Wind River setup won't start on Windows XP 64bit

[Tristan Lall]

Where did you find Windows XP 64-bit? There are two distinct versions you could be referring to, and they're both rare and very outdated.¹

The version actually called Windows XP 64-bit edition is actually for the IA-64 (Itanium) architecture, not x86-64. If you were running an Itanium processor, you'd know it, and wouldn't be altogether concerned that Wind River didn't run.²

Instead, you're probably dealing with Windows XP x64 edition, which is actually based on Windows Server 2003. The installer might silently choke if it has a hardcoded version list that supports Windows NT 5.1 (32-bit XP), but not 5.2 (Server 2003 and its variants).

I'm not sure if it supports compatibility modes—but try them if possible. If it's just the setup executable that doesn't work, it might be possible to unpack it as an archive (use 7-Zip or similar), and run the .msi file directly. You could also do various things to install it on another system and transfer the completed installation (maybe after running a repair/restore installation from Add/Remove Programs to fix registry entries).

You may be better off just finding another OS, or running a virtual machine (if that even works properly—I haven't tried it).

¹ While I sometimes get a little annoyed when software vendors don't adequately support versions of Windows that have been in public beta—or even commercial release—for months, a decade-old OS probably doesn't merit much development work any longer.
² Also, the thought of someone writing a compiler for Windows on IA-64 to target VXWorks on PowerPC is just about the most perverse thing ever. (And that's saying a lot. There was some pretty perverse—but rather impressive—optimizing compiler development going on for Itanium.)