How do I restore use of my wallet.dat file, last used in 2013? I found a wallet.dat file in my backup folder, which I recall last using in 2013. I'm curious to see what the BTC contents are, which I recall being a really small fraction of BTC.

In any case, is there anything preventing me from just installing Bitcoin Core and replacing the default wallet.dat to recover my backed-up wallet? What is the recommended way to recover such an old wallet.dat file?
In any case, is there anything preventing me from just installing Bitcoin Core and replacing the default wallet.dat to recover my backed-up wallet? What is the recommended way to recover such an old wallet.dat file?


You can do just that. In fact, that's exactly the way to restore a backup.