Datacenter in it. Office 2010 installs and works, as expected, but the whole thing is just slow and uses tons of resources.

Seamless mode with VirtualBox makes it fairly elegant, but at the same time, the Server 2003 is always in the background even when it's not running, which I find a bit awkward. There's also no way to launch a 2003 program w/o launching the OS itself.

I then tried VMWare 6.5, which I could not get to install due to SSL errors.

I looked into Virtual PC, and although 2007 is not officially supported on W2K, it installed just fine. I was able to install 2003 inside of it. However, like VirtualBox, it seems like overkill for the task at hand. I just need to run Office 2010, not other applications.

Is there a better way to go about this, or are virtual machines pretty much the best bet, in which case it would be best to limit the RAM available to the VM to constrain its impact on overall performance? Or operate a minimal Server 2003 in the background, and not the full thing, just enough to make the application work?

I'm aware of the RDP option, as well, but that's even less seamless and integrated than VirtualBox or VMWare seamless/unity mode.

Or are there tools like Wine, except for Windows, that, instead of allowing modern Windows programs to be run on Linux, would allow modern Windows programs to be run on non-modern Windows? (which seems reasonable to me...)

Answer 1

I cannot estimate whether this works for your specific problem (I did not quite understand), but there is the possibility in Windows to run a program in the "compatibility mode".

Right click on the executable file - tab "Compatibility Options" -> see Microsoft.com