I had no desire to learn new programs that are bloated with creeping elegance and cost hundreds of dollars while occasionally removing features that I liked, I installed VMWARE and purchased a 32bit Windows 7 operating system. 
Now I can run a number of programs that were lost.  The cost was a fraction of buying all new replacement programs that some idiot decided to fancy up and hide the useful controls & features.
As to any concerns about being hacked or the inherent safety of running these old programs, there is no Internet connection and no cross connection between the host and the guest computer.
Both the host and guest have antivirus so it's a moot point on my mind. 
In 37 years of running computers I've had 1 virus.  It came in an email from a friend that said look at the fireworks.