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Winston Smith

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Copying over files after reinstalling

I've been searching through old posts, I'm sure I've read the answer before but now it's nowhere to be seen.  Perhaps it was lost during the Great Forum Offline'ing earlier this year.  Anyway...,

What files/folders are necessary to copy over after re-installing BF42?

Thanks good people,

WS

bud

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

the settings folder i guess.

Winston Smith

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

the settings folder i guess.

Thanks.

Just copy over the whole folder and replace the one that's there?

bud

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

Yes that should do it.

Winston Smith

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

Cheers Bud.  I'll give it a go and report how it went.

Posi

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

What you want to backup is the 'profiles' directory.  This contains every binding that has been set on your pc for every playername. 

  It is the only folder that would need 'backed up' between installations.  For players who use default settings it isn't critical either.

ATF_SurrenderMonkey

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

thread hijack.  I am having an issue with my install; at the end of every map, when the new map reloads, I can't move!....just stand there, cant walk, cant shoot..nothing, so I have to close out and start game up again.  What does this have to to with this post?

When I unstalled the game, I went back in and deleted the entire EA directory, all settings folders all profiles folders (there's the connection) and everything
I could find related to bF42.  Then I did a registry cleaner....

When I reinstalled BF42, all of my previous settings came back, and along with it, the issue of being "frozen" in game..

wth....

I think Winston or Dink sent a virus so I can't move and hump them....

Windows 10.

I'm actually thinking of reformating harddrive and starting over.

PitViper

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

That's what you get for using windows 10.

Winston Smith

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

BTW, remote manager works fine with the same settings, pass, user, etc if you copy it off and paste it back after reformatting.

Winston Smith

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

OK! Done!

Remote manager: Works fine with a simple copy-over.

BF1942: I copied the "settings" folder over and my old profile, names, favourites, etc came up when I loaded the game.  That's: Battlefield 1942/Mods/BF1942/Settings.  However, you only really need the "profiles" folder: Battlefield 1942/Mods/BF1942/Settings/Profiles.

Note: If you reformat or upgrade to Windows 10 then remember to turn on DirectPlay.  http://team-simple.org/forum/viewtopic. … 625#p68625

Don't know what you've got going on there Monkey.  I did a reinstall with Windows 10 a week ago, cleaned out a lot of gunk from my PC and I'm pretty happy with how it's functioning now.  It sounds like you have something seriously buggy going on though.  However, what I read was this:

"Blah, blah, blah, Winston, you have a window of time at the start of each new game where I can't move and I'm a sitting duck.  Try to knife me before I log out.  Blah, blah, blah."

Trench

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

When I unstalled the game, I went back in and deleted the entire EA directory, all settings folders all profiles folders (there's the connection) and everything
I could find related to bF42.  Then I did a registry cleaner....

When I reinstalled BF42, all of my previous settings came back, and along with it, the issue of being "frozen" in game..

For the settings to "come back on their own" without you explicitly restoring them, my expectation is that the settings files had become written to "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\...".

This is the area where Windows automatically redirects applications that are attempting to write to the "real" "C:\Program Files\" directory, but the user has insufficient permissions to write there.  (Meaning, BF1942.EXE was not launched using Run as Administrator.)  Rather than make the application fail, they just silently redirect the application to an area they /can/ write to.  So if you deleted the "real" "C:\Program Files\" directory and re-installed, these "VirtualStore" files could have still existed.

But someone on -=aX=- mentioned the other day that their Battlefield 1942 was writing it's profile information under the main "Documents" directory.  I've never seen that myself, but I suppose it's another place to check.

For the CD-based version of Battlefield 1942, "ideally" you would never run BF1942.EXE without "Run as Administrator".  If you've run /without/ even once, any settings the application tries to write could have ended up in VirtualStore.  Because Windows is trying to help pretend "nothing is wrong", it will silently use those alternate files instead of what's actually in the Program Files directory.

For the Origin-based version, they were more aware of Windows Vista and later's security defaults.  The "C:\Program Files\Origin Games\" directory actually /is/  writeable by users even if you don't use "Run as Administrator".  So with the Origin version you would be less likely to end up in the problem scenario.

But who knows, maybe it's the Origin version that writes files to "Documents".  I've just never seen that happen.

Finally switched my game machine permanently to Windows 10 x64 November 2015 build.   Using the Origin version of Battlefield 1942 for what it's worth, but everything working well for me including PunkBuster, using the same steps as on Windows 8.1 and earlier.  The only thing "new" was that the first time I launched BF1942.EXE, Windows itself prompted me to install DirectPlay, downloaded and installed it automatically for me, asked me to reboot, and then everything was good.

-Trench

(BB)DinkW

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

Had a similar thing with a friend of mine and it was the Origin version that was calling back the previous version of the profiles, which is where the error actually was, yet he was indeed using the CD version of the game.
The fix was to remove the Origin version, which can be added back in later, then reinstall CD version and recreate profiles from a backup taking care not to copy over the fault again.  Copy across "Controls" folder "Buddy List", "ServerListFavorites" and "SinglePlayerSettings" con files and leave the rest behind and try that.

I to got the windows prompt for installing DirectPlay on Win 10 and run as admin is always on and after that it runs sweet.
Monkey I would also turn on the Windows 10 admin it does seem to help, see here:

http://www.ghacks.net/2014/11/12/how-to … r-account/

Good luck
DinkW

bud

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

But who knows, maybe it's the Origin version that writes files to "Documents".  I've just never seen that happen.

nah it was good old cd version, this on win7 and i think it first happened when i changed settings in the "normal" video.con files to get widescreen resolution. bf42 was like "no tampering with my files please" and propmptly changed back the settings. So i was like hmm ill try write protect the files!  but then bf42 was like Oh no you didnt, and then it just laughed and said "stupid little boy" think you gonna tamper with me eh?. it was first many weeks after i found out that she had hid the files deep in my documents folder (witch i never use) so i write protected those files to, holding my breath and started the game and.. voilà it worked! Whos the boss now eh?

seVen

 

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

For the settings to "come back on their own" without you explicitly restoring them, my expectation is that the settings files had become written to "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\...".

-Trench

So that's where they hid them   Thx for pointing that out Trench.

Winston Smith

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

All you guy getting Windows prompts to run DirectPlay.   The only thing I got was a blank screen!

ATF_SurrenderMonkey

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

All you guy getting Windows prompts to run DirectPlay.   The only thing I got was a blank screen!

see below:

no

Trench

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Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

All you guy getting Windows prompts to run DirectPlay.   The only thing I got was a blank screen!

It seems like "just a blank screen" is something I had seen during the Windows 10 beta.  But when I installed on the July 2015 initial release, and most recently when I installed on the November 2015 release that was just made, when launching BF1942.EXE for the first time I get Windows dialog prompting me to add the DirectPlay feature that the current application is attempting to use.

So maybe it is still a "random" or timing issue, and I've just been lucky the past couple times that I've installed on Windows 10.  But yes, it is possible to get a prompt instead of just a blank screen.

But it's certainly possible to "pre-emptively install the DirectPlay feature before launching BF1942", and you already linked to one of the pages that shows how to do this.  Are you saying you still get a blank screen even though you manually add the DirectPlay feature as described in https://windowsforum.com/threads/turn-o … 10.205952/?

-Trench

Winston Smith

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Reputation: +176

Registered: 2014-09-10

Posts: 803

Re: Copying over files after reinstalling

All you guy getting Windows prompts to run DirectPlay.   The only thing I got was a blank screen!

It seems like "just a blank screen" is something I had seen during the Windows 10 beta.  But when I installed on the July 2015 initial release, and most recently when I installed on the November 2015 release that was just made, when launching BF1942.EXE for the first time I get Windows dialog prompting me to add the DirectPlay feature that the current application is attempting to use.

So maybe it is still a "random" or timing issue, and I've just been lucky the past couple times that I've installed on Windows 10.  But yes, it is possible to get a prompt instead of just a blank screen.

But it's certainly possible to "pre-emptively install the DirectPlay feature before launching BF1942", and you already linked to one of the pages that shows how to do this.  Are you saying you still get a blank screen even though you manually add the DirectPlay feature as described in https://windowsforum.com/threads/turn-o … 10.205952/?

-Trench

No, I got it when I first upgraded to Windows 10 a few months back and again after reformatting and reinstalling last weekend.  The first time I followed forum instructions and sorted it out, but then I forgot and had to recheck the second time too!

It might be because I'm booting the game from Origin that I didn't get the Windows prompt.  It's no big issue though, all sorted.