Program frequently crashes

[MSB]

Hello,

I have an old dictionary program (Langenscheidt e-Dictionaries) that I have used for around 15 years through various incarnations of Windows. I have never had any problems.

I set up two instances with different dictionaries. As far as I know, I set them up exactly equally. Now, under Windows 10, one of the programs has never crashed, but the other program (identical except for having different types of dictionaries) frequently crashes.

From other programs I noticed that Windows 10 is more involved with user/administrator rights, so I set both of the programs to run as administrator and to also run under a Windows XP environement in the compatibility area. I also went deeper and set the user rights I could find to "full access".

Any ideas on how to prevent frequent crashes of the program? What other things could be interfering with it?

Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[Trouble]

What constitutes a "different type" of dictionary.
I'm not familiar with the program you mention but is it possible that a language pack may be needed to support it?
You mentioned that it "frequently crashes" does that mean, that sometimes it doesn't?

 

[MSB]

It's an old dictionary - I think I bought it back in 2003 or so.

The dictionary is available in a German and in an English version (but otherwise the exact same dictionary). I loaded the two versions separately and even renamed the .exe file for the second dictionary something else so there wouldn't be confusion. I did this because I had a lot of "user dictionaries" that I could load. Loading them all into one dictionary program would have slowed it down.

This arrangement worked fine under Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8 and 8.1. Now one of the instances of the dictionary (the English version) - no difference except for the installed language - is crashing a lot under Windows 10, but the other version has never crashed. The crashing comes and goes. A week ago the program was crashing almost constantly. Today it didn't crash at all.

The only difference I can determine is that the two instances of the program are running under Windows 10. Any changes that were made (for instance running them as administrators and using the compatibility settings to run them under Windows XP) didn't seem to make a difference.

I know that Windows 10 has some problems with old programs like this. I'm just wondering what is causing the interference. Why does Windows 10 sometimes have problems with old WinXP programs?

 

[Trouble]

Why does Windows 10 sometimes have problems with old WinXP programs?

I would assume because of all the reworking of the APIs (Application Programming Interface(s)).
Just like some old help files will not work any more if they have a .hlp extension instead of a .chm extension, likewise older .dlls, .ocx, that may make calls to components that are no longer included.

I personally have only had a single experience with this problem, with one of my Wife's old Casino games which worked beautifully on Windows 7. No matter what I did with respect to compatibility settings it would simply lock up and freeze on Windows 10. I assumed it was related to the Video Card so I upgraded hers' and it seemed to work better, but still after some time (variable from a minute or two to maybe twenty minutes) it would still lock up and freeze.
I offered to roll her back to Windows 7.
She declined and is shopping for a new Casino Game that is Compatible with Windows 10.