Tech sleuth claims to have found the oldest GUI application that still works with Windows 11 — CDPLAYER.EXE from Windows NT in November 1992 wins the prize
A technology enthusiast claims that the oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11 is CDPLAYER.EXE from November 1992.
An internet sleuth has uncovered the oldest graphical user interface (GUI) application that can still run on Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 11. The application, CDPLAYER.EXE, comes from November 1992 and was tested on Microsoft's newest consumer OS without any modifications or emulation. The blogger, Enlyth, aimed to find a Windows UI application that still works on the newest OS, and after checking FREECELL.EXE from February 1993, they decided to delve deeper into "some early NT 3.1 pre-release versions."
Upon finding CDPLAYER.EXE on November 16, 1992, it became clear that this was the earliest GUI app that operated without alteration or emulation on Windows 11. However, Enlyth faced a challenge as their system lacks an optical drive. Fortunately, adding a small DLL (cdemu.dll) enabled the emulation of a CD drive, allowing the app to function as intended.
Despite this success, Enlyth wanted to further demonstrate the compatibility of older Windows applications on the latest OS. They tried loading a multi-part .ARJ archive of Windows NT 3.1, but encountered errors. Using a USB-attached optical drive, Enlyth was able to run CDPLAYER.EXE without additional DLLs. Additionally, Enlyth pushed the boundaries by attempting to run REVERSI.EXE, a 1985 GUI game from Windows 1.01, using the Winevdm project on a 64-bit Windows system.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
