winsetup, Vista and frustration

[pslim]

I should say at the start that I'm not a tech guy.

I've had a lot of problems with Vista since I got this new computer a few months ago, and if I had XP discs I'd have gotten rid of it a long time ago.

Anyway, I was trying to play the new BJ game, which is one of those setup for 320x200. I searched the forums and found out you have to set these to 640x400 to run in Vista.

But I can't get winsetup to open on any of the AGS games on my hard drive. Attempts to open them prompt an error message saying it can't access the game exe, and to make certain it's in the same directory. Of course they are, since that's how compiled games come. I tried XP compatibility mode with both files with no luck.

I'm stumped and irritated and gloomy. Assistance would be much appreciated.

[Khris]

Try running "game.exe --setup" from the command line.
(Open the start menu, type cmd, press enter, then navigate to the dir.)

[Mantra of Doom]

Actually, I don't think you have to change the resolution on Vista, I've played many lo-res games in a window... though if it isn't set to start in a window by default I can see that as an issue.

What exactly happens when you try to launch the winsetup.exe? Does it just not work? or does it ask you a silly question or give an error? Does each game have its own folder?

If you don't have the "Run" command in your start menu, hit the Windows Key (or start key) and "R" at the same time, it will pop up the run box, as Vista turns it off by default.

Also, are you running with the UAC (User Account Control) on? If you try to run an .exe does it ask you if you're really sure about it? If so, then it's turned on. I've not had a problem with UAC interfering with AGS, but I can see how it might react if it somehow sensed that changing the screen's resolution might be a bad thing.

You can turn it off (and don't need it running really) by typing "msconfig" in the Run box. On the "tools" tab, there is a list of stuff. You can then click "Disable UAC" and then hit the "Launch" button. This will prompt a reboot. Once you reboot, UAC will be off and that's one less thing that can cause issues with certain programs.

[Khris]

But I can't get winsetup to open [...] Attempts to open them prompt an error message saying it can't access the game exe, and to make certain it's in the same directory.

So this:
"(Open the start menu, type cmd, press enter, then navigate to the dir.)"
Won't work? Am I missing something?

[pslim]

Try running "game.exe --setup" from the command line.
(Open the start menu, type cmd, press enter, then navigate to the dir.)

This totally worked, thanks man. Now I can set it to run in windowed mode so it'll run. You guys are boss.

[jetxl]

Dont know if this works in Vista but in XP and below you can make a shortcut of the exe, edit the targer file by adding --winsetup, i.e.

Code: ags

"C:\bla\ags game.exe" --winsetup

This saves you browsing for the file.

The setup window is within the game file. Winsetup.exe is just a file that redirects to it.

[Pumaman]

You shouldn't have to do that though, the whole point of Winsetup.exe is that it does it for you.

Can you post the full error message that you're getting if you try and run Winsetup? On Vista it will probably give you an Administrator prompt when you run it, but it should work after that.

[pslim]

When I try to run winsetup, I get the following message:

Error: Unable to launch 'BJ7.exe'. Make sure that the file is in the same folder as this Setup program.

[Pumaman]

Strange, I haven't had any problems on Vista.

The files were definitely unzipped, right? You weren't trying to run winsetup.exe from within the zip file?

[pslim]

Yeah, and I tried unzipping it straight to C instead of nested inside various other things after it didn't work the first time when I extracted it to where I generally keep my AGS games. Same deal, though.