Multiple 16-bit programs running in Windows 7

Good day,

I've created a python program to batch up a process we have running at work. Unfortunately, the program we use was written in the 80's, with its last update in the 90s. Its a 16 bit windows 3.1 program.

I've enabled Windows 7 to run multiple 16 bit program simultaneously, but it doesn't seem to be doing that!

It loads multiple NTVDMs, as it should, but only one of them seems to be doing any processing, the others are barely using the CPU at al开发者_开发问答l. In Windows XP, the same program will use 70% of each core on the computer.

I was wondering if any one has any idea how to improve the performance of 16 bit programs in Windows 7? Or, if Windows XP just handles 16 bit programs better ?

Thanks

16-bit programs are old and crusty and Microsoft has long since stopped properly supporting them (although it leaves NTVDM around for legacy reasons).

If you need to run 16-bit code, consider running them inside DOS-box, or inside a virtual machine. This will also allow you to upgrade your host to a x64 system.