Hi!
I've just happened to find your post because I also posted something about Lotus 123 in a different forum that is also hosted in this site.
The forum I'm from is for the DOSBox program. The first thing you should know is that XP is the first home Windows that isn't built on DOS, but on Unix.
However, it has a DOS emulator so we can still run DOS programs and games (the emulator makes them think you really have DOS).
DOSBox is just a (much) better emulator and it's a small free program. The way it behaves is that you just need to make sure to run it first before entering any DOS application (e.g. you enter the command prompt and type: dosbox.exe 123.exe).
Anyway, I can confirm that Lotus 123 v2.4 does work - both directly and via DOSBox. Alas, it's not perfect in DOSBox because I can't edit the cells - only rewrite them from scratch (see below).
So here's what I want you to do:
- First of all, I want you to tell me your exact version ("3.1+"?).
- Then, I want you to try to run it via DOSBox.
- Last, but not least, if it works, I want you to tell me if you experience the same cell edit problems I have in my version 2.4.
Please tell me if you agree. If so, please report on your progress.