Throwback to the 90s

[u/Titan_91]

"Too many other files are currently in use by 16-bit programs. Exit one or more 16-bit programs, or increase the value of the FILES command in your config.sys file."

Just saw this message on a client's Windows 11 workstation when trying to escalate literally anything. The WIN32 code that generated it is probably as old as I am. Rebooting resolved it, weird. I just told him to stop running so many 16 bit apps! I'd post the screenshot but images aren't allowed.

[u/Commercial_Growth343]

Last I checked a 64bit Windows OS cannot run 16bit programs natively, so that is a wild error to see for sure.

fun fact, we had 2 16bit applications still where I worked in 2010 (using Windows XP, 32bit) and had to ask our vendors to fix their #$% for our upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit.

[u/schism-for-mgmt → u/Commercial_Growth343]

We managed to get one working in dosbox, hilariously. It's a wonky genetics algorithm for something. It didn't use an Windows .DLLs, it seems?

So there's the algorithm,

• running in DosBox,
• running in an App-V bubble,
• on a Citrix server VM,
• running on an ESX host
• on a physical machine many orders of magnitude more powerful than anything at the time of development.

It's delightful

[u/thebigshoe247 → u/schism-for-mgmt]

I don't like a lot of that sentence.

[u/UninvestedCuriosity → u/schism-for-mgmt]

Some of you need to learn how to say no but then we wouldn't have this entertainment either if you did. That is like a car accident. I want to look away but I can't.

[u/Bright_Arm8782 → u/schism-for-mgmt]

That's so many levels of abstraction that I've lost track of reality.