Expert: J. B. Borge - 10/2/2007

Question
I've been using AutoCAD Lt 2000 on my Windows XP computer since 2002. Everything worked fine with the initial install and there were no problems when I reformatted a few years later when I upgraded from XP Home to XP Professional.

The other day I wanted to draw a line that was 1 foot long and swore I could simply type 1' into the command prompt. However, that didn't look. So I wanted to try to look up information in the help menu, pressing F1. However, when I pressed F1 the help window didn't come up. I know it used to because I'd accidentally hit F1 when I wanted to hit Esc.

I thought I'd try and reinstall the program, but decided I'd see if there was a repair option. I put my CD into my drive and tried to run the Setup.exe file. It booted, but then brought up an error that said, "Wrong OS. "AutoCAD only supports Windows NT 4.0, NT 5.0, 2000." That may not be word for word, but very close. So now my question is why am I just not getting an error that AutoCAD Lt 2000 can't be used on XP when I've always used it on XP before? Might this have something to do with the fact that the program is currently already installed, and I'm trying to run the Install?

Answer
CJ,

Autocad 2000 is supposed to run only on Windows 95, 98, & NT platforms. Apparently, you upgraded your OS to Win XP, while the Autocad 2000 was still installed. Technically, Autocad should work under the new OS.
Now that you’re trying to reinstall Autocad on the upgraded OS, the software will try to satisfy a few requirements before proceeding w/ the repair. First it needs to determine what kind of Windows is currently installed...so, the software finds out its Win XP – its never heard of the OS before! why...because XP was produced right after Autocad 2000. Therefore, it halts the installation & renders an incompatible OS.

Hope this points you to the right direction. Perhaps, its time to upgrade again?

Regards-
JB