Stop using a Mac. I still run Windows 95 apps on Windows 11 without issue.
But broadly speaking you are right. I run software today on Windows 11 that I first acquired in the 90s. Some of it console based that run under the command prompt.
While Windows is justly famous for backward compatibility though, there are some exceptions.
Firstly 16 bit programs don't run on 64 bit Windows. (Well, unless I fire up a 32 bit Windows in a VM.) This is not a train smash for me, although I did have to replace some -really- old programs.
Secondly, games. MS removed a cdrom driver which a lot of my old games used for copy protection. I'll need to dual boot those into win 7 if I wanted to play them. But the urge to even bother only strikes about once a year.
Regarding word processors, I used Word Perfect in the DOS days and Word since then, and everything still opens fine.
Obviously everyone's path is different, and their experience is different, but if long-term commitment to running existing, and past, software matters to you the maybe select an OS that prioritizes that over one that very much does not.
I guess that's the downside of vertical integration where the OS is basically just a means to sell hardware.
And DOSBox iirc can run windows 3.x if necessary
winevdm: https://mendelson.org/otvdm.html
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/ntvd...
This is an architectural problem not an OS constraint.
And they're completely correct to abandon this software in my honest opinion as the developers already have.
If you need this run a 32bit VM under the 64bit OS so the virtualised CPUs can handle the 16bit application.
Where did you get that piece of misinformation from? 64-bit x86 can handle 64, 32, 16, and 8-bit data just fine, and its instructions are still byte-aligned.
Also, the decision to remove 16-bit support from 64-bit Windows was entirely political. NTVDMx64 adds it back.