Windows 8.1 problems

[Eichhörnchen]

PPS/ this guru also told me I shouldn't really look to install anything on Windows 8 which is designed for an OS older than XP; just XP/Vista. I run all kinds of cheesy old stuff on my laptop in complete contravention of these rules, but now and again he does have to come round and pound it on the chest...

(Apologies for apparently repeating myself: I thought I'd lost the last part of my message but I'd just turned the page is all...)

[Shooter7]

Sure, I'll try doing that, what the heck... it's not like I don't have time because I'm playing a fun submarine game or anything. I'll try after I eat here. In the meantime, can anybody tell me if I should uninstall the adobe file or not while I'm uninstalling stuff? thanks

[Eichhörnchen]

Again I'm no expert but I don't see why you need to bother removing Adobe...

[Shooter7]

Ok, so here's what happened... uninstalled SH4, put game disk in, when the install screen came up I chose to open the files instead of run, I right clicked on the setup application, the only choice I had for compatibility was the troubleshooter so I chose that, as I went through that I chose Windows Vista as the system it would formerly work under, it then presented the test button which I clicked on, after a few seconds the install setup screen began and I directed it through the process leaving off game shadow and adobe, I closed out of the install screen when finished rather than choosing to run, I then went into the game exe file on the c: drive and told it to open.... it thought for a second then nothing more happened.

[Shooter7]

Well, I'm out of ideas. Not finding anything further online to give me any other ideas of what to try and do.

[Eichhörnchen]

I did stay up until midnight last night and asked my wife if I could have the laptop back so's to check how you were doing but she gave me the look, so I went to bed...

So it wouldn't let you "Use Recommended Settings" for Compatibility? I don't get that: flaming thing always comes up with something new, doesn't it? I would've expected it to then select XP.

Does it not then place a shortcut on your desktop?

Dare I suggest that you try the same again but select XPsp3 this time? Not that this will necessarily make any difference, but I believe there are problemss getting sh4 to run on Vista, so if you've been trying to do that...

[Shooter7]

I did go ahead last night and uninstall it again and installed selecting the XP version that time. Same results. Thing is, I don't know what to expect when I click the test button. Both times I tried to install "in compatibility" I chose the version I wanted to try and use, then clicked the test button, and then a few seconds after clicking that the game begins to install. I don't know if that's what is supposed to happen or what. After it loads, it does not function, so I have not clicked to use the recommended settings because it isn't working. And no, it never creates a desktop icon on its own.

[Eichhörnchen]

You just wait until it's installed and you're returned to the Compatibility window. you then click on "Next" (because it's installed successfully) and a blue progress bar will quickly run across at the top and a message appear to tell you that these compatibility settings have been saved. Then click on OK.

Then you would normally try to run the program but, as you say, you haven't got a launch icon on the desktop.

If you go to the main folder, which I assume has installed into Program Files (X86), there should be two little submarine icons. There should be one (the launch icon) labelled "Application" and sized 2,240KB; if there is, then a double click on this should start sh4.

Let me know...

[Shooter7]

Ok, I found something I didn't find before. When I put the disk in previously, I told it to open the files, then I right clicked the setup file, and then I ran the compatibility tester thing on it from that menu. For some reason this time when I put the disk in I did all the same except the last part. When I right clicked on setup file, instead of clicking the compatibility tester, I clicked on properties and lo and behold, there was the selection for compatibility mode. Now, I went into that and selected to run in XP sp3 and then went ahead with the installation. It took longer and a couple screens were kind of strange looking. When it finished, it wanted to restart the computer, which was different, so I thought I was really on to something good. Unfortunately, when I tried to open it again, it did not work... and then it almost didn't want to uninstall for me either. I asked it to uninstall and it wanted to install instead. Finally was able to get it out of there. Thinking that finding that compatibility mode selection might be a good thing for me, just not sure I used it right the first try?

[captcrane]

Wow Shooter thought for sure that would have worked. I am new to windows 8 too. When I installed SH4 I did it from the win 7 desktop screen not the screen with the apps on it

[Shooter7]

I'm doing mine from the desktop too, not the app screen. I just did the whole thing again, ran the troubleshooter, told it to run in XP compatibility both from the install and after it was installed and actually gave me the option of putting a shortcut on my desktop, even turned off my antivirus just for good measure. After all of that, still doesn't boot up. I don't get it.

[Eichhörnchen]

Yes, I forgot to mention I also use a desktop for my Windows 8.

I put another game disc into my pc to see for myself but the only way I could see what you saw was to right click on the "autorun" icon, which offered compatibility settings. I'd still prefer to launch "setup" on compatibility though (and sometimes, for some reason, you have to right-click several times before all your choices appear). Still unsure whether your install has been completed on compatibility settings, but the fact is mine was just installed using the Autoplay (before I was advised otherwise) and, like many other programs installed this way, it works just fine.

Got to go out now but will be back; maybe we should call on one of the big brains up in the command room.

[Shooter7]

I saw that autoplay EXE selection too, and wondered about it. Maybe I'll try using it to install... Maybe I need to go to Best Buy and get Geek Squad help or something. lol

[Shooter7]

Hot Damn, I got it to work!

Going to try to remember my steps and put them down here so they can possibly help someone else.

I put the disk in, when the install screen came up, I told it to open files instead of the normal install, I went first to the Autorun setup selection and right clicked, in that I chose properties, the selections that came up included the compatibility mode, in that I chose XP service pack 3 and clicked ok, after doing that nothing happened, so I left that as it was and went to the setup file and right clicked it, again chose properties from the menu, and went to compatibility and made sure it was set to XP service pack 3 as well and selected ok, briefly after that the game installer started up, since I already had the adobe loaded from previous attempts I told it to not load adobe or game shadow, it went ahead and did the rest of the install, at the end of the install it wanted to restart the machine and gave me the choice of restart or cancel and finish doing work, I chose cancel and went in and told it to create a shortcut then finish, once it finished doing that I double clicked on the shortcut, it hesitated for a moment, then the screen display went all askew, then a box popped up and said something about running the program in the different settings and I clicked ok or whatever it had there (sorry, was kind of excited at that point), after that the screen went off again for a second and then I had the Ubisoft screen come up and the game loaded! It is sitting on the laptop behind me at the moment in sub school with seagulls making noise. Now, I haven't tried anything more with it than open sub school up because I'm supposed to be working right now.... but the game booted up!!

[Captain Diver]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Well done!