My laptop runs under Windows XP Pro, which is supposed to support most 16-bit as well as 32-bit programs. Being something of a freeware/shareware fanatic, I every so often download a file that won't function under my current system -- I get an error message to the effect that it "can't find" the file and thus can't run it because of conflicts between the 16-bit program and my operating system. I realize that this may not be physically achievable...but is there any way to temporarily jiggle the parameters of either the program or of my computer -- such as perhaps with an emulator program -- so that I can run the program without doing serious damage to my system?

As an alternative, I have toyed with the idea of partitioning my hard drive and installing another operating system -- or failing that, possibly buying a used laptop through EBay or some other such channel and using that to run these programs.