Solved My first encounter with Program Compatibility Assistant...

[NomDeKeyz]

Greetings!
I hope this forum can help me UNDERSTAND what is up...
I seek information/clarification for present and future use.
I am not sure if this is best asked in this forum section;
however, since I encountered this while installing a game,
I decided to seek advice from experienced Win7 gamers.
I tend to be wordy, but this forum specifically said to give
as much information upfront as possible so... here goes...

Microsoft has confused me by having two programs that may or may not do the same thing...
Program Compatibility Assistant & Program Compatibility Wizard
One of which apparently cannot be manually prompted, and the other that must be?

Thus far, I am a true noob new to Windows7x64, as I have just
installed it onto a newly built system. I have also installed avast!,
MBAM, SAS, Firefox, Silverlight, and Adobe. Nothing else, yet...

I collected all the advice I could on installing Oblivion on Win7x64.
I believe I followed the major points of installation accordingly...
(install as administrator, somewhere other than the default location)
everything seemingly went according to expectation thru disk one,
and then I proceeded to install disk two, which also went according to
expectation, until it was supposedly finished; then I got this message:

This program might not have installed correctly
If this program didn't install correctly,
try reinstalling using settings that are compatible with this version of Windows.
Program: Setup.exe
Publisher: Macrovision Corporation
Location: D\setup.exe
Then, it has three options:
Reinstall using recommended settings
OR - This program installed correctly
OR - CANCEL

The info button suggests that I cannot regain this prompt manually
in the future, so I am hoping to figure out what to do at this time.
Is it possible to change/alter the relevant compatibility issues at a
future time, if I make a less-than-ideal choice at this time? After
reading the Microsoft page on the Program Compatibility Assistant,
and many other pages of relevance, I am still confused about this.

According to what I've read, the first option does not change the
program, but it does change how Win7 handles the program. Sadly,
I could not locate any in depth listing of exactly how it might handle
the program differently; nor could I verify that I could manually make
these changes myself later, if need be.

The second option causes the computer to accept the installation,
and proceed as if all is well, until something isn't. I could not find
anywhere if there is an option to edit this choice later if I need to
(especially since this window apparently can't be manually triggered).

The third option does nothing beyond dismissing this window; but how
that differs from the second option is unclear. Does this option mean
that the window will reappear the next time I install this program, or the
next time I run it, or ever?

The closest answers I found on this site to my many questions are here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/92865-q-program-compatibility-wizard.html
&
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/143315-compatibility-assistant.html
which leave me inclined to select option #2 "This program installed correctly".
Can anyone further enlighten me? Thanks in advance for any guidance. ~Nom

 

[solarmystic]

Hello and welcome to the forums NomDeKeyz!

When dealing with the PCA and PCW (acronyms for the assistant and the wizard), there is a certain rule of thumb that i usually employ; that is, to keep it simple.

When a program has been installed to completion, and you know it has because the Installer itself quits normally without having its own error message, it generally means it's properly installed. So yes, option 2 is the right one in 99.999% of the cases. (These steps refer to dealing with the PCA)

The PCW on the other hand is invoked when you select the Troubleshoot Compatibility option in the right click menu of a program's executable.

Changing/Modifying a program's compatibility options AFTER the installation is a very simple matter.

To reiterate, it just involves right clicking on the programs executable (the exe file that launches the file) and selecting properties, and then going to the Compatibility tab

Select the options you require, apply and you're good to go!

Hope that helps!

 

[NomDeKeyz]

OMGolly!!! ThankyoU ThankyoU ThankyoU!!!
After hours of searching that is the BEST and most complete answer I have received!
ThankyoU! And Bless yoU! And KudoS! ~Nom

 

[solarmystic]

You're most welcome NomDeKeyz, enjoy your stay on the forums!