re-installing ancient software

TerryinNC said:

I think you may have put your finger on it - I'm running 64 bit Home Premium. You think this thing may have some native code in it that is 32 bit only? bummer.

It just occurred to me that my wife's MacBook has XP and Bootcamp - I'll try it over there.

Home Premium wont run virtual machines, so thats out. You could easy upgrade to pro...?

I noticed on my install cd that some files had a *16* in the file name and some had a *32*, so I am assuming that the install is a 16 bit file and not compatable with our 64 bit OSes.

My manual is for a 1998 F150 (with the CD updated & copyrighted 2002), so its pretty old by todays standards! @ least we know now that virtual pc is the workaround!

bobkn said:

TerryinNC said:

I have an automobile service manual on CD that uses an old version (2001) of Stirling Technologies installSHIELD that worked fine on Windows XP. Now that I have "upgraded" to Windows 7 I cannot load the program into the new system, even changing the "compatibility" to WindowsXP or Windows2000. Can you suggest some other trick - I need to fix my car.

There are several "install".exe files on the disk. I can't get any of them to run, and the compatibility troubleshooter can't figure them out either.
Is there a way to identify and run the program directly from the disk without installing it?

As you say that you have 6GB of RAM, I suppose that you're running Win7 X64.

That is supposed to not run 16 bit code. I have read that some 32 bit software uses 16 bit installation code, which gives a problem. I wonder whether either of these caused your difficulties.

This is exactly what I was going to say. Yes you are completely right the installer is 16bit and the application is 32bit.....or well....I looked at the application it could be 16bit too. You CANNOT run 16bit software on Windows 7 64bit. - Added some REP!!!

Here is a work around if the installer is 16bit and the application is 32bit. (Note: the application has to BE 32bit):

A limitation to many 16bit installers was that they were not very sophisticated and basically just copied the files from the CD to the hard drive and then created the shortcuts. Or they just unpacked the files from some compressed file and then copied them to the hard drive and created the shortcuts. So the work around is to install the software on Windows XP or such and then just copy the entire directory from Windows XP C:\Program Files\<application> to Windows 7 C:\Program Files\<application> then copy or create your own shortcuts and the software 90% of the time will work. (Another Note: you must copy to C:\Program Files\<application> because that old application has no idea about C:\Program Files (x86)\<application> and since the installer never ran Windows 7 cannot force/redirect the software to use C:\Program Files (x86)\<application>.

I have done this with many 16bit installers for a 32bit applications and have had a very good success rate on the software working.

WindowsStar said:

So the work around is to install the software on Windows XP or such and then just copy the entire directory from Windows XP C:\Program Files\<application> to Windows 7 C:\Program Files\<application> then copy or create your own shortcuts and the software 90% of the time will work. (Another Note: you must copy to C:\Program Files\<application> because that old application has no idea about C:\Program Files (x86)\<application> and since the installer never ran Windows 7 cannot force/redirect the software to use C:\Program Files (x86)\<application>.

Unfortunately, in my case the CD is damaged just enough that I cant copy its contents to a folder nor make an iso from it! Also, I cant copy from a vhd to my boot drive... already tried that!

Darryl Licht said:

WindowsStar said:

So the work around is to install the software on Windows XP or such and then just copy the entire directory from Windows XP C:\Program Files\<application> to Windows 7 C:\Program Files\<application> then copy or create your own shortcuts and the software 90% of the time will work. (Another Note: you must copy to C:\Program Files\<application> because that old application has no idea about C:\Program Files (x86)\<application> and since the installer never ran Windows 7 cannot force/redirect the software to use C:\Program Files (x86)\<application>.

Unfortunately, in my case the CD is damaged just enough that I cant copy its contents to a folder nor make an iso from it! Also, I cant copy from a vhd to my boot drive... already tried that!

Depending on the damage: You could try a cleaning/re-surfacing machine or system. I know I have fixed many CD/DVDs that I thought would never work again doing that. We have a place in town that has a $5000 special machine, for $3 they will clean/re-surface the disc. It takes the machine 30 minutes but once it is done the disc looks just like new. I don't know if that is an option but it has saved me a few times.

I have Vista Home Premium 64 bit and VirtualBox will create a VM on it. It should also work on 7 64 bit. If you have an XP install CD you should be able to at least install and use the software on the VM. Of course if you have an XP install CD there's also the option of installing it on its own partition(providing drivers are available for your hardware.) The trick is to find a step by step guide that includes the fix for "ntldr is missing or corrupt" once you fix the W7 boot loader. Googling on that phrase should find the fix though.

VirtualBox is probably easier to set up than rounding up the XP drivers. Depends how much stuff you want to run in XP.

edit: if you venture into the Virtualization forum, Kari is very knowledgeable when it comes to VirtualBox.

TerryinNC said:

I think you may have put your finger on it - I'm running 64 bit Home Premium. You think this thing may have some native code in it that is 32 bit only? bummer.

It just occurred to me that my wife's MacBook has XP and Bootcamp - I'll try it over there.

ANy luck thru bootcamp? You may want to run this app to see if your PC is vm capable Securable GRC|SecurAble: Determine Processor Security Features|

If so, a MS Easy upgrade to Pro might be for you!

WindowsStar said:

This is exactly what I was going to say. Yes you are completely right the installer is 16bit and the application is 32bit.....or well....I looked at the application it could be 16bit too. You CANNOT run 16bit software on Windows 7 64bit. - Added some REP!!!

Here is a work around if the installer is 16bit and the application is 32bit. (Note: the application has to BE 32bit)....:

You have identified my problem. The application installed on my old XP system and copied over in the transition is VIEW16.EXE. And of course it gives me the error message that its incompatible. This is the same result when I try to run WINSTALL.EXE from the CD.
However, the original disk seems to have a 32 bit version. But when I try to open WINST32.EXE an error message flashes through the screen too fast to read then nothing happens. I've changed it to run in XP compatability mode - same result.
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Terry/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/Terry/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png[/IMG]

Virtual PC is free...however you are not able to download and use Windows XP Mode (which comes with a free activated copy of Windows XP) unless you are using Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate.

You have other great choices out there like VMWare Player and Sun Virtual Box...both of which are free. However, neither of them comes with a free activated copy of Windows XP...so you would have to have the license or get a license to run Windows XP under either of those products.