Follow the 60 seconds guide to install the game.
And when you get it to run please DO NOT release a packaged version of the game unless you've got the distribution rights (which you are likely to not have).

You need a Win32 OS that supports Win16 to install the game with its InstallShield installer; preferably Windows 95, which is what the game was designed to work with. DOSBox is not ideally suited to help in this case.

You're welcome to publish a guide on the forum for how to install/run the game on 64-bit Windows, but the game does not appear to be freeware, so any "packaged version" that you devise will not be welcome here.

dosinvader wrote:

Windows stops it and simply states it's not compatible even when using Dosbox.

Windows never has anything to say about something that is run in DOSBox. What exactly did it say?

Second I tried Setup.exe at which point DOSBox warned me that it was a DOS program.

This is also not something that DOSBox does. Did it say "This Program Cannot Be Run in DOS Mode"? If not, what exactly did it say?

phew, trying to merge with the posts made in the Windows forum... hoping I don't do too much damage...

To the OP, please post DOSBox questions in the DOSBox forums.

it says "cannot be run in DOS mode". It's not a DOS program.

peterferrie wrote:

it says "cannot be run in DOS mode". It's not a DOS program.

Indeed, DOSBox will not help you here at all and there is no point in trying to apply DOSBox to this problem.

You still didn't say what error message Windows gives you, but it is likely that Mr. Ripsaw's suggestion is correct. This information may help you:
http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10988

I apologize that I've been slow on the reply. To clarify The error I get when Trying to run Setup.exe in D-Fend Reloaded as a windows program is: "Setup.exe is a DOS executable. You should use DOSbox for running this file directly." Afterward Windows tells me it can't run because it's a 16 bit app and isn't compatible with my 64 bit OS. Then another popup in Metro that states that my PC can't run the app. When I attempt to load the program in D-fend Reloaded as a DOS application it opens a CMD window and I see the text: "win SETUP.EXE" and below that of course "illegal comand win" So on the one hand it's reporting itself as a DOS app but when I run it in DOS it obviously thinks its a windows App.

Update: I tried the 60 second guide but because of the nature of the problem it didn't help. I just finished literally installing and running Windows 3.1 to DOSbox and running the installer there but windows gave an error suggesting it was the wrong windows version and therefore couldn't run. Since I couldn't figure out a workaround in Windows 3.1 I'm back to where I started. I REALLY don't want to run VMware just to emulate Win98 it lags horribly on this machine and the CPU goes crazy even with RAIN installed. Isn't there another suitable solution?

As I posted before, DOSBox will not help you here. (I don't know where "win SETUP.EXE" came from; I presume that's something D-Fend Reloaded can do. I don't use D-Fend Reloaded.)

dosinvader wrote:

Isn't there another suitable solution?

Didn't you look at the link in my last post? You should be able to implement the solutions therein without having to resort to a virtual machine.