RUNNING Lotus 123 v98 Millennium Edition on Windows 11 ARM -

Hi All,

New to the Forum -- just wanted to let everyone know - I've had no issues installing Lotus 123 on on my Windows 11 ARM Virtual Machine as well as the Help32 windows 8 workaround under parallels on my MacBookPro M1pro Chip; I have run into a few strange bugs and resolutions while using the program. Hoping to share other's Lotus 123 experiences on running Lotus 123 v9.7 - 97, 98 and ME either on Windows 11 ARMx64 or Widows 11 native on native intel/AMD normal windows installations. Bugs issues and workarounds.

Welcome to the forum!

What's Widnows 11 ?
&
What's a Virtuial Machine ?

dJNCD said:

New to the Forum -- just wanted to let everyone know - I've had no issues installing Lotus 123 on on my Windows 11 ARM Virtual Machine....

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Welcome to Eleven Forum.

I'm an MS Office person myself, with some vintage versions running well on Win11. I do know there are some Lotus 123 enthusiasts here though.

Windows Build/Version Widnows 11 pro ARMx64 on MacBook Pro

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My usual typo is to is to spell it as 'Widows' - sometimes that's seems appropriately ironic

My new setup has a me on the the Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Number Key Pad. My fingers are still learning the new layout and very sensitive keys. My old keyboard was a Microsoft comfort keyboard v1.0. Loved the action on those keys and the spacing was just perfect. So... I'm Sorry for the typo's. Although I do feel I've been "Widow'ed" from my Windows 7. I’m not to thrilled with the changes in windows 10 & windows 11; however windows 11 way better than than windows 10

Any other lotus123 users out there running the software on Windows 11 ARM on apple M1 M2 Pro on Parallels

I too had no problems with (my best spreadsheet) Lotus 123, Millenium Edition (aka 9.8.208.1200). Windows 10 Home, build #19042, and it installed flawlessly. I've used the same CD installer on XP, Win7, Win8.1. HOWEVER... After using it for 2 years, decided to Factory Reset Windows OS. The reset went fine, but Lotus just won't display correctly anymore. I have installed and re-installed several times (after manually removing remnant registry settings), tried various compatibility combinations, created another user and tried that -- all to no avail. Display drivers are up-to-date. No matter what I do, the problem is that the display of 123 is just weird. The toolbar/status bar at the bottom of the screen is roughly font size 2.0; mouse hovers over Smarticons is the same text size; menus are all OK; but functionally, everything works fine. The problems are mostly the same in Lotus WordPro. I didn't install other Smartsuite items, so I can't comment on them. I'm still gonna use 123, as Excel is not user-friendly enuf for me. Besides, I too, have years and years of scripts that work wonderfully on 123.

Anyway, I would sure like to get 123 to display correctly. Any users out there have suggestions? I would really like to discuss the problems (and possible solutions) with anyone with the knowledge.

thanx

harpsicord12 said:

I too had no problems with (my best spreadsheet) Lotus 123, Millenium Edition (aka 9.8.208.1200). Windows 10 Home, build #19042, and it installed flawlessly. I've used the same CD installer on XP, Win7, Win8.1. HOWEVER... After using it for 2 years, decided to Factory Reset Windows OS. The reset went fine, but Lotus just won't display correctly anymore. I have installed and re-installed several times (after manually removing remnant registry settings), tried various compatibility combinations, created another user and tried that -- all to no avail. Display drivers are up-to-date. No matter what I do, the problem is that the display of 123 is just weird. The toolbar/status bar at the bottom of the screen is roughly font size 2.0; mouse hovers over Smarticons is the same text size; menus are all OK; but functionally, everything works fine. The problems are mostly the same in Lotus WordPro. I didn't install other Smartsuite items, so I can't comment on them. I'm still gonna use 123, as Excel is not user-friendly enuf for me. Besides, I too, have years and years of scripts that work wonderfully on 123.

Anyway, I would sure like to get 123 to display correctly. Any users out there have suggestions? I would really like to discuss the problems (and possible solutions) with anyone with the knowledge.

thanx

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Check your dpi settings in windows. I’ve noticed that setting some dpi settings won’t let lotus display correctly start at 100%. And see if that works if not try different percentages till find one that works. Also check different resolutions for your monitor

Thanx djncd, for reading and responding. I didn't mention the dpi specifically, in my original post, but yes, already done that. After I unpacked the Laptop from the Factory, Windows set display to max, at 1680x1050. Of course, at that setting, I had to change text size and icon size. In the multitude of menu's that I had to go thru, I finally decided upon keeping the resolution, but just changed "Make Text Bigger" (in Ease of Access) and "Make everything bigger" (also in Ease of Access), Desktop icon size (via Desktop-right-click), and Taskbar icons (via Taskbar-right click). I didn't even get to installing any Programs yet. After Lotus installation, and several others programs (and months gone by), I had to change resolution downward, because a new program now didn't display correctly. In each downward resolution, I had to tweak the stupid icon-text settings (IN THE 4 FU... menu's) to look decent; and of course I had to check functionality/display of the already installed programs -- including Lotus -- at each resolution. But not all res produced a full-screen display -- which I did not evaluate. Lotus was fine at all res that were tested -- all the way down to 1280x720. At that time, I never even knew about the DPI and other Compatibility settings in the Program Shortcut-Properties menu, so I never had to tweak anything. Lotus worked great, right out of the box -- and it's nearly 20 years old!. NOW... fast forward to after I do a Factory Reset, and re-install Windows. That's when I started having problems. I think I have exhausted all the combinations and permutations of [ desktop / taskbar / text size / 'everything' size / Compatibility Mode (W95, W98, WXP...) / dpi settings ]. I've checked and re-checked the existing display drivers. And this all has nothing to do with Windows updates, because NEITHER Windows installation has had any updates. No other program has any similar problems. But not all is lost. 123 and WordPro DO STILL work. The UI's are just not friendly now.

But thanx for the response.

Similarly,
Office97 basic functions run fine on Windows 11.
but no macro any more because of registry change. for me, it's a killing factor. Last platform Office97 macro working is Windows 7.
I can run Office 2010 macro, even 2019 macro on Windows 11. but they are working different way than Office97. (some projects running more efficiently on Office97/Windows 7 than Office2010/2019/Windows 11)

I have moved some Office97 tasks onto python. while, pyautogui has another issue on Windows 11.
Windows 11 is a pain to me.

Just a thought. (I'm still running in Windows 10. No problems at all, so if it isn't broke ....".)

Might try right clicking on the Lotus123.exe file and choosing the run as administrator option. Then right click on the file again and choose properties, "compatibility" and "change DPI settings". There are several other options you could try, like running in VGA then back to high dpi. (Personally, I'm running at 198x1080 with text and programs at 125%. Works perfectly for me. (Even the help files look like the original.)

When trying to install Lotus123 Millenium on a Windows10 Surface, when setup reached the page where you select where to install it, c:\ or E:\ or even D:\ was offered, the same CD drive the Lotus setup files were already on. However, one could not select any option other than d:\, which made no sense. A pro at the physical Windows Store in Toronto nearly gave up. I asked him if he could temporarily change the drive letters. He did that, and we got it on the C: hard drive.
Now I have a Windows 11 Surface and I have the same problem. But I am unable to change the C: name to fool setup. I get some error message.
There was no problem with Win8.1 and Win7. The Win11 I have is Windows Pro with that regrettable update, something about 24H2.
He and the great Microsoft Store are long gone.
I have not seen this odd problem in other 123 forums and I am desperate. Ask me how much I really hate Excel.....

At one point, my Smartsuite installs were going to one of my non-primary drives, and I had to manually change it. This could be a permissions issue, since Smartsuite installs to the root of the hard disk.

I've had no problem installing Smartsuite in the past six months to the C drives. It could be your version. Are you using the "last" version, available at Lotus SmartSuite 9.8 + FP6 : IBM : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

I use Word Pro, Approach and 123 daily.