another "16 bit windows subsystem" message

I've been trying to re-install a game and when I click on the install button I get a "16 bit windows subsystem" message that says, "C:\DOCUMEN~1\OWNER\LOCALS~1\TEMP A temporary file needed for inialization could not be created or could not be written to.Make sure that the directory path exsists and disk space is Available. Choose 'close' to terminate the application." I have no idea what to do, I had no problem when I installed it the first time. I'm running xp that was already installed when I bought the computer. I have been to the game company's site and they told me to go to \windows\repair and copy the file config.nt from there to \windows\system32. and to go to \windows\repair and copy the file autoexec.nt from there and put it into \windows\system32. I have done that and still get the same message. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi Bear359, welcome to Virtual Dr :)

That error can happen if you try and install from a limited account. Are you definitely installing from an Administrator account?

Yes, it is the administrator account.

Bear359, Have you run DisK Cleanup lately and deleted all your Temp files? You could also do a Start>Search>For Files and folders and type in *.tmp and click Search. Delete any .tmp files you find. Do the same thing for *.temp

Note: the * is a wild card.

Tufenuf

I have run disk clean up and also went into the temp folder and made sure it was empty.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tufenuf

Bear359, You could also do a Start>Search>For Files and folders and type in *.tmp and click Search. Delete any .tmp files you find. Do the same thing for *.temp

Note: the * is a wild card.

Tufenuf

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I'd still do the above because there are several Temp folders in Windows XP.

Tufenuf

What game are you trying to install?

Tufenuf
I tried the search and tried to delete the .tmp and .temp folders, the ones in the windows folders could not be deleted so I left them alone.

Nick
I'm trying to reinstall The Sims, it's the original version, not deluxe or anything like that. The forum at EA.com and the one at the sims web site couldn't help.

Hmmmmm, you ought to be able to install that in XP, that's for sure.

Get your WinXP CD handy, then go to Start>Run and type "sfc /scannow" without the quotes. That'll replace any missing or corrupt system files.

I don't know if this will help, but when you re-copied your config.nt & autoexec.nt files, did you check to see if they were marked as read-only?

Nick
I don't have a winXP disc. It was already installed when I bought the computer.

hacker_cracker
I think yhey were read only when I copied them.

Try clearing the read-only attributes from the files, and see if that helps any.

How do I do that?

Right-clcik on the files, choose Properties, and you should see a checkbox for the Read-only attribute - clear it if it is checked.

Duh, I should have known that. I checked to see if they were read only and they were not.

I just checked the system 32 folder and noticed there is a text document named Autoexec.nt and a config.tmp file in there. should those be in there?
Sorry if I'm asking dum questions but I am totally clueless on this stuff.

You should have Autoexec.nt and also Config.nt in there. If Config.nt is missing, copy that over from the Windows\Repair folder.

Yes, those are also in there.

I ended up doing a destructive system recovery and things are working great now, I was able to install the game with no problems, and some other minor problems are fixed. Thanks for the help even though I didn't have any luck with it.

You're very welcome :) I'm sorry there wasn't an easier way, but it's great to hear that you got sorted out in the end. Thanks for letting us know :)