Tutorial TS2 Ultimate Collection: Only remove Securom Once

Since many users do not want SecuROM on their systems, but would like to be able to reinstall or restore the game should inevitable disaster strike, I thought a tutorial on how to back up TS2UC registries might be helpful.

It isn't all that difficult to back up your clean installation of the UC before you remove SecuROM. Then you can restore your installation at any time without fussing with Origin or SecuROM ever again.

You may even want to use this same procedure with your older TS2 Installation before you even try the UC, so you can revert easily if necessary. Some of the registry entries and paths will differ, but not so much that it can't be figured out.

This tutorial assumes we are using Windows 7, but the procedures should not be all that different for other flavors of Windows.

There are just three things that must be backed up to restore a TS2 Installation: (provided you are running with a fixed/nocd exe like you can get from gamecopyworld the application directory (*:/Program Files (x86)/Origin Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, ) the user data directory (...My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection) and the registry entries (general tutorial in link) the game uses listed below (There are other entries, but they are just part of Origin/EADM/SecuROM.) If you are squeamish about touching the registry, you may want to make a backup of the entire registry first to ease your mind.

I've listed locations for 64-bit systems in purple. If you have a 32-bit system, look for this blue portion of the path instead: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\

*Note also that while I have listed very specifically just the TS2 entries, if you have nothing else from EA installed or don't care about a few orphaned registry entries should you uninstall any of your other EA software and restore TS2, you can just extract all of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\, all of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\ and each of the App Paths entries at the bottom of the list.

18 EA GAMES entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Celebration Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Fun with Pets Collection\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 H M Fashion Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Open For Business\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Pets\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Seasons\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 University\

17 Electronic Arts/EA Games entries - serials:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Celebration Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 FreeTime\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 H M Fashion Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Nightlife\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Open For Business\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Pets\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Seasons\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432\Electronic Arts\EA Games\The Sims 2 University\

18 App Paths entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP1.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP2.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP3.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP4.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP5.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP6.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP7.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP8.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2EP9.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2SC.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2SP1.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2SP2.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2SP4.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2SP5.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2SP6.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2SP7.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Sims2SP8.exe

Once extracted, the registry entries can be merged into one handy file with RegFileMerger. I would make 3 folders, one for each type of entry before you start extracting and you can merge each group one at a time, before merging all 3 groups, for better organization. Double check, verify that you don't miss anything, especially if you are taking the precision route for the EA GAMES and Electronic Arts/EA Games entries.

Note the weirdness of the naming: EP9 refers to M&G, a stuff pack.
SC is for Double Deluxe.
SP3 is not in the list because it is the holiday pack and the files are just rolled into the base game files.
Also, there is no serial labeled for Apartment Life, it uses one for the Ultimate Collection Instead.
The rest should be self-explanatory.

Any Game Starter may work if you have the most recent fixed exe for each EP/SP and the base game, but as leefish tells me it does not work for the earlier Collection Packs, this is doubtful. Anyone care to test? Remember, running any of the original exes from the game will reinstall SecuROM.

Information and a tutorial on SecuROM removal can be found here. There is also a batch file which despite warnings about its age and lack of support still seems functional.

I would recommend keeping a backup of both a clean install and of your played game with your own selection of mods, CC, and Neighborhoods.

Please notify me of any typos or omissions here as soon as you notice them. This worked great for me, but if others can test it I'd be very appreciative. Thank you and enjoy your DRM-free version of TS2!