Star Trek Hidden Evil Game Won't Install Under Windows 2000

Date Initially Written: 10 December 2002.

Problem: Star Trek Hidden Evil game won't install under Windows 2000.

Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional with service pack 3.

Resolution Steps: Upon inserting the disc a menu appeared offering various options (install, re-install, un-install, play game, etc). When I clicked on the install option I was asked a few questions and then I got an error message:

_INS5576._MP.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows

I checked Activision's support page for Star Trek Hidden Evil and found an article saying that this game should work under Windows 2000 but offering no advice on how to get it installed.

Searching Google Groups I found several references to this error being caused by InstallShield not being able to find certain paths on a Windows 2000 machine. Apparantly this only happens on PC's that have had a a clean install of Windows 2000; PC's that have been upgraded from a prior version of Windows don't get this error.

I knew Windows 2000 has a "compatibility mode" but I'd never used it before. Compatibility mode can trick many applications into believing that they are running on an earlier version of Windows. Although not perfect, this utility can help you to install and run many applications under Windows 2000. Take the following steps to enable compatibility mode with Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 and later:

  1. Start a Run box (click Start Run).
  2. Enter the following command: regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll
  3. Click OK.
  4. Click OK to the confirmation.

If you now right-click a shortcut and select Properties, you'll see a Compatibility tab that lets you select whether the program should run under an NT 4.0 SP5 or Windows 95 compatibility layer.

To get the Star Trek Hidden Evil game to work I created a shortcut on my desktop to the setup.exe file and set the compatibility to Windows 95. The install program then worked fine and installed the game without any further problems. I didn't need to use the compatibility mode when running the actual game, just on its install program.

Recommended Reading For Solving Gaming Problems With Windows: Running DOS Games Under Windows 95