I used this method and managed to install halo 2 vista on server 2008 and even got it to work online. 1) Insert the Halo 2 DVD 2) Run Startup.exe on the Halo 2 DVD 3) Install the game 4) Install XLiveRedist1.0.6027.msi and vcredist.msi from the \redists dir on the Halo 2 DVD. 5) Copy xinput9_1_0.dll to system32 for the game to work. http://www.filedropper.com/xinput910