Right, so I just bought Castaway stories, got back home, discovered I left my keys in my other coat so I had to go to an internet cafe for two hours before I could finally go home. By the time my laptop is turned on, I'm pretty impatient about playing the game. So I put in the CD and....nothing. I get a Vista popup asking me if I want to run the Autorun file and I click it and..nothing. The computer is humming as if the autorun screen'll appear but then it just gets quiet again. WTH? I go to Explorer and click it manually, same problem. I click it a few times in frustation, I get some error saying that a required file in my temp folder with some autorun.dll name is corrupted. URGH!

I'm really disappointed right now. Can anyone help?

Have you tried copying all the contents to your hard disk? Try installing from there instead of the CD.

And run which file for the installaion? I couldn't even find an install file on the CD.

Put cd in dvd/cd drive, and then right click on dvd/cd drive and choose 'open'.
If I can recall correctly, your choose to click a file named 'Autorun' or something. Or just view folder by 'details' and run the 'application' file (but not the one that has 'uninstall' in the title).
Hope this helps, even just a teeny bit, my castaway cd is at the top of my wardrobe and my kids are being sulks ATM