Upgraded to Vista; cannot get SH III to run...

[Ferrante]

Lastl week my computer using XP crased and the tech, who could not fix it either, installed Vista. Yesterday, I installed SH III and a few minutes ago, I tired to run it and it says I need adminstration rights to install it. Well, yesterday it did install. Anyone know what the problem could be and how to fix it? Thanks for your help.

[Pisces]

Vista (and 7) protects the files and folders in c:\Program Files. Changes that are made there are done in a non-permanent way or simply refused. It was intended to prevent malware getting a hold on your system. But SH3 is to old to work around it by itself. If you look in the Control Panel under Programs and Features you can check the list of installed programs if it really did stick.

A rather simple solution is to not install the game in there (Program Files). Just give a different install folder like "c:\Games\Silent Hunter 3" when it asks for the installation folder. You still have to use an account with administrator privilege. You always need that to install or patch things if it comes as an installer package (.msi or like setup.exe). Even the GWX mod installer if you ever decide to do it. You'll have to ask that tech-guy what account he used to install it, and the password that goes with it if you don't know it. Even if you do not have enough computer knowledge I advice you still demand to know the account and password as without it your hands are coughed forever with that system. Even to do something as simple as setting the system date and time.

[Ferrante]

Thanks! I will get a hold of him and find the information out.

[Ferrante]

I went and tried to install the game in the path that you suggested: c:\Games\Silent Hunter 3 and it would not allow me to do it. It said it is an invalid path. Also, I call the tech and he had me go into User Accounts and I am the administrator and he said he did not use a password when installing Vista. Is there another way around this?

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Ferrante

I went and tried to install the game in the path that you suggested: c:\Games\Silent Hunter 3 and it would not allow me to do it. It said it is an invalid path. Also, I call the tech and he had me go into User Accounts and I am the administrator and he said he did not use a password when installing Vista. Is there another way around this?

I believe the game installer should be able to make the "Games" folder if it doesn't yet exist. Usually they ask for it. But I'm not 100% sure with this one. You can make the folder yourself beforehand too.

Another cause might be the spaces in the whole path. Windows, or the game installer, is perhaps not clever enough to deal with them. At the first space it might expect the rest to be some parameter value and decides to not read further. So, either use folder names without spaces in it, or put the whole path between double quotes, like: "c:\path with\2 spaces\"

It's possible that he (your tech) did not need a password to prepare the system for you. The account was probably made the at the time you first booted up the system and not by him manually. I just didn't know the extend of how far his preparations went. So I just warned. But since you can obviously log in with that administrator account, you either know the password, or do not have one. Make sure you have a password. Or else hackers/malware has free reign on your system.