I have discovered that the 2016 versions of 3dsMax, Maya and Mudbox work on Windows Vista by editing the MSI installer using Orca.
What you have to do is navigate to C:\Autodesk and into your 2016 versions of either 3dsMax, Maya or Mudbox. Then, enter into the folder of either x86 or x64 (depends on you Windows architecture version) and into the folder named after the program you want to install. In my case it is "max".
Right click on "3dsMax.msi" and click "Edit with Orca". Finally, scroll down to "LaunchCondition", then right-click and click drop table. Save, close and proceed to install the program.
I recommend that you have Vista completely up to date with Service packs, Platform updates and .NET.
Orca download = https://www.technipages.com/downloads/OrcaMSI.zip
