Can I fool software installation programs into thinking I'm not running Windows 2000?

Factual Questions
1

I used to run Windows 95 and recently upgraded my hard drive and decided to install Windows 2000 Professional on it.

Most software installs fine under Win 2K. However, I’m running into problems when installing some of the programs my two daughters like to use (they are 2 & 4 years old). At the very beginning of the installation it checks to see what kind of operating system I have and then tells me that my operating system is unsupported and I can’t go any farther.

I’m guessing that it’s running through some internal list of operating systems, and if it finds something it doesn’t recognize (like Macintosh or Linux) it aborts. The problem is that I have a strong suspicion the software will work correctly if I can somehow get past that check. I’ve looked through the various installation CD’s to see if I can circumvent the standard installer, but if I can it’s not obvious. So, is there anyway I can have my computer report back that it’s running Windows 95 or 98 when the software does the check?

I’ve thought of having a Windows 95 partition, but that would be alot of hassle to use. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

2

I was under the impression that if you have Windows ME, any software for 95 or 98 will work.

I was worried about one graphics program I use not working with the upgrade, but it does.

3

What does the message say specifically?

4

windows 2000 (not ME) has a program called appcompat – its desgined to fool programs to think your running any different number of OS – you can give that a try, just search for appcompat on the 2000 CD and run that program

5

Well, my thought is that it’s the old game software that’s at fault, not Windows. They were written back in the early 90’s, to work with Win95, and when they go to the operating system’s house they’re expecting to find the furniture arranged in a certain way, and if the furniture isn’t “just so”, then they can’t run.

We have some nifty games here at this end that want to run under Win 3.1 that won’t run under Win95.

As for a fix, no idea, but it’s not like there’s no other games out there. :smiley:

And if you’re in the market for games for preschoolers, you’ll be glad to know that the software doesn’t have to have Mickey Mouse or Blue or Barbie on it–check out Humongous Entertainment’s stuff. http://www.humongous.com/ One of our biggest regrets here lately is that we’re all now “too big” to play Putt Putt. I think I probably have the entire Humongous lineup on CD, filling up an entire plastic shoebox, running under Win95. (I’m sorry that their website has one of those “won’t let you go Back to where you were” functions. Irritating, but their games are so good that I forgive them.)

Broderbund’s “Playroom” is also excellent, as is “Treehouse” and “Backyard”. And “KidPix” is superb, can’t say enough good things about it.

We also enjoyed the Fisher-Price “Dream Dollhouse”, although it’s not very “educational”, just “fun”.

“I Spy Spooky Mansion” is good, but it’s for older kids, although I see that they have a Junior edition for preschoolers, though we’ve never played it.

Disclaimer: no guarantees here as to whether these will run under your Windows system. I’m only talking about “content”, as in “the content is excellent”.

And it’s not Barbie or Mickey or Blue. Or Pokemon. Or Sabrina. Or…

6

I don’t know how well Win 2000 runs Win 95 software, but there is a fundamental difference between Win 95 and Win 3.x. With 3.x and earlier, your computer still ran DOS in the background, with the Windows graphical interface on top. Starting with Win 95, Windows actually replaced DOS and could truly be called an operating system. Ironically, DOS games have a better chance of running under Win 95 or later than do Win 3.x games.

7

If an installer designed to run under Windows queries its environment to determine the current OS and gets “Macintosh”, yeah, I’d imagine that would confuse it significantly. (The MacOS not only runs on a different processor architecture than Windows, it doesn’t even process its executables in the same byte order).

The ideal answer to your OP would probably be something like what kinoons describes–software that tells your OS to lie to anything that asks about what OS or what machine specs you’ve got. We had one for the Mac called “Wish I Were”.

8

Windows 2000 is not the successor to Windows 98/95, it’s the successor to Windows NT. Because of the different markets for NT and the 95 series, there’s some things that really don’t work as well on NT-type systems. Most notably, many games work well under Win95/98/ME, but the things which make the games run so well can destabilize the OS. WinNT/2000 is more stable, but at the cost of not running things like games as well. In other words, there might be a genuine reason why your software isn’t installing on Win2000.

9

you might also check the MS website for compatability updates – every month or so MS puts out a new one to add compatability between win2k and other programs, most often games…

10

Chronos is on the mark. Windows2000 really isn’t designed to be run at home (ignore the fact that there is a Windows 2000 Server under my desk next to my Win98 box; I’m a geek. OTOH, I don’t run any games, educational or otherwise, on it either. Except Half-Life Server, which technically isn’t really a game application; like I said, I’m a geek). Your best bet for the long run is a cheap (200-300MHz) second PC running 95/98/ME for the kids to use.

11

I wouldnt go quite that far. I am an avid gamer using windows 2000 – between the ms updates, app compat, the game companies writing 2000 patches (thankyou rollercoaster tycoon designers for finally doing that) or writing their games for win 2k in the first place.

I’m currently playing or have played mechwarrior 4, rollercoaster tycoon, project IGI, MS combat flight sim 2, balders gate 2, shogun total war, crimson skies, and mechwarrior 3 on my win2k system without a whole lot of grief

12

Newer DirectX-based games, in general, work pretty well with Win2k. Older games are more problematic. Bigger game production studios are pretty good about incorporating Win2k support but smaller houses, like many of those that do children’s software, are not. YMMV.

13

Kinoons - apcompat (only one p) was just the trick. I was able to install the software, and it runs fine - no problem.

And thanks Duck Duck Goose for the Humungous.com link. Their stuff looks pretty good.

Chalk another problem solved thanks to the Dopers.