Boy this is weird

[Rich46yo]

Ive had zero problems playing the game on my new puter till yesterday. What happened was I was in the game when the light was changing so I adjusted my gamma settings, as Ive done a million times before. Well the screen freaked on my and went all white and gamma'd out and I had to control/delete out of the program. I tried a few things and couldnt fix it, and couldnt find nothing wrong, so I deleted the game and reinstalled it. Same problem.

So on a lark I right clicked the game and "opened as administrator" and the game opened with no problems. Next I couldnt find my saved settings so now I have to go back to every airplane, and my key mapping, and do all my settings again. Gun sights too.

But still I can only play when I open as administrator even tho my game mode in vista has admin privlages. This one has me stumped. Heelllllllp Skuzzy.

Time of this report: 12/4/2008, 14:09:35
       Machine name: PC
   Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.080917-1612)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion
       System Model: KQ497AA-ABA m9340f
               BIOS: BIOS Date: 06/16/08 11:02:10 Ver: 5.25
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q6700  @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
             Memory: 6142MB RAM
          Page File: 1801MB used, 10598MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode
  Display Tab 1: No problems found.
      Display Tab 2: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.
 Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce 9500 GS
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0644&SUBSYS_13301462&REV_A1
   Display Memory: 2539 MB
 Dedicated Memory: 493 MB
    Shared Memory: 2046 MB
     Current Mode: 1280 x 720 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
      Driver Name: nvd3dum,nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2um, nvwgf2umx.dll
   Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7556 (English)
      DDI Version: 10

[Ack-Ack]

Restore the drivers to default settings for your video card and if that doesn't work, uninstalling and then reinstalling the drivers should fix it.


ack-ack

[Skuzzy]

Nothing weird at all about this.  It is a new feature of Vista called UAC (User access control), which redirects all the game's file creations to another remote folder, UNLESS you are using the option to "Run as Administrator", then it allows the files to be placed where they normally would be placed.

It is a mess.

To avoid all that nonsense, all you have to do is to install the game in another folder, besides the "Program Files" folder (it does not matter what drive it is on, just avoid using that folder name).  Once you do this, the game will have all its files where we intended them to be.

In your case, all you had to do was remove the "video8.cfg" file from the "settings" folder and the video would have been restored to its defaults again.  However, you would have to find that file in the virtual place Vista stuffed it as it will not be where we intended it to be (I have a sticky thread covering this aspect in this forum).  When you "Ran as Admin", it put new copies of the files in the place where we intended them to be, but once you forget to "Run as Admin", then all your settings will be lost again.

Neat huh?  Just freaking brilliant!

Also note, when you install anything application in the "Program Files" folder it will run worse due to all the things Microsoft is doing to make sure you are not in control of your computer.  Isn't it nice how they watch over you?  Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling all over.  Makes my life as a support person a living hell.

[Rich46yo]

Thanks. I just unistalled and am reinstalling in C/Games. I tried ridding the video 8.cfg first thing but it didnt help. I'll try the new install and keeping it out of the program files will help.

[Skuzzy]

Your life will be much easier now.

[Rich46yo]

Your life will be much easier now.

Yes. I put it into C/Games and had a trouble free night of play. Thanks guys.

[bmwgs]

Nothing weird at all about this.  It is a new feature of Vista called UAC (User access control), which redirects all the game's file creations to another remote folder, UNLESS you are using the option to "Run as Administrator", then it allows the files to be placed where they normally would be placed.

It is a mess.

To avoid all that nonsense, all you have to do is to install the game in another folder, besides the "Program Files" folder (it does not matter what drive it is on, just avoid using that folder name).  Once you do this, the game will have all its files where we intended them to be.

In your case, all you had to do was remove the "video8.cfg" file from the "settings" folder and the video would have been restored to its defaults again.  However, you would have to find that file in the virtual place Vista stuffed it as it will not be where we intended it to be (I have a sticky thread covering this aspect in this forum).  When you "Ran as Admin", it put new copies of the files in the place where we intended them to be, but once you forget to "Run as Admin", then all your settings will be lost again.

Neat huh?  Just freaking brilliant!

Also note, when you install anything application in the "Program Files" folder it will run worse due to all the things Microsoft is doing to make sure you are not in control of your computer.  Isn't it nice how they watch over you?  Gives you a warm fuzzy feeling all over.  Makes my life as a support person a living hell.

Does this include XP users?

Fred

[Skuzzy]

They actually did have some snooping going on in XP as well.  It was not nearly as intrusive though.  Yes, applications will run better in XP when installed outside the "Program Files" realm, but it is mostly unmeasurable.

[morfiend]

So Roy,if you install game in C/games... but already have AH in program files do you delete it from program files,leave it alone,unistall. not sure what to do,but I'm tired of running in admin just to make sure it runs right.

[Skuzzy]

If you can find all the files, you can copy them from the old installation folder to the new installation folder, AFTER you install the game to the new location.