Solved Installing the original version of Falcon 4 on a PC with Windows 11 installed from scratch
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<p>Hello<br /><br />It’s all in the title: it is impossible to install the original version of Falcon 4 (and consequently BMS) on a machine on which W11 has been installed from scratch.<br /><br />I tried to do it using the 2 original CDs I have (yes, I’m a careful guy), the iso image that has always worked so far, and that with all possible compatibility modes. <br /><br />If no one has a trick that would help me, end of 20+ with Falcon then BMS? I can obviously boot on a disk with W10, but it will be quickly tedious … and maybe I will not be the only one with this problem soon. <br /><br />I hope someone can help me.<br /><br /></p>
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<blockquote>@SemlerPDX I dunno, it’s just not clear to me that it’s useful for anyone… it’s something originally intended for testing/debugging device drivers … maybe it’s still useful for folks who do that? outside of BMS, I haven’t heard anyone ever mention it, for at least 15 years.<br /><br />It seems like there are many competing approaches implemented since… MSConfig.exe selective-startup … BCDEdit.exe boot profiles … incl. the “last-known good” boot profile to auto-revert from config changes which cause crashes on startup … or, probably more common, just using a VM with a restore-point, to test kernel-mode drivers.<br /><br />MS has never been good about cleaning old junk out of the garage. But, counter example, they did stop releasing “checked” builds sometime a few years ago… which was also something mainly targetted to kernel driver dev and testing.<br /><br />(So, short answer – I just didn’t know, and didn’t want to send someone on a goose chase looking for something that maybe didn’t exist anymore. :)</blockquote><p><br />lol - no worries. If you don’t use it, or don’t know how it’s used these days or how much, I could understand how you’d question whether it’s useful to anyone.<br /><br />I can tell you without a doubt that is absolutely crucial as an element of any non-server Windows OS, from an IT standpoint. This is THE go-to in order to get Windows booted up after it’s had a real bad reef hit and the situation calls for an X-Acto knife instead of a JDAM (as in, the GBU being ‘reinstall windows’).<br /><br />All those utilities you mentioned like MSConfig, etc., cannot be accessed when Windows is FUBAR, and Safe-Mode is the way to un-FUBAR the OS so that you <strong><em><u>can</u></em></strong> access such utilities once more and regain control over the PC. You can even tell it to boot to Safe Mode with internet access (or not, by default).<br /><br />Safe Mode would not go away without being replaced with something else of similar function, I’d bet dollars to donuts on that. <img src=“/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f37b.png?v=n15mefgnel8” alt=“” class=“not-responsive emoji emoji-android emoji–beers” /> <br /><br /><br /></p>
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<blockquote>Hello<br /><br />It’s all in the title: it is impossible to install the original version of Falcon 4 (and consequently BMS) on a machine on which W11 has been installed from scratch.<br /><br />I tried to do it using the 2 original CDs I have (yes, I’m a careful guy), the iso image that has always worked so far, and that with all possible compatibility modes. <br /><br />If no one has a trick that would help me, end of 20+ with Falcon then BMS? I can obviously boot on a disk with W10, but it will be quickly tedious … and maybe I will not be the only one with this problem soon. <br /><br />I hope someone can help me.<br /><br /><br /></blockquote><p>
“End of 20+ with Falcon then BMS” is a bit melodramatic. You can buy it on Steam for about $5 if you cant get your 24 year old disk to install.
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<p>It works.<br />Thanks for the help.</p>
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<blockquote>it is impossible to install the original version of Falcon 4 (and consequently BMS) on a machine on which W11 has been installed from scratch.<br /><br /><br /><br /></blockquote><p><br />Its not impossible - I just did it a month or so ago without any issues. If you can provide some details on what’s going wrong I would be glad to try to help.</p>
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<p>On Windows 10 folks say the trick was to reboot into “safe mode” and the install would work. I have no explanation and no theory to offer, for why that would be true, but that’s what people say.<br /><br />I don’t know if Windows 11 even has such a concept… or if it still works or not. </p>
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<blockquote>Its not impossible - I just did it a month or so ago without any issues. If you can provide some details on what’s going wrong I would be glad to try to help</blockquote><p><br />Hello.<br /><br />Thank you for the offer of help. <br />But I finally went into the easy way out by buying a version of Falcon 4 on Steam and putting the 2 original CDs and their ISO in the memory.<br /><br />So it works with a Steam version of Falcon 4. And if 7 € allow to start again for 20 years, it’s not too heavy an investment <br /></p>
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<blockquote>On Windows 10 folks say the trick was to reboot into “safe mode” and the install would work. I have no explanation and no theory to offer, for why that would be true, but that’s what people say.I don’t know if Windows 11 even has such a concept… or if it still works or not.</blockquote><p><br /><br />Hello<br /><br />Thanks for the tip. <br />I hope it can be used by others than me. <br /><br /></p>
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<blockquote>On Windows 10 folks say the trick was to reboot into “safe mode” and the install would work. I have no explanation and no theory to offer, for why that would be true, but that’s what people say.<br /><br />I don’t know if Windows 11 even has such a concept… or if it still works or not. </blockquote><p><br />…I know it was just speculation and presumption, but why ever would Windows get rid of safe mode (without replacing it with an alternative)? Even certain utility programs have a safe mode, to stop ‘startup’ items from firing and giving the users or repair tech time to identify and remove issues. IMHO, I would never guess that ‘safe mode’ would go away, though given the current market trends, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was shifted to a paid service model on top of Win11 like how certain tools are gated behind a ‘Pro’ version of their OS</p>
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<p>@SemlerPDX W11 has a safe mode, just like W10.</p>
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<p>@SemlerPDX I dunno, it’s just not clear to me that it’s useful for anyone… it’s something originally intended for testing/debugging device drivers … maybe it’s still useful for folks who do that? outside of BMS, I haven’t heard anyone ever mention it, for at least 15 years.<br /><br />It seems like there are many competing approaches implemented since… MSConfig.exe selective-startup … BCDEdit.exe boot profiles … incl. the “last-known good” boot profile to auto-revert from config changes which cause crashes on startup … or, probably more common, just using a VM with a restore-point, to test kernel-mode drivers.<br /><br />MS has never been good about cleaning old junk out of the garage. But, counter example, they did stop releasing “checked” builds sometime a few years ago… which was also something mainly targetted to kernel driver dev and testing.<br /><br />(So, short answer – I just didn’t know, and didn’t want to send someone on a goose chase looking for something that maybe didn’t exist anymore. :)</p>
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<blockquote>@SemlerPDX I dunno, it’s just not clear to me that it’s useful for anyone… it’s something originally intended for testing/debugging device drivers … maybe it’s still useful for folks who do that? outside of BMS, I haven’t heard anyone ever mention it, for at least 15 years.<br /><br />It seems like there are many competing approaches implemented since… MSConfig.exe selective-startup … BCDEdit.exe boot profiles … incl. the “last-known good” boot profile to auto-revert from config changes which cause crashes on startup … or, probably more common, just using a VM with a restore-point, to test kernel-mode drivers.<br /><br />MS has never been good about cleaning old junk out of the garage. But, counter example, they did stop releasing “checked” builds sometime a few years ago… which was also something mainly targetted to kernel driver dev and testing.<br /><br />(So, short answer – I just didn’t know, and didn’t want to send someone on a goose chase looking for something that maybe didn’t exist anymore. :)</blockquote><p><br />lol - no worries. If you don’t use it, or don’t know how it’s used these days or how much, I could understand how you’d question whether it’s useful to anyone.<br /><br />I can tell you without a doubt that is absolutely crucial as an element of any non-server Windows OS, from an IT standpoint. This is THE go-to in order to get Windows booted up after it’s had a real bad reef hit and the situation calls for an X-Acto knife instead of a JDAM (as in, the GBU being ‘reinstall windows’).<br /><br />All those utilities you mentioned like MSConfig, etc., cannot be accessed when Windows is FUBAR, and Safe-Mode is the way to un-FUBAR the OS so that you <strong><em><u>can</u></em></strong> access such utilities once more and regain control over the PC. You can even tell it to boot to Safe Mode with internet access (or not, by default).<br /><br />Safe Mode would not go away without being replaced with something else of similar function, I’d bet dollars to donuts on that. <img src=“/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f37b.png?v=n15mefgnel8” alt=“” class=“not-responsive emoji emoji-android emoji–beers” /> <br /><br /><br /></p>
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<p>Sharing my experience in the hopes it helps someone.<br /><br />I copied the CD to my hard drive (because the computer I’m installing onto doesn’t have a CD drive because who has a CD drive anymore, that’s so 1998).<br />Launching Setup.exe displays nothing. The 32-bit Setup Launcher task appears in Task Manager but nothing is displayed. I tried messing with compatibility mode, and DPI settings but nothing resolved this problem.<br />I then went to the “Details” tab in Task Manager. I right-clicked on Setup.exe and selected “Analyze wait chain”. I noticed that setup.exe was waiting for
nvcontainer
. Some googling found that this is a NVidia process (I have an NVidia GPU, duh). I checked the box next to nvcontainer and selected “End process”. The setup program now displays!<br /><br />Killing nvcontainer appears to resolve launching Setup.exe every time now (I suspect until I reboot).<br /><br />Hope this helps!</p> -
<blockquote>Sharing my experience in the hopes it helps someone.<br /><br />I copied the CD to my hard drive (because the computer I’m installing onto doesn’t have a CD drive because who has a CD drive anymore, that’s so 1998).<br />Launching Setup.exe displays nothing. The 32-bit Setup Launcher task appears in Task Manager but nothing is displayed. I tried messing with compatibility mode, and DPI settings but nothing resolved this problem.<br />I then went to the “Details” tab in Task Manager. I right-clicked on Setup.exe and selected “Analyze wait chain”. I noticed that setup.exe was waiting for
nvcontainer
. Some googling found that this is a NVidia process (I have an NVidia GPU, duh). I checked the box next to nvcontainer and selected “End process”. The setup program now displays!<br /><br />Killing nvcontainer appears to resolve launching Setup.exe every time now (I suspect until I reboot).<br /><br />Hope this helps!<br /><br />Thank you very much</blockquote><p><br /></p> -
<p>@MetalSteveK Bizarre … I guess that proximately explains why Safe Mode works (doesn’t load nvidia graphics drivers).<br /><br />Nice find. I’d strongly recommend a reboot after this. :)</p>