Vista gamers: what directory do you install games to?

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knobbicus

Limp Gawd
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I just built a new box with lots of goodies inside: Q6600, 8800GTS 512, 8GB RAM, Asus maximus formula.

I installed Vista Ultimate 64 and have put a handful of my games back on, most notably Company of Heroes and counterstrike:source. I also put on IL-2 Sturmovik 1946.

So I'm having some trouble with Vista permissions and being able to copy files from my XP box, but I figure I can live with that. But now I find out that the /Program Files/ and /Program Files(x86)/ directories have special locks on them which prevents modifying the files. Specifically, there is a .ini file for IL2 that needs to be edited. The solution I read about around the internet is to move the installation to another directory, out of /Program Files(x86)/.

So the question is: do you guys typically leave the install paths at their default /Program Files/ locations, or do people usually change those? And has anybody had trouble with the above kind of situation when using the /Program Files/ locations?


Any help is appreciated. Right now I'm sitting here thinking "Screw this. I'll eat the RAM loss and go back to XP Pro." :rolleyes:

Thanks,
-knobbbicus
 
It'll install games to the Program Files(x86) if they aren't 64bit programs. I leave mine where they are and have never had a problem.. If that game has a problem then install it outside of that folder.
 
I've been installing games to d:\Games\ for a long time now, so when I do reinstalls I don't lose all my savegames and settings. Newer games, however, are tending to put these files in your Documents folder, so the need for a folder on another partition is diminishing.

You should be able to edit files in your Program Files directory, you'll just get a UAC prompt.
 
Uberbob102000 said:
It'll install games to the Program Files(x86) if they aren't 64bit programs. I leave mine where they are and have never had a problem.. If that game has a problem then install it outside of that folder.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the right solution for this game. I have other games that don't give me any trouble... perhaps I can put off the retro-migration if I can get this one working in another directory. Thanks.


balthan said:
I've been installing games to d:\Games\ for a long time now, so when I do reinstalls I don't lose all my savegames and settings. Newer games, however, are tending to put these files in your Documents folder, so the need for a folder on another partition is diminishing.

You should be able to edit files in your Program Files directory, you'll just get a UAC prompt.
Click to expand...

I have turned off UAC already. I've actually read posts from people (but haven't done it myself yet) where they edit the .ini file, save it. Close notepad. Reopen the edited .ini file, and can see the changes, yet the game isn't reading the new file, but some copy of the old one. They then move the game to another directory and everything works as expected, i.e. the changes get read correctly. Freaking weird.


Thanks for the replies!

-knobbicus
 
D:\games C:\ is for OS and program files only. data and games goes to D:\ :D
 
I couldn't get Call of Duty 4 Patch 1.5 to install on Vista x64, received an error about not being able to find a valid installation of Call of Duty 4, etc. Apparently it looks for COD4 in the Program Files directory only, when it is in fact installed in Program Files (x86). Searched the web and couldn't find a fix for it.
 
I've never liked the Program Files folders for some reason, and have never used them much. Games go in C:\Games and applications in C:\Applications. If the COD4 patcher only looks in Program Files, it's extremely badly behaved and would have failed on my system even back before I used 64-bit Windows..

knobbicus said:
I've actually read posts from people (but haven't done it myself yet) where they edit the .ini file, save it. Close notepad. Reopen the edited .ini file, and can see the changes, yet the game isn't reading the new file, but some copy of the old one. They then move the game to another directory and everything works as expected, i.e. the changes get read correctly.
Click to expand...

The most likely situation with regards to the .ini files is that they were editing the wrong version - if a program tries to save to a system folder like Program Files (x86) then Windows will generally redirect that to a directory in %userprofile%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore, and files there will override those in Program Files (x86) - this is to allow different users to have different per-app settings. It's not a bug, just that they were looking in the wrong place.
 
balthan said:
I've been installing games to d:\Games\ for a long time now, so when I do reinstalls I don't lose all my savegames and settings. Newer games, however, are tending to put these files in your Documents folder, so the need for a folder on another partition is diminishing.

You should be able to edit files in your Program Files directory, you'll just get a UAC prompt.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Except, I'll likely let a game install in the default directory if it's got the Windows Vista logo since it's supposed to be Vista aware.
 
Well - what you'd have to do is edit the file as an administrator in order to save changes to the file (i.e., open notepad as an admin, then open the file). By default, even with UAC disabled, you'll still need to manually elevate the application so it can save in that location.
 
I install games to my F partition, and have no problems like you guys are experiencing.
 
when a game edits a file, its gets put in users/username/appdata/local/virtualstore/"copy of program files"

stick any edited files in this directory.
 
I always install the games to my d:\ drive, never had a problem that way :D
 
Thanks for the responses everyone.

To those who directed me to /users/username/appdata/local/virtualstore/...
I just checked there, and there was no subdir for this particular game (IL-2). I did reinstall to C:\Games\... and it looks like it worked fine, i.e. editable .ini file. But I haven't tried all the suggestions yet (e.g. run notepad as admin and edit). I like that idea, and would try it, except that the issue is already solved.

Just finished my first real night of gaming and am liking vista better now. Things ran just great and there were no hiccups. :D

thanks again,
-knobbicus

p.s. the issue mentioned with COD is bullshit (program, not the poster). Not being able to install to a different directory without having the patch crap out is ridiculous.
 
knobbicus said:
p.s. the issue mentioned with COD is bullshit (program, not the poster). Not being able to install to a different directory without having the patch crap out is ridiculous.
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Others have mentioned that it worked fine for them in another thread. I haven't tried this exact patch, but all other patches for previous CoD games would automatically go where the main game was located, so I'd be surprised if this didn't work the same way. Tomorrow, I'm going to install CoD4 and try it out.
 
c:\games ftw (vista 64)

oh and cod4 patches always install fine to my c:\games\cod4 with no problem at all
 
You can either create a new folder on the C: for apps or make a new folder on a different drive. I have my OS installed on the C: and apps on D:Applications/. Just make a new folder and label it anything you want on the drive you want. Then specify in the installation setup that you want the app in that folder.
 
All games go to C:\Games\

Steam and all steam games go to C:\Games\Steam\
 
d drive but just the drive letter is changed, all games are installed like they normally would

d:\program files(x86)\steam etc
 
C: OS
D: Games
E: Music
F: Files
G: Downloads

N: External Backup

I keep my stuff well sorted. Esp. the OS, b/c reinstalling every damn thing is a bitch.
 
I used to separate it out like most of the posters here, but since developers have finally gotten smart about security and multiuser environments some have started putting data and settings in the users folder (which is the way it should have been all along) the need for that has disappeared. If I'm not mistaken, the new Games for Windows logoing program mandates that a logo'd game must not write back to its install directory unless its patching, which means data and settings get stored under the user's folder.
 
Not sure I see the point in using so many drive letters for apps, games, and such. I like the flexibility of fewer partitions myself, even if Vista makes resizing easier. (I haven't used it yet, but I suppose it's like Partition Magic and takes a long time to do it). It seems to me you need more than one partition to do an image, but it's simple to do normal backups of directories with data like /Games, /Pictures, or however else you want to do it. I have a single Raid 0 with 640 GB as C:, and a single 500 GB as D: with C: imaged on it. With Windows, even if you save the data every application needs to be reinstalled anyway so you either gotta re-image the whole thing, or reinstall everything and then recover data.
 
yossarian said:
Not sure I see the point in using so many drive letters for apps, games, and such. I like the flexibility of fewer partitions myself, even if Vista makes resizing easier. (I haven't used it yet, but I suppose it's like Partition Magic and takes a long time to do it). It seems to me you need more than one partition to do an image, but it's simple to do normal backups of directories with data like /Games, /Pictures, or however else you want to do it. I have a single Raid 0 with 640 GB as C:, and a single 500 GB as D: with C: imaged on it. With Windows, even if you save the data every application needs to be reinstalled anyway so you either gotta re-image the whole thing, or reinstall everything and then recover data.
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That's simply not true. I've played many games after a reinstall, by just opening the main file.

That's not always the case, but it does happen - esp. with older games.

Even if a reinstall of the game is required, mods and maps usually persist.
 
Down8 said:
That's simply not true. I've played many games after a reinstall, by just opening the main file.

That's not always the case, but it does happen - esp. with older games.

Even if a reinstall of the game is required, mods and maps usually persist.
Click to expand...

Sure, I've got a couple games that can be copied and played too, and I have them in a backup file and copy them in when I reinstall Windows. I'd say that the number of games and/or applications that can do this is pretty inconsequential.
 
sth128 said:
That's exactly what I do. I don't install games on my windows drive.
Click to expand...

Same here.

It's a good idea to use a separate drive or partition for applications and games to avoid issues with UAC.

My usual install path is D:\Program Files (x86)\[Game Name]
 
Just in case anyone is curious-

I only have 1 drive in this box, and have it unpartitioned, though I expect I could partition it now if I wanted to a la Partition Magic or a Vista utility. Since I started this thread, I've taken to installing all games to C:\Games\ by simply replacing C:\Program Files(x86) with C:\Games in the install path. This has seemed to work well, and I'm thinking about throwing another drive in the box just to have a non-OS drive in there to work on. I think that's probably a good idea.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

-knobbicus
 
I use c:\games for all my game installs. I don't know why since I have just 1 large partition for everything anyway.
 
My C: is a Raptor so I install the OS and system torturing games, like Crysis, there using C:\Publisher Name\Game Name. All other games go to D:\Publisher Name\Game Name.
 
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