The Sims Double Deluxe

I know, I know, a really old game.

Anyways, if there is an easy fix, I might as well go ahead and do it, right?

Here is, if my memory serves me right, basically what happened.

I install The Sims Double Deluxe, but not the expansion pack, nor the bonus material or patch. Worked fine, but wasn't much in the game.. Not many skins, not many objects, etc.

Then, and here is where I think my first mistake is, I go to installing the other things. I don't even remember what order I installed them in, but I seriously doubt it was the order that the instructions said to do it in.

At any rate, I ended up doing uninstalls and re-installs several times. Here is what happens now... I couldn't get it to work... So I finally just got it uninstalled... Here is where I may have made another mistake... I was that the maxis folder still showed when I went to start>all programs, so, I right click, delete it. Then I went to Computer>C>Program Files right click on the Maxis folder, shift+delete, delete it and everything in it.

Now, if I try to install the game+all bonus materials, following the instructions exact, here is what happens.

I finish all instructions... (insert disk one, install, insert disk 2 at prompt, then 1 at prompt, then install expansion pack, then insert disk on and let it update, then put in bonus disk, then install bonus items, then install patch). Then I put in disk one to play, and it says the same thing that it says after you install the expansion pack, and it says that it needs to update or whatever, BUT, if I simply click ok, it runs the uninstaller, not any sort of update. Also note that, right after the install, nothing but the, I believe it was the help file, shows if I go to start>all programs>maxis. I know that at one point, I was able to play the game with everything installed, but I believe the next day or something, after the computer had gone to sleep, the sims disappeared from the start menu and all of this other stuff started.

Any ideas at all? Is it simply not going to work on Vista, since it's so old? I mean, I know that it worked before... But it wont work now. I believe that it will not work after a restart or sleep mode... Anyways, any help is appriciated.