Microsoft Word 1990 version ported to run natively on Windows 11

Developer Justin Marshall has successfully ported the 1990 version of Microsoft Word (1.1a) to run natively on modern 64-bit systems, including Windows 10 and Windows 11. Unlike an emulator, this project uses the original source code to create a native version of the software.

To achieve this, Marshall had to modify significant portions of the legacy code, including 16-bit Assembler programming and segmented memory management, to make it compatible with modern architectures. The project was made possible by the original source code released in 2014 by Microsoft in collaboration with the Computer History Museum for scientific and historical purposes.

The port is not available as a simple executable file. Instead, the developer has shared the code and instructions on GitHub, requiring users to compile it themselves using tools such as Visual Studio 2022, the Windows SDK, CMake, and PowerShell. Due to licensing restrictions from the Computer History Museum, the code is intended for non-commercial use only. The project is primarily aimed at retro-computing enthusiasts and developers rather than general users.