Hi, I am trying to install my first video game on my PC (running XP Home SP3).
When I place the DVD in my D drive it does not auto run and generates message " D:\ not a valid Win32 application". When I check to see if drive recognises the DVD in my computer it displays a logo for the application.
If I look at drive via control panel , add/remove programs, install software, floppy drive I can see that drive lists the .exe for the application. Clicking on that generates an error D:\ *.exe not a valid Win32 application.
Game I am trying to install is Microsoft Flight Simulator X. D: drive is a DVD R/W device and works fine when video DVDs. I have checked latest driver is installed ..OK.

I have run Spybot and came across a couple of threatening cookies, nothing major, deleted these and tried again, no change.

I have run ' Can you RUN it' ......it failed due to video card not having Pixel Shader 2.0 (1.4 capability on card). All other aspects were at minimum or better. A list of recommended video cards were provided.

My question is (before I upgrade my video card) is the absence of Pixel Shader 2.0 likely to be the cause of my error message or is there a more fundamental problem?

Thanks for any advice profferd.

I have concluded that this post is not relevant for this forum. After some investigation and changing DVD drives and even computer I am pretty sure that this is an operating system issue ---- corrupted in same way.
I am opening a new post in the relevant forum