Ok, my second system has just got that bit more interesting. Installed a prog off a cd when I first got win 2k. worked fine. now trying to reinstall it and guess what? it wont. if I look in task manager it starts three processes, two below the other and slightly indented:

ntvdm.exe
setup.exe
wowexec.exe

Tried several other installs from cds, and exactly the same thing happened, with excatly the same process names.
no matter how long I leave it, nothing happens. there is no system activity or anything.
if the system config is important, it is as follows:
p333, 128mb ram, 6.4gb hd, etc.