I may be jumping the gun a bit with what little information you're saying, but I find the usual evil in this case is Windows Installer 3.1. I'd recommend removing it, installing Red Alert 2, then reinstalling Windows Installer 3.1. I'm lead to believe some earlier versions [of Windows Installer] may, or may not allow Red Alert 2 to install just fine. Though I'm really not sure which, and a quick piece of google "research" into the matter didn't much help, either.

1) Goto "Control Panel" -> "Add or Remove Programs"

2) Tick the "Show Updates" tick box

3) Find Windows Installer 3.1, and click "Remove"

4) Restart.

5) Install Red Alert 2, hopefully.

6) Download Windows Installer 3.1 (ver 2!) and install. Please note that you do need genuine copy of Windows (y'know, just covering all bases).

7) Restart, and hopefully play Red Alert 2. Sometimes it needs some tinkering to get the game running even if you manage to install it.

it said "Windows cannot find gpedit.msc"-chronogears-

Ah, sorry, I sometimes forget that most people use Home Edition. Well, regedit is the only other way I know how to disable the balloon tips. Maybe I made a glaring mistake in my original post that I just keep over-looking, so let's see if Microsoft's support team can guide you through instead.

If this fails this time, I'm out of ideas.

^ I did everything you said and it didn't work. ????-chronogears-

Interesting. How about trying to disable them through the "Group Policy" then (I believe this method only disables Balloon tips on the taskbar, which is why the regeit method is more preferred (to me)):

1) Click on start->run

2) Type "gpedit.msc" hit enter

3) Navigate to User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Start Menu and Taskbar

4) In the opposite plane scroll down to "Remove Balloon Tips on Start Menu Items"

5) Right Click it, and select "Properties"

6) Select the "Enabled" radio button, then "OK"

Good luck this time. Make sure you restored your registry (from the previous method) before-hand, just for the sake of caution.

I think PC Gaming is definitley worth it. If you game on a console:

1. You would need a PC anyway for taxes, email, research, work, etc. So you would need a $550+ PC plus a good console of some kind
2. Graphics on a good gaming PC are far better then those on a console
3. You are right up close to a PC when you are playing, so you don't need a huge TV to compare
4. Games are more enjoyable anyway on PCs (IMO, I'm sure others agree tho.)
5. RTSs are impossible to play on consoles
6. Games are cheaper for PCs
7. etc, etc. I could tell you plenty of other reasons.....
   

PCs are more expensive, but It's worth it.
doomsdaydave11

Yeah, but it'd take about 158 [£40] PS3 games to make a £2,000 PC with 158 [£30] PC games cheaper than a PS3, or about 177 [£40] Xbox / Wii games to make a £2,000 PC with 177 [£30] PC games cheaper than an Xbox / Wii. So that's not such a good point if it's a machine for just gaming.

Regardless, I like all the current platforms, I don't want to buy the best value for money, though. I just want to play games, never mind the cost. So I'd vote that it is worth it.

NOTE: Always backup your registry before making any changes.

1) Open windows Registry Editor (Start->Run the type "regedit")

2) Using the navigation plane go trough to the "HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced" directory.

3) Right click on the display plane and select "New" with a smiple mouse-over to open the next menu level, and then click "DWORD Value"

4) Rename it "EnableBalloonTips" and press Enter.

5) Right click on the newly created value and choose "Modify."

6) Select the "Decimal" radio button, set the "Value Data" field to "0," then click "OK."

I hear that Australia is so far behind in release-dates that System Shock 2 is pretty much a new release.
Oh, I went there.

http://www.gameswarehouse.com.au/longpage.asp?gameid=2950