Quote:
Originally Posted by Herr Minger
... I believe xp compatability is only available with pro and ultimate, is this correct?. The reason I ask is because of this part of the instuctions for installing SH3 in windows 7
(4. Begin installation of SH3 as normal
***change setup.exe properties to Run as Administrator and change for all users. Afer that, Click Troubleshoot Compatibility and click Run with Recommended Settings (WinXP SP2). Now run setup.)
Thanks in advance  |
Those compatibility settings are available in ALL versions of Vista and Windows 7. They change the way how your modern OS talks and treats the application/game that was built for older OS-ses. What you are probably mixing it up with is XPmode. Which is a virtual machine (simulated computer) running XP separately inside your pc. That one is only available for Professional (,Enterprise) and Ultimate Windows 7. (You can however install a virtual XP on your own in Windows VirtualPC if you have a legit XP-license for it. Windows Virtual PC probably works on Home versions, eventough XPmode doesn't) But you won't be able to use that anyway for SH3 since the game requires hardware acceleration for graphics which those virtual machines don't simulate.
Not in Program Files (x86)
It's about administrator credentials and UAC (user account control) since Vista came about. Actually, it's also an issue in XP, but no one notices it. (I'l explain later) Vista and Win7 treat those Program Files folders and it's content with extra vigilance (XP makes less fuzz about it) because of malware/trojans/virusses. If anything tries to meddle with files/folder there it pops up a warning asking if this was intended, or simply blocks it downright. At the same time it blocks almost all other user-interface use until acknowledged or times out. If you as a user are of the administrator type (member of the built-in 'Administrators' group) then all you have to do is acknowledge with a yes (or no if not intended and malware impersonated you) That is, IF you can see it with the fullscreen in the way. But if you happend to have an ordinary user-account then the OS asks for administrator permission, and you'll have to provide his password. Here is where XP is different, in XP a user account gets administrator rights from the start. So anybody that installed XP on his computer, or was given an account by his/her's unsuspecting mom/dad could do with the system what he wanted. Including the digital cold,worms or horses he brought onto the system. So, Microsoft woke up and made only the first user-account created at OS-install get administrator rights. (M$ isn't all that bad, they are able to learn
) Al user accounts created after OS-install have to be assigned an administrator role manually.
Well, this is all understandable from a defensive point of view regarding malware. But it's very anoying if you actually want to mod just your game files. Or just want your screendumps to be saved there. It sometimes even causes the game or application to crash if the acknowledgement doesn't come quickly enough or isn't prepared for the delay. JScones suggest to run his JSGME application (not sure, maybe SH3 Commander too) with administrator credentials to avoid this, and set compatibility mode for JSGME.exe to XP SP2. That works probably for most, most likely also the reason why it did for
maillemaker. But since I normally use an ordinary user account on my laptop (I only want to put my administrator hat on when I really need to.. you know, power corrupts
...more often your system than your mind
) I still had to provide Administrator credentials/password when I wanted to use JSGME. That's just too much of a bother if it can be solved much more easier. Well, if you take it into account before you install the game.
The solution is simple. Place the base-folder of a game/application that requires often manual tweaking of files somewhere else so it doesn't fall into Program Files (with or without (x86) ). To keep everything neat and tidy on your harddrive I suggest it is installed in a folder like:
C:\Games\name_your_game_or_application
Hopefully the application/game wasn't so braindead-designed to force you to place it in Program Files. Some applications store the base-folder path in the registry, so I don't suggest simply moving it after installarion. But SH3 doesn't seem to mind. You'll only have to provide administrator credentials when you are about to install the game, a patch or an installer .exe for a (super)mod. And those are not very frequently done. However, normal use of JSGME to enable/disable mods goes without a hitch, even for an ordinary user.
For the record, I have:
Acer Aspire 8930G, Core2Duo T6400 2GHz,
4GB ram DDR3, ofwhich 1GB is dedicated to graphics,
NVidia Geforce 9600M (embedded) graphics chip, the driver scales fullscreen resolution to keep aspect ratio. (in other words, 'black side bands')
It used to have Vista Home Premium NL, but has now Windows 7 Ultimate English (only) since yesterday.
As said earlier above, running a standard user account by default. (administrator account used only when installing application/patches/system tweaks)
SH3 basefolder, SH3 Commander basefolder and JSGME basefolder ARE NOT in Program Files, but in C:\Games\SH3.
I never set any of those to XP SP2 application compatibility mode.
Oh yeah, version 1.4b. So no starforce stuf.
And it still hunts like a shadow in the waves .