@Rhywden said:
@Lorne Kates said:@Rhywden said:
Does anyone else have an idea of how to drag this program screaming and kicking into the century of the fruitbat?
Virtualize a Windows 3.11 (For Workgroups) machine. Install the program. Note the registry changes.
You noticed the "can't open file because read/write lock" problem? Pretty sure that has nothing to do with the registry...
@FrostCat said:
Looks like WIndows 7. Install XP mode. Install program in XP Mode.
That's even less useful. You did not actually read the thread, did you?
So sorry for missing the one line where you mentioned you didn't have the right version of Windows. Cain't help you with that, but you do realize that XP Mode would most likely have worked, right?
Re-read Jaime's post. Lots of programs just plain old don't work right if you don't install them, as you yourself discovered. Did you ever try, you know, installing the program?
I deal with this all the time. At my current job, we have an app that runs in a VM. Our app uses ActiveX controls, and won't work if you don't have them registered, because you didn't install it. And the VM itself needs to be installed so that IT can set up COM stuff in the registry. If you don't install both apps, you get cryptic errors. You can work around the issue by manually registering a pile of OCXs (something yourself wound up doing--hey, both your problem app, and the one I work with, use comctl32!). I get calls regularly from customers who would rather spend 15-20 minutes copying files around and hand-editing ini files and shortcuts and manually registering 7 different dlls because they can't be bothered to run a couple of installers that take ~1 minute each, so my sympathy's fairly low.
Here's an idea: get Dosbox. Try running your installer from inside that. It's the same advice I gave originally, except for those pesky licensing issues. Or dredge up an old PC not running 64-bit Windows. But for God's sake don't waste your time trying to reverse-engineer what this program needs to have set up to be able to run!
If money weren't a problem, which I assume it is since you don't seem to have the $90 to upgrade to Win7 Professional, I'd echo the suggestion to get one of the commercial apps that can figure out what an installer does and repackage the installation process; I used to consult for a company that did that with EVERYTHING and repackaged literally every app people used to create one-click installers.
Or you could keep wasting time pissing and moaning at well-meant suggestions that, you know, WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY SOLVED YOUR PROBLEM, because people missed one key detail.