New Machine troubles - Thank YOU!!!

(17-12-2019 05:35 AM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  BO - What are you doing when W7 quits support in mid-January?
My machine is W7 - and I'm worried...


And - is the 4GB patch not working with W10 a 'thing'? I don't have any compatibility set. *grrrr*

Just keep good AV, like "Avast", keep Malwarebytes around, don't surf in a stupid manner, and you'll be fine. Just because "MikroSnot sez' so", doesn't mean anything. I still use XP on one of my machines.... NO problems.

Several countries DoD's, have several departments, that are still on Win7, and have no plans to upgrade to 10.

IMHO, Win10, and newer machines require way too much tinkering to keep TS2 running. I just use older, Win7/Win8.1 machines. Absolutely NO problems.

Ah! Snipered by Kunder - thanks!
...but what about the security? Will I need to get AVG (or whatever the current, free, non-McAffe, non-Norton... is)?
It's off-subject for Hattie's machine, I know, but still, on-topic for ME!


About the 4GB patch - if my No-CD.exe (the one Kiri gave me many years ago) is already 4GB enabled (and it is) then can I just use it?
Just swap it out and run the game?

@CatherineTCJD

Sorry, didn't mean to "snipe". However, I only have a couple W10 machines, that being my wife's, and a couple computers I have. I can't answer the 4gb patch question, as I have a NoCD version of TS2 (not Kiri's) that seems to work fine on just about anything I install it on. It worked GREAT for WinX until about a year ago. I've all but quit playing "Whack-A-Mole", trying to keep TS2 running on WinX. Too much trouble, worry, and time.

Basically, what I've been doing the last year with my personal computers (I have many):

Converted a couple to Linux Mint.
Any Win10 computer, except my Wife's, and my MSI gamer, has been either converted to Win8.1Pro, or purged from the household.
Quit trying to get WinX to work with TS2.
More of an advocate of trying to get people to save their pennies, and purchase a cheap, well kept ThinkPad to play TS2 on. I know not everyone can do this, and I'm STILL trying to find a way to ship used ThinkPads to Europe at a reasonable cost.

I'm not abandoning TS2, and my fellow "Simmers", but I knew the first day WinX came out, it was going to be a problem, and started warning Simmers that they need to seriously think about a cheaper, older, but still VERY powerful, Non-WinX computer, if they wanted to keep playing TS2, and have made several suggestions here on which ones to get. I STILL recommend the ThinkPad T440p, and the ThinkPad graphics workstations W540/W541.

It will get worse, unless someone writes a new "Emulator" that will run TS2 properly. I have tried, but it's been years since I did any programming in anything other than Assy language, and proved to be a very daunting task, that I just don't have the time to do.

Don't worry, Kunder - I was thanking you for the snipe! ...and I've been following your advice about keeping older machines around for the sims.
I plan to keep my old W7 machine going for as long as possible, eventually making it a dedicated TS2 machine.

I'm setting up this new W10 machine for my daughter - who is trying to talk me into shelling out for Sims 4 with ALL it's EP/SPs. That ain't gonna happen! I'm telling her to save up her own money. Anywho... if I can get TS2 to play on her machine, the pleading might stop. *sigh*


PROGRESS report:
The resolution is fixed
The 4GB enabler is in place and working
Sims are no longer flashing blue and spinning like dervishes

I still have to fix the black box issue
BUT, more importantly than that - How do I get TS2 to save to the D drive?
The PC is set up with 2 accounts - mine (admin) and Hattie's user account.
My/admin 'documents' folder is on the SSD C-drive with the OS and a few programs.
MOST of the programs (including TS2) are living on the HD D-drive.
I have moved all of Hattie's personal folders (Documents, pictures, videos, downloads, etc) to the D-drive. And all the other programs save correctly there - except TS2. TS2 is saving every time to my/admin C:Documents folder (whether the game is run from her account or mine.) Hattie is not allowed access to my/admin account, therefor she won't be able to freely access any of her CC stuffeths. Help?

Not sure if you can get it to save on the D:\Documents. I've always installed my TS2, on my C: drive. Sometimes, it's been the only program besides my O/S on the C: drive. I'll have to try that sometime. Besides that, if she has a separate acct, she should HAVE her own "Documents" on the C: drive, via her account.

To cure the black box, have you tried turning off "Shadows" in game?

I have a 'fix' for the black box - I just haven't added it to the mix yet.

She HAD her own Documents folder on the C-drive with her user account, but I successfully moved it to the D-drive (along with the rest of her user account folders.) All the other programs we've tried have saved correctly to her D:Docu folder... that would be all 3 Dragon Ages (also from Origin) and XPlane, Minecraft, SourceFilmMaker, and a few Steam games. It's only TS2 that has a problem (and I'm not launching it through Origin - the NoCD.exe fixes that.)

She's the only one who'll be playing TS2 on this machine; so it'll only be a problem when she wants to add/remove CC (which will be in my protected Admin account.) *sigh*

I have no clue if the following article is any help I just googled it but even if it isn't working maybe it can help figure out a way? Anyways wouldn't try it without anyone from here backing up that this is without risk:
https://www.nicholasoverstreet.com/2008/...documents/

If you have the exe from kiri that is patched for 4 gb, then you can use that. Otherwise, be sure to move the exe to the desktop to edit, then copy back.

Yep, thanks HL - the 4GB is enabled.
Lucydique - that sounds interesting. I might try it if I don't find a solution specifically for W10 (that article was for an old XP machine many years ago.)

Thank you, all ya'll for thinking with me through this mess.

(17-12-2019 06:57 PM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  BUT, more importantly than that - How do I get TS2 to save to the D drive?

On my machine, the folder C:/Users/BoilingOil itself still exists, and it contains a number of the well-known MicroSoft Windows related default folders, such as "My Desktop", "My Documents", "My Libraries", "My Favorites" and a few others. as well as several custom folders. But "Downloads", "Pictures", "Music" and "Videos" are not among them, because they have been moved to E:/Users/BoilingOil/. And all my programs respect that change.

This is to demonstrate that I know for a fact that what you're asking is possible, because I have done a similar thing already.

Actually, it's not that hard. But you can't do it for just the EA Games folder... It only works for Windows system folders, so in this case the ENTIRE Documents folder needs to move to D: for this to work. This link explains how to do it.

My alternative is to open the folder C:/Users/<your username>/, then right-click "My Documents", select "Properties", select the "Location" tab, and in the line with the current path, change the drive letter to D, while not touching the rest of the path. The system may issue some warnings and request some confirmation, but eventually it WILL move the existing Documents folder to the D: drive, and from then on, every time you select "My Documents" from wherever you may be on your system, it will open that folder on D:, not C:.

From now on, whatever programs you install that would create any files or folders in C:/.../Documents normally, will now do so in D:/.../Documents. And yes, that includes the "EA Games/The Sims 2 <whatever>/" folder with all your neighborhoods, lots, saved sims, custom content, mods, saved games and whatever else you can think of...

No problem!

PS: the reason that this cannot be done for just the EA Games folder, or for "The Sims 2 <etc>" for that matter, is because the "Location" tab will ONLY appear for the system folders that were installed with windows itself. It doesn't appear for custom folders like "EA Games" of "The Sims 2 <etc>"...