Operating system - Windows XP.

These CDs (1997 and 1998 truck) previously worked fine, are undamaged, and read fine (test copied to .iso with no problem). Install errors out from actual and virtual CDs with a 104.

Anyone else have similar hassles?

EDIT:
FOUND THE ANSWER. Seems installDOTexe (wording modified so speech filter doesn't turn in into asterisks) looks for the .INS file and if the computer is online it may see it as a Window "internet settings" file which it is not.

I disabled my Internet connection and everything loaded fine.

This may save someone a lot of headscratching.

Note that the 1997 I was running and many other Ford manuals are 16-bit programs.

If you are running a 64-bit Windows version (I don't) you may have hassles running older progs:

Is Windows 7 able to run 16 bit installers under XP mode? - Microsoft Answers

I would use Virtualbox and install an older Windows version in a VM if that happens.

 

Another note on these manuals I'll put here in case someone else needs it....

Don't install them to a custom location. Just accept the default location the install asks for. The application seems to be hard-coded to look in a certain directory for the C++ runtime library and if it is not there, it fails.

 

I actually got the "main software" to run in a VMWare Thinapp application, but because Thinapp virtual CD drives don't have "volume labels" it won't find the manual files after it creates them. That's verified as a Thinapp problem with no current workaround.

The Thin application AND an ,iso file can be carried on a USB key, but you still need Administrator rights to install the virtual CD driver to System32 so the complete application isn't truly Portable.

The nice thing is that you CAN carry a bunch of .iso files and your preferred virtual drive software on one DVD, copy the .isos to your hard disk, and have the software read from a bunch of virtual drives instead of swapping media back and forth.

 

Too bad about .ins . Everybody thinks file name extensions have to be 3 characters, and as a result, there are lots of conflicts. I make it a point to use longer, odd-looking ones whenever I have to make up something for software I'm creating.

 

Above poster may be a bot.

No .ins file was mentioned in my post nor is there a file extension problem with Thinapp.

 

No, I'm not a "bot," and I was referring to the note about the .ins file mentioned in the posting of 08-03-2011, 03:02 PM. Sorry if you were confused.

 

Cool. Thanks for not being a bot!

There's been some impressive boardspam on various forums lately.

What sort of software do you write?

 

Artificial intelligence research and applications (Michael A. Covington, Michael A. Covington, Consultant). I'm not much of an auto mechanic, though. As cars get more and more computerized, this is less and less of a problem!

 

Hmmm.......you'd have an interesting edge rolling your own engine management systems.