Yeah, stuff like that continues to be the best use-case for windows virtualization. Sounds a lot like trying to upgrade the BIOS or Firmware on an older PC; often the installer is some binary that only runs on Windows of the same vintage.

Backwards-compatibility with older web browsers so engineers can build websites for them, is another. I've also heard of industrial automation (e.g. CNC machines) being married to Win2k or WinXP, so being able to run an old OS on new hardware is crucial.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 2 points 2 days ago

A lot of pieces of medical and industrial hardware have their controlling software written in VB and if you're lucky it's VB6...(and usually heavily dependent on openGL libraries)

Banking? That's all COBOL and BASIC.