I was rebuilding my computer and came across some software I bought over 20 years ago.
It was ABBYY FineReader Pro 5.0. I remember I bought it directly from ABBYY and paid $99.
I was determined to get it working again. Here are the problems I found and how I overcame them.

ABBYY FineReader Pro 5.0 downloads:
  • Setup: FineReaderPro.exe
  • Service Pack 4: FR5SP4.exe

Also, you still need the Product Key you got when you bought it.

Problem 1: Downloads are self-extracting zip files. They are incompatible with Windows 10.
Solution 1: Rename ".exe" files to ".exe.zip" ones

Problem 2: Installation fails. Maybe because of long file names.
Solution 2: Move setups to root directories, e.g. D:\.

Rename files:

  • Rename “FineReaderPro.exe” to “FineReaderPro.exe.zip”
  • Rename “FR5SP4.exe” to “FR5SP4.exe.zip”

Create directories:

  • D:\ABBYY
  • D:\ABBYY\Setup
  • D:\ABBYY\SP4

Extract files:

  • Extract “FineReaderPro.exe.zip” to D:\ABBYY\Setup
  • Extract “FR5SP4.exe.zip” to D:\ABBYY\SP4

Install ABBYY FineReader Pro & SP4

  • D:\ABBYY\Setup\Install.exe
  • D:\ABBYY\SP4\Install.exe

One last thing if the installation fails and you try again you might see an error about being unable to delete some files. Just note the directory and manually delete it before you try again. I had this happen while I was experimenting with it.
I don't remember the name of the directory I deleted but I think it was in the directory "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Temp".