Info: Windows Vista and Windows Seven Installation

[Rosollia]

Here's the compatibility mode "fix" that I use now.

What this does is it installs aplication compatibility options for WinSPMBT and WinSPWW2 so that every time you
start the game your desktop resolution changes to 800x600 automaticaly. And when you quit the game your desktop
resolution should change back to what it was.

This "fix" is especialy useful if you do not have the CD version of the game that allows higher resolutions.
Running the game in a window of 800x600 is not wery useful if your desktop resolution is way higher.
So you need to set the desktop resolution to 800x600 to fill the whole screen with the game window.
This fix automates that process for you.

Ofcourse this can be useful to people with the CD version too. If you want to run the game at a lower resolution
so that things look bigger and are easier to see for example.

To install, first unzip the 5 files into a temporary directory somewhere:
- Install.cmd
- Readme.txt (This file you are reading)
- Uninstall.cmd
- WinSPMBT_Force_800x600_Resolution.sdb
- WinSPWW2_Force_800x600_Resolution.sdb

Then go to that directory and run the Install file. After installation you can start up your game normaly,
but do make sure you have set the screen/window size in the game options to 800x600 and Game mode to windowed.

CD owners need to know that after installing these compatibility modes no higher resolutions should be used
than 800x600 in the game options.

To Uninstall the compatibility modes run the Uninstall file.
Alternatively you can go to Control panel and look for "Programs and Features" or "Programs (Uninstall a program)".
From there look for "WinSPMBT Force 800x600 Resolution" and "WinSPWW2 Force 800x600 Resolution".

[kgambit]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

..... or perhaps if you installed it in a memory stick (it refused to restore the desktop when I tried that on mine anyway). But as stated - the desktop resolution mode removes any need to use full-screen mode.

Now that's strange. My old XP based machine died about 3 weeks ago. I managed to save the contents of the hard drive, including the full installations of the (free versions of) winSPMBT & winSPWW2 folders that were stored on a 32gb USB 2.0 flash drive.

Using a neighbor's Dell Windows Vista laptop, I can plug in that same flash drive and run both programs with no issues whatsoever in either windowed or full screen mode simply by launching the game either from the gameoptions.exe or directly from the {game].exe as opposed to a shortcut. Game launches, runs and exits perfectly. Shows 800x600, directX graphics indicator, windows vista or higher in game and either full or windowed options as selected. I've played scenarios and done some map editting without any seeming problems. Haven't made a single change to the winXP installation nor have I made any UAC control changes.

So my new windows 7 pro 64 bit system shows up a week ago. I reinstalled both games under windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I installed in a directory outside of the program files structure as recommended. I re-downloaded all the patches, double checked them for size against my previous versions. Repatched in sequence. Starting around v4.0 I started getting the program did not run successfully messages for patches for both games. I checked the progress of the game.exe files to make sure that the mod dates closely matched the patch dates and saw no obvious mismatches.

Both games seem to run fine in windowed mode at 800x600 when launched from desktop shortcuts.. Games Launch fine, close fine; restore desktop on exit, absolutely no issues. I can see the GDI graphics indicator on the game launcher.

However, the full screen mode does not properly restore the desktop when I exit. In fact, it totally wipes my desktop and I have to do a control alt delete and reboot the machine. I can see the CMD window flash briefly when the game starts and again when it shuts down.

Just to make sure it's clear, this happens for both games - winSPWW2 and winSPMBT. I just posted it here as I thought it might get more visibility.

Any suggestions here? Any particular files that I might check to see if they did NOT get fully or properly updated?

By the way, my native desktop resolution is 1920 x 1080 widescreen (16:9). Graphics card is a geForce 680 GTX.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by kgambit

Now that's strange. My old XP based machine died about 3 weeks ago. I managed to save the contents of the hard drive, including the full installations of the (free versions of) winSPMBT & winSPWW2 folders that were stored on a 32gb USB 2.0 flash drive.

Using a neighbor's Dell Windows Vista laptop, I can plug in that same flash drive and run both programs with no issues whatsoever in either windowed or full screen mode simply by launching the game either from the gameoptions.exe or directly from the {game].exe as opposed to a shortcut. Game launches, runs and exits perfectly. Shows 800x600, directX graphics indicator, windows vista or higher in game and either full or windowed options as selected. I've played scenarios and done some map editting without any seeming problems. Haven't made a single change to the winXP installation nor have I made any UAC control changes.

So my new windows 7 pro 64 bit system shows up a week ago. I reinstalled both games under windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I installed in a directory outside of the program files structure as recommended. I re-downloaded all the patches, double checked them for size against my previous versions. Repatched in sequence. Starting around v4.0 I started getting the program did not run successfully messages for patches for both games. I checked the progress of the game.exe files to make sure that the mod dates closely matched the patch dates and saw no obvious mismatches.

Both games seem to run fine in windowed mode at 800x600 when launched from desktop shortcuts.. Games Launch fine, close fine; restore desktop on exit, absolutely no issues. I can see the GDI graphics indicator on the game launcher.

However, the full screen mode does not properly restore the desktop when I exit. In fact, it totally wipes my desktop and I have to do a control alt delete and reboot the machine. I can see the CMD window flash briefly when the game starts and again when it shuts down.

Just to make sure it's clear, this happens for both games - winSPWW2 and winSPMBT. I just posted it here as I thought it might get more visibility.

Any suggestions here? Any particular files that I might check to see if they did NOT get fully or properly updated?

By the way, my native desktop resolution is 1920 x 1080 widescreen (16:9). Graphics card is a geForce 680 GTX.

I started getting the program did not run successfully messages for patches for both games.

That does not happen on my windows seven machine, so it is a point to be concerned about.

As to no desktop being restored - see point 2.2.2 of the original post about restarting windows explorer via task manager. You may need to use fully qualified paths to the windows functions in the batch file as described there too - that worked in my case when running it from a memory stick, rather than the C: drive.

Also see Imp's post above about setting up a desktop resolution change if playing the free game in 800x600 with a hotkey. (You could try manually setting the monitor to 800x600 as a quick experiment. If the desktop gets restored OK in 800x600 monitor mode then it may be for example, your graphics card or drivers having a hiccup with that resolution change from a batch file or whatever).

[kgambit]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

That does not happen on my windows seven machine, so it is a point to be concerned about.

As to no desktop being restored - see point 2.2.2 of the original post about restarting windows explorer via task manager. You may need to use fully qualified paths to the windows functions in the batch file as described there too - that worked in my case when running it from a memory stick, rather than the C: drive.

Also see Imp's post above about setting up a desktop resolution change if playing the free game in 800x600 with a hotkey. (You could try manually setting the monitor to 800x600 as a quick experiment. If the desktop gets restored OK in 800x600 monitor mode then it may be for example, your graphics card or drivers having a hiccup with that resolution change from a batch file or whatever) .

Andy, are you running the 32 bit or 64 bit version of windows 7?

Just for clarification on the patch failures:

IIRC the patch installation errors for winSPMBT started around the 4.0 version upgrades iirc, possibly the 3.5. sorry I don't remember exactly patch was the first to give me that error. Once the patch failures started every subsequent patch failed as well. i.e. with v 5.0, v 5.5 and v 6.0 and iirc v4.0 and v4.5 as well.

I going to uninstall and then redownload/reinstall winSPMBT from scratch.so I'll let you know if that problem re-occurs. If any of the patches fail to install properly I'll try re-installing running as admin to see if that works.

If it makes any difference, all of the game and patch files I've downloaded have come from the Shrapnel game site.

I actually had both games installed on my D drive. That's not a partitition but a physically separate 1 TB HD. Windows 7 Pro 64 is running on my SSD C: drive.

I'm running the english version but I'll double check the cmd as per 2.2.2 in the original post.

Resetting the desktop resolution to 800x600 and then running full screen for winSPMBT does not solve the problem. Still end up with a blank desktop after it exits.

WinSPMBT did uninstall using the uninstall.exe for me, but not WinSPWW2. Simply deleting the SPWW2 game folders did not remove telltale traces of the program. It's still showing up in the control panel I may need to clean the registry to get any tell trail traces of SPWW2 out. What are the registry key(s) for winSPWW2?

Thanks.
.................................................. ..

Dwight

[kgambit]

Don't need the registry locations for winSPWW2 after all. Got that sorted out.

Sorry for not just editing the previous post - for some reason I can't edit it now, even though I could previously.

[DRG]

FWIW winSPWW2 v3.5 and winSPMBT v4.5 were produced after I lost all the earlier installers ( and the installer software ) in a HD crash and upgraded the installation program to a newer version that supported Vista. All the installers after that point were set up to "Vista/7 :run as administrator". The previous ones were "pre-vista"

It maybe a co-incidence or not but it's not been an issue for 99.99% of the people who have DL the game. However, it's worth mentioning because the change does seem to coincide with the patches you are saying are reporting as being "patch failures".




Don

[kgambit]

Originally Posted by DRG

FWIW winSPWW2 v3.5 and winSPMBT v4.5 were produced after I lost all the earlier installers ( and the installer software ) in a HD crash and upgraded the installation program to a newer version that supported Vista. All the installers after that point were set up to "Vista/7 :run as administrator". The previous ones were "pre-vista"

It maybe a co-incidence or not but it's not been an issue for 99.99% of the people who have DL the game. However, it's worth mentioning because the change does seem to coincide with the patches you are saying are reporting as being "patch failures".

And I've never have any problems installing or running winSPMBT on any of my previous systems. This is the first time I've ever had any issues whatsoever actually running the game. It's probably an issue with installing or running in windows 7 64 bit. I've been reinstalling games over the last week and several of those have either required "run as administrator for patch updating (and in some cases for the game installation itself).

I just installed the v 4.0 patch -have not gotten a "program may not have installed properly message" so far. I checked the winSPMBT.exe file properties after patching and its showing v1.0.3.5 with a date modified 4/19/2008. I'm assuming that's good since the modification date is just 10 days before the v4.0 patch update was finalized.

I appreciate all the help here, truly.

see Imp's post above about setting up a desktop resolution change if playing the free game in 800x600 with a hotkey. (You could try manually setting the monitor to 800x600 as a quick experiment. If the desktop gets restored OK in 800x600 monitor mode then it may be for example, your graphics card or drivers having a hiccup with that resolution change from a batch file or whatever

I'll try this again just to make sure.

Again, thanks Don and Andy.

Cheers,
Dwight

[Rosollia]

Here is an alternate fix for the windows 7 color problem. This method does not reguire explorer.exe to be closed.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=47156

[Rosollia]

I posted another alternate fix here:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=49236
This one reguires no registry changes to windows and is easy to use.

[kgambit]

Originally Posted by DRG

FWIW winSPWW2 v3.5 and winSPMBT v4.5 were produced after I lost all the earlier installers ( and the installer software ) in a HD crash and upgraded the installation program to a newer version that supported Vista. All the installers after that point were set up to "Vista/7 :run as administrator". The previous ones were "pre-vista"

It maybe a co-incidence or not but it's not been an issue for 99.99% of the people who have DL the game. However, it's worth mentioning because the change does seem to coincide with the patches you are saying are reporting as being "patch failures".

Don

Just did a full reinstall. Installing the winSPMBT patches v4.5 to v6.0 (inclusive) using the "run as administrator" option does not give me any failed installation messages.

After re-installation, windowed mode runs perfectly. Scenario selection screen show v6.0-DL.

Full screen mode is still a problem as outlined before.

At least I know that it is not related to the patches. Haven't tried the other suggestions yet.