How to force MSI files to install on non-supported OS

Since I’m currently running Windows 7 Beta on my computer, I’ve ran into this issue quite a few times. You download some program you’ve been using on Windows Vista before, and once you try to install it, you’re being told “The operating system is not supported. Installation will be aborted.”

For many 3rd party installer systems, using Microsoft’s compatibility wizard will solve the problem. Just tell the wizard that the program requires special permission and ran on older OS version (e.g. Vista) and it should install fine. Unfortunately, this usually doesn’t work for Microsoft Installer packages (*.msi files). Here’s a short tutorial on how to still force those packages to install (taking the Samsung LightScribe software as an example):

1. Hit Windows+R to open the “Run” command prompt and enter %TEMP% to open your temp folder. Select all files and hit Delete. Confirm and just ignore all files you can’t delete.
2. Run LS_Update_1.14.32.1_.exe, which will extract the installer contents to some folder in your temp folder and start the installation. At some point the installation stops and you’re told that your OS is not supported. DON’T hit OK now, leave the message open!
3. Go to your temp folder and look for some cryptic folder like {C1EFD9F9-2726-4203-A83F-848D81B32CD9}. This folders contains the extracted content from the above installer (including the actual MSI package). COPY THE WHOLE FOLDER TO SOME PLACE SAFE (e.g. your Desktop), as the temp folder will be emptied once you exit the setup procedure. After copying that folder, you can now confirm the “OS not supported” message. The installer will exit and the temp folder be emptied.
4. Go to your copy of the former temp folder (e.g. on your Desktop) and locate the MSI package in it (e.g. LS_HSI.msi). Right-click it and select Edit with Orca (Orca is a Microsoft tool to edit MSI packages and is included in the Windows SDK which can be downloaded here).
5. Now, while there is now absolute standard way how MSI packages check the operating system version, this check usually is part of the launch conditions. Therefore, in Orca, select LaunchCondition under Tables and look for something suspicious like ( (VersionNT=500) OR (VersionNT=501) OR (VersionNT=502) OR (VersionNT = 600) OR Installed ).
6. Delete or modify the above condition to meet you needs and hit Save.
7. Close Orca and run the MSI package by double-clicking it. The program should install fine now.

This is not a universal tutorial for all MSI packages out there. It requires some thinking of yourself once you opened the MSI file in Orca, as the OS checks don’t always look the same, but the trick works for quite a lot of Microsoft Installer packages out there.