Maybe Windows 3.1 was a sweet spot?
I'm of the opinion that there is a much better chance that a Windows 3.1 binary will run than a huge number of applications written for versions of Windows since then.
When writing for Win. 3.1, everything would have been simple and pretty basic, and would often have included all of the library functions that they require statically linked in and included with the package source. The rest of the OS interfaces generally do not change.
Anything written using one of the run-times or tool kits that have been introduced and subsequently withdrawn are much less likely to work.
Hey. First post! That hasn't happened to me for a long time.