I'm a bit gutted, you see, because I bought Red Alert 2 yesterday and when I tried to run the SETUP.exe and the setup.exe both failed to work. There was apparently an error in the program and it needed to be shut down. This happens after I try it, the install program does't even start.

I've even tried pasting it to my HD and trying it there, it happens on both the Soviet and Allied discs.

What's your OS, RAM free when no programs are running (e.g major progs liek IE not MSN and such) CD Rom drive.

RA2 is a bit of a bugger on XP - there's a few threads around here about it. Try searching the forum.

You did try the usual, compatibility options for all those OSs and disabling virtual themes and all that, right?
A good search might be the planetcc or ccplanet or something like that.

Yeah, people are having the same problems on the PCGamer forums. I've tried win98/ME compatability as well as XP, neither work.

It just doesn't install, the Setup.exe fails from both folders with the setup.exes in. It tries loading, but fails as soon as it starts.

2.6Ghz Athlon, 524mb of RAM (don't ask), 52x CD with a DVD 10-speed.

Well, it should work. I'm not giong to ask why but that's an odd amount of RAM. It does so work on a Win98. Get patches from Westwood or complain to them and they may give you a free refund.

I had trouble installing Legend of Sherwood (Sold Out) on my comp. It turned out that it was my software firewall that intervened. If you have a firewall, try disabling it while installing...

Ok, cheers.

*edits* - Nope, not even that's working...

Try disabling your anti virus too. Oh, and in case you have any debugger running, close it!
You are trying to install with admin account, right?

If none of the above work, try this link it might help a bit.

http://www.ntcompatible.com/Red_Alert_2_an...SP1_t23724.html

Yes, all of that, that topic does not help, it just says - I have a problem - no solution.