The 16-bit components of the InstallShield software used for installation
of old software may exhibit
this problem on operating systems where the creation of short file
names has been disabled (e.g. by setting the
NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation registry value to 1).
This problem may be solved by moving the setup file to a
location which does not use long names in its path components
(e.g. the root of drive C) and running it from there. If this does
not solve the problem, a change to a registry value is required.
The NTFS file system (introduced in Windows NT and widely used in later
versions of Windows, including Windows 11) automatically
creates 8.3 "short" file names and stores them along with the NTFS
"long" name. Although the short names are not visible when you
browse the file system, they are present, and you may see them
in some path values stored in the system registry, or displayed in
setup programs. This duplication, which only affects long file and
directory names, results in a slightly increased overhead when
creating a new file or directory, however it is required for
compatibility with older applications. Unfortunately even some
newer programs, released well after the introduction of "long"
file names on Windows, rely on support for short file names in
order to be compatible with the widest possible range of operating
systems and file systems. This includes the InstallShield
software used by non-current versions of Cloanto applications which did not
yet use Windows
Installer (MSI) technology.
Please note that x64 versions of Windows, Windows Vista and later versions
of Windows (including Windows 11) do not include a 16-bit
subsystem. The 16-bit components described in this article will
not work on these versions of Windows.
Warning - Please read the following article
before proceeding:
The creation of 8.3-compliant short names on NTFS partitions is
controlled by a registry value, which by default is set to enable
the creation of short names.
If the following value is set to 1 then short file names are
not created:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\
CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\
NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation=1
If the value is missing, or set to 0, then short file names are
created:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\
CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\
NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation=0
A reboot is required for the change to fully take effect. The
change has no effect on existing files and directories (it only
affects new writes). To create short names for files and
directories which are already on the hard disk it is necessary to
force this data to be rewritten, e.g. with a backup/restore.
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