32bit InstallShield 3 and 5 not working on Windows 11

[Theclaw135 4]

Pardon the ignorance, I don't know where to begin solving or even describing this. 😖 It's quite relevant to PC gaming. On my Windows 11 test environment, I can't install games using certain old versions of InstallShield. Such as:

• Dig Dug Deeper (InstallShield 5)
• Mega Man X3 (InstallShield 3)
• Mega Man X4 (InstallShield 3)

Nothing much seems to happen. The setup engine opens in the background and must be closed in Task Manager. What could fix this? I assume the same solution applies to Windows 7 or later, but I wouldn't be asking if I knew.

[silanda 0]

I've had occasionally issues matching your description with Installshield on Windows 10, so try this to see if the issue's the same. I haven't tried Windows 11, so I'm assuming you can still do what I'm describing.

In Task Manager, go to the details tab, right click on the setup executable, and select "Analyse wait chain". If any other executables are being shown in the wait chain, close them. In my case it was nvcontainer.exe for some reason. The installation program would appear as soon as that program was closed.

[Theclaw135 4]

Thanks. No telling how many games that'll help.

[Kobi-K 0]

The same thing happened to me when I tried installing a couple of old games on Windows 10. The solution for me was to delete a file called 'IsUninst.exe' from the WINDOWS directory. Every time you run an InstallShield setup it will copy it to your WINDOWS directory, so you might need to keep deleting it if the problem happens again.

Another thing I did was to run the game setup in Compatibility Mode suited for the OS of that game's release (Win98, WinXP, etc.)

[ScarlettShaw 0]

It sounds like the issue might be compatibility with older versions of InstallShield on Windows 11. You could try to run the setup in compatibility mode.

[holmesrebecca 0]

Hi there! You may install an older version of Windows. If this doesn't work, look for an alternative installer or try manually extracting the game files. If these solutions are a waste, it may be because the games were designed for older versions of Windows and are not compatible with Windows 11. So, it might be helpful to install another OS version by using a license activation key. Hope I helped.

[LiamDonovan 0]

It sounds like the issue might be compatibility with older versions of InstallShield on Windows 11. You could try to run the setup in compatibility mode.