Free W10 upgrade !!

[Nick]

If there are older programs that you simply can't abandon then the answer is a virtual machine. Download Virtualbox https://www.virtualbox.org/ (or the free version of VMware if you prefer) and instal a copy of your preferred OS in a virtual machine. I did this for a friend recently who was still using a DOS program that wouldn't run in W10. I used XP for the VM as copies are readily available. Could have used W98 or W2K equally well in this case.

Whilst doing this may get the program working, you are running the application on an old & vulnerable operating system - the fact that the host o/s may be Windows 10 or whatever is irrelevant - the VM is running a potentially vulnerable platform - you immediately lay open an opportunity for malware, especially as these deprecated/obsolete operating systems have little if any defence against modern threats.

If you can bring yourself to do it - and really you should try very hard - you should move on and abandon Windows 7/8 and all that was before them - you're just storing up trouble for the future - the problem won't go away, sticking your head in the sand will just make it harder to eventually resolve.

Concur completely with Mark re cut-n-paste - under the hood it's a complex beast, especially when pasting between dissimilar programs where formatting is involved - WYSIWYG is normally fine, except for c-n-p.

I remain open-minded, but unless I have some sort of epiphany in the future, my advice is going to remain neutral: upgrade if you like, but if you're happy with W7, stick with it. It's no big deal either way...

I have to disagree completely with that, sorry