Opening old WinXP .exe utilities in Win 7 64bit is a no go. So I did stumble on the so called Windows XP Mode with Virtual PC. Downloaded and followed installation instructions and I have now a Win Xp as a virtual machine running inside Win 7. I just haven't tested it yet with games but there it is. Hope this helps in case this has not been already discussed here...
Note: I was trying to install SHCE utils from here:
http://www.subsowespac.org/silent_hunter_mods.shtml
The link for XP mode:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...e-in-windows-7