Tricking a windows installer?

I purchased this really awesome anti-trojan/virus software: Twister anti-trojan. When I first upgraded to vista it was pretty flawless. My anti-trojan software was still installed and everything was great! I've talked to the developers and they have said that it'll be awhile until they put out a vista version.

my question: is there a way to trick the windows installer so it thinks it's an "XP" system? Is there a universal check from most installers or is this not even possible. If I could run the install program in an emulated environment then I could still install most of my broken XP software. If not I may just try installing it on another PC and dragging the files over to this one. I'm sure i'll need the registry entries though :/ which is why I wanted to ask you guys what my options are.

thanks!

 

I feel like a major geek now!! WOOHOO

This is what I did (and for once it actually worked!) so if for some reason anyone else has Twister and you want to run it on Vista x86 (x64 probably wont work), try this:
1 - I installed twister onto my laptop and sent the main folder over to my main computer
2 - I also copied over 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Filseclab' to my main computer
3 - run regedit.exe and search for "filseclab". This part is tedious but it's the most important part. Before I did this Twister would run but I could not register, update, or use any additional twister .exe's - as you run through each filseclab folder click on the main folder of that reg entry and click "export" then just name it to anything "twist1.reg" 2, 3, et.al. Also make sure to catch '"C:\Program Files\Filseclab\Twister\twister.exe" -a' in: computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run

4 - Ziped the registry files and sent them to my Vista computer. I installed each one accordingly. (note: some of the files depend on user-registry entries. You will have to mess with it a bit because your user entries will be different on both comps. Just create new keys and new strings as they are needed and put the information in the correct spot. I only ran into this problem once.)

5 - Restart and you'll get a nice popup from that nifty 'run' reg entry asking you to register! Voila, you're all set!

While this is a great fix for my one program. I still would like to see a better solution to finicky installers :/

Hope this helps someone else! It was worth the time to get it working! Twister is a great program. As all you vista user know, having your screen flash black and pop up with an authorization box "DURRR do you want to edit your background? Is this okay? yes or no!" rofl that is the first thing that I had to figure out how to disable. Twister = catch-all for your trojan-protection needs, oh and firefox noscript. FTW!

 

There are compatibility modes that you can run executables under. Here's how:

1. Right-click the file
2. Select 'Properties'
3. On the File Properties dialog, select the 'Compatibility' tab
4. Under 'Compatibility Mode' check the box next to 'Run This Program In Compatibility Mode For'
5. With the drop-down, select the OS compatibility mode you wish to use.
6. Apply your settings.

 

Yeah, was gonna say, I'd use compatibility mode and call it a day

 

nvm!

 

Compatibility mode barely does anything! Installers check the registry to see which version of windows you have. The compatibility thing just runs it at different settings. Thank's for the help!

to be more exact I was actually looking for a sophisticated program that could open installers in an emulated environment so that when the installer would check for certain things the program would send the information to the installer instead of referring to the registry. I also have another question but I'll start a new post for that

 

ompatibility mode does more than run at different settings, but ok

 

Can you link me to this information?

Compatibility mode does a lot more than change display settings.

 

My question is tricking an installer to thinking wouldn't help? As the system should use said os's methods instead of using xp methods/API's on vista, wouldn't that ineffect make the program not run correct under vista anyhow, hence it not worth tricking the os?

 

Typically, compatibility mode when used during installation, stays active with that application even after install. At least, it used to work that way.

 

well I don't know enough to really answer... that's why I was posting to ask you guys. Thanks for making me feel like an idiot.

 

Nobody made you feel like an idiot. There is nothing wrong with your solution, in fact,, I am impressed. Just seems to me there was a simpler way.

Now, if you make a statement as a fact about something like compat wizard, be prepared to back it up, because if you are wrong, someone will call you out on it. You kind of walked into that one.