Older PC games on Windows 7

[Tom_green_day]

Firstly, I've scrolled through a few pages of the advice forums and googled the problem with specific games, but to no avail which is why I have posted this here.
Recently I've been looking at some of my old (but not so old they're retro) games such as Rayman M & 2, older Lego games (Racers etc), and some older film games (LotR, early Harry Potter) to try and get them to work. Surprise surprise, they don't. I wondered if there is any way to get these to work that doesn't involve downloading an older version of windows or buying the games again? These are all disc-based games. I also didn't want to do anything illegal so if that's the only solutions, I don't think it's a solution. I'm a bit of a dumbass regarding computers, I'm a console gamer, but I really wanted to check these out again seeing as I was quite young when I played some of them.
Is there any hope? Cheers.

 

[SnowyGamester]

If running them in compatibility mode doesn't work you might find some fixes online by googling '[game name] windows 7' for each game. If you can't find any solutions that way your only option may be installing or emulating an operating system that will run them.

 

[OneCatch]

Compatibility mode usually fixes stuff, but your best bet is to google as Snowy suggested. You can sometimes get a surprising amount of into at the Steam forums as well, assuming that it's one of the older games that's been put on Steam.

You might also be able to get some of the older games on emulator if they were also on a console as well (Lego Racers for example).

 

[Tom_green_day]

If running them in compatibility mode doesn't work you might find some fixes online by googling '[game name] windows 7' for each game.

Yeah this was my first port of call but it never garnered any results. I didn't try it for all the games but the ones I did try it for proved useless.
I'm looking into this compatibility mode thing but I'm having trouble finding it where it's supposed to be. I'll try harder later, finally got one of my old games to install
Thanks anyway!

 

[DoPo]

I'm looking into this compatibility mode thing but I'm having trouble finding it where it's supposed to be.

1. Right-click the executable of the game or the shortcut (it doesn't matter)
2. Click Properties
3. Go to the Compatibility tab

You can set stuff here. Mostly, you'd probably want to check Run this program in compatibility mode for and choose an appropriate Windows - XP Service Pack 2 has worked the most for me but for some even older games you may have more success with 98 or 95. Aside from that, I'd suggest ticking Disable visual themes, Disable desktop composition and Run this program as an administrator - they do no harm but occasionally help.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Compatibility

Ok cheers, I know how to do that however for that the games need to be installed, which seems to be my main problem. I'm probably missing something so I'll keep checking, thanks anyway!

 

[AWAR]

Compatibility

Ok cheers, I know how to do that however for that the games need to be installed, which seems to be my main problem. I'm probably missing something so I'll keep checking, thanks anyway!

You can also do the compatibility thing for the setup executables too.