If you want the quick step by step instructions to run a program in compatibility mode you can just open up the help file in windows (hit START menu>help )
It has links on how to set up compatibility mode for XP all the way down to windows 95.
It works pretty well, but one of the important things you may have to set is "run in administrator mode"
Also if you have UAC (user access controls ) enabled, you may have to click through "yes i would like to do this function" a couple times.
I can get most older games to run this way, but some games the old 16 bit ones are just not compatible with the operating system.