I solved my own problem for a change.
I downloaded MG's Wizardry VII Viewer, in which the executables are designated as ".bmp" files instead of ".exe" files, with instructions to fix those designations in order to run the programs. Now, ordinarily (i.e., if on a non-XP machine), I have no difficulty in changing a file's designation -- it isn't rocket science. But those #$@%^! Gnomes-of-Redmond improved my life by automatically "hiding extensions of known file types" in XP, and I had a dickens' of a time trying to figure out how to "unhide" them so I could change them. Praise be the Web: I finally found the answer.
Yet this just highlights one of my fundamental issues with the Gnomes: they keep trying to protect me from myself, and - @#$(**!! - what I really want is protection from THEM!
(On a side note, this was why, in the "early-days-of-personal-computing," I came down on the side of DOS instead of Mac machines: the Mac OS also seemed structured around the principle of protecting me from myself: not letting me do things that I wanted to do but that IT was sure I didn't.)
Oh, well, at least I have a happy ending, this time.