Creatures Caves

Thought I'd revive this thread with a few more details as to the nature of my problem. Unfortunately none of the solutions offered here so far have done much at all.

I have tried both the auto-extractor and manual extraction with task manager open to see if I could spot any issues, and it looks like the issue is with the setup program itself. Both create a "32-bit Setup Launcher (32 Bit)" process that does not do anything visible other than exist in task manager. No popups, no errors, no windows of any kind. With the auto-extractor, it is created as a subprocess (if that's the term) under the extractor, and with manual extraction it's created as a background process. Both seem to do the same thing -- absolutely nothing. Task manager says they are using zero CPU, which tells me they aren't even trying to do anything.

I tried various compatibility modes, running as administrator, even letting the process run for over a week straight after reading cyborg's most recent solution. The result is always the same -- the process simply sits there eating about 2M of memory doing utterly F.A.

I've considered setting up a virtual machine specifically for genetics work, but my laptop screen is broken (I'm using an external one) so I have no way to see what I'm doing in the BIOS to enable virtualization. (I've tried navigating the BIOS blind and several suggestions found on the web to force the display to the external monitor with no luck.)

I'm simply out of ideas. At this point, I'd accept suggestions for genkit alternatives (even user unfriendly ones) as much as suggested fixes for genkit itself.

My only remaining thought is to ask my mother permission to try it on her computer. I really would prefer to stick to my own machine, though. I'm not keen on messing around too much with someone else's stuff. I have my doubts anyways as both our laptops are around the same age and run the same OS. I consider myself fairly computer literate (I'm in the process of obtaining a computer science degree), but I'm simply out of ideas.

EDIT: No dice. Mom's computer showed the same issues as listed here. I did see some other options listed on EemFoo, so I'll try some of those and see if I can get one to work.

EDIT 2: This will probably be my last post in this thread unless I find a solution for the official genetics kit. I found and attempted to install Dennis Murczak's Genetics Lab (listed as Gene Lab v2.1 (EN).zip on EemFoo) and to my absolute delight it works like a charm. Unless an actual fix is found, I would highly recommend this as a "solution" to anyone suffering the same issues as me.