Installing Star Trek Armada 2 on Windows 7?

I'm trying to install Startrek Armada 2 on Windows 7 x64. When I try to install, the popup launches and I can attempt to click install.

This briefly launches a small message box, after which nothing happens.

There are no errors in any of the application logs from this time period, and running as administrator has no effect. How can I install on Windows 7, or are they completely incompatible?

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4 Answers

Wow! Haven't heard of this game in a while. If you're going to play it though, grab Fleet Operations as it brings the game up to modern standards (in graphics and gameplay). It will require your disk but it has a custom installer that works (last i checked anyway) on windows 7.

If you're sure that you want to play the game stock, open the CD manually in explorer, then go to the Setup folder and launch Setup.exe with administrator rights (i suspect you may have been launching the autorun program as administrator instead).

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Edit: Aha! Well, I got it to work immediately: safe mode! The first thing I did was make sure that every executable in the CD-Rom drive was both set to Windows 98 Compatibility mode and set to run as administrator (verified by checking in registry). This didn't fix the issue normally, but then I booted in safe mode, ran the installer, and it worked INSTANTLY.

So, one could single out the issue by checking the processes and services that run normally but are not running a minimal boot in safe mode. And I am FAR too lazy to go through all that work. But this did seem to fix my issue. The game works fine.

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I'm currently struggling with this myself--- I installed it once and it took literally a week for the installer to pop up. I uninstalled and reinstalled after messing the game up by over-modding it, and now I'm stuck in the same problem, so I'm trying to learn a bit more.

Setup*32.exe pops up for about a day, then _ISDEL.exe and another InstallShield process pops up, and then that seems to hang forever. I have no idea what was the trigger that got it to install the last time, I have UAC off and went through literally every executable and made it run through compatibility mode.

It could be an issue with having the physical disk: I have the Armada II disk scratched up beyond recognition, so I "borrowed" (ahem) an iso, and have tried both Alcohol and Daemon Tools to mount it and run... having the physical disk may be the difference, but as I said before, I got it to work ONCE after waiting literally a week without shutting down my computer or disrupting the processes.

I really hope I don't have to wait that out again. Gonna fiddle around with this and see if I can find the root of the problem.

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Star Trek Armada 2 does not work on it's own on Windows 7 x64, as stated on the Windows 7 Compatibility Center. See RCIX's answer for a great alternative.

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The ONLY way I got Armada II to run on Windows 7 is using the Activision folder from a Windows XP PC.

• Copy the entire Activision folder from the Windows XP PC's Programs folder to the Program Files (x86) folder in Windows 7.
• Open the folder, then open the Armada II folder and find the executable.
• Right-Click->Create a shortcut to it and place it wherever you like.

Mine is in a Gaming folder on my desktop. I'm not sure why using an XP install of the game works, but it does.

I don't recall having run it in compatibility mode because I've been using the same folder for years now and really don't remember. I recently tried but I can't get the actual Armada II game disk to even install on my Windows 7 PC.

I hope this helps someone out.