07-21-2009, 06:16 AM,
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Pegasus
Private 1st Class
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Posts: 38
Joined: Mar 2002
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Vista Help
My PC died :conf:
I bought a new one (with Vista) and installed TOAW III and the latest patch without any problems.
I recovered all my save files from the old drive and copied them into the default TOAW Saves folder on the new machine.
I had a couple of games where I was part-way through a turn. The saves loaded fine, things were steaming along with my new quad-core, 4GB system. I finished the turns for a couple games, saving the PBL files in the default location.
It was just too easy and too good to be true:
I went to email the finished turns to my opponents and they had vanished! I rifled through folders, used the seach function on the whole drive. All i could find were "shortcuts" in the folder C:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent. These shortcuts pointed to files the default saves folder, but if it tried to " open target", windows said it couldn't find them.
If I use load a saved game, or load a PBEM in TOAW, it sees the files, and loads them, but as far as windows, my email client, or any other App is conscerned, they don't exist.
(note, windows can see all the files I transferred, but nothing saved when playing on the new machine. TOAW can see both)
Can anyone help?
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07-21-2009, 08:14 AM,
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Pegasus
Private 1st Class
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Posts: 38
Joined: Mar 2002
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RE: Vista Help
Further news.
In the folder view of my saves folder , there is a button on the toolbar called "Compatibility Files". If i click this, everyting else dissapears and my missing files turn up. However, I can't find them when using the add attachment dialogue in my mail client. (PS I use firefox and webmail)
David
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07-21-2009, 08:54 AM,
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Pegasus
Private 1st Class
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Posts: 38
Joined: Mar 2002
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RE: Vista Help
I think I've worked this out. (no thanks to windows help, which was useless.)
In vista, most folders appear to be read only by default. (you can copy/write to them in vista with a pop-up adminstrator nag.)
TOAW must run in XP compatibility mode and when it tries to save to C:\Program Files\Matrix Games\Saves (which is not write protected by defaut in XP), Vista just fools it into thinking its saving to its chosen folder, when really it saves them to C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Matrix Games\Saves\FitE. I can only presume they were worried about the Vista nag interrupt screwing legacy applications.
However, AppData is a hidden folder, so you have to turn hidden folders off in order to navigate to your files in vista or any other app. (This is most probably why the stupid search function didn't pick them up either)
ah, the laws of unitended consequences.
From now on, ensure saves are stored in a Vista "user space", especially with legacy apps.
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07-21-2009, 11:47 AM,
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RE: Vista Help
Or like me - use XP !
Antoni ChmielowskigGames Played : WiTP-AE, TOAW3,Gary Grigsbys War in The East/ War In The West
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08-17-2009, 01:56 PM,
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RE: Vista Help
And you must switch over if you buy a new computer. There doesn't seem to be any alternative. J
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01-05-2010, 09:55 PM,
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Pegasus
Private 1st Class
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Posts: 38
Joined: Mar 2002
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RE: Vista Help
Ed
After a while I noticed that if I was using an administrator profile, the game would save in the Saves folder in the default location on the C drive, and I could copy and write to and from it directly. With a normal user account files were saved in the location as stated in previous messages. (the game application still thinks it is saving in the Saves folder on the C drive, etc etc.)
A friend had a different experience, normal user accounts put save files in the default location on the C drive, and he could access and copy them. The only difference we could see was that Vista was preinstalled on my machine when purchased, whereas he installed his own copy from scratch. When setting up Vista, the vendor of my machine has set the C drive as write protected as the default for normal user accounts, whereas his self instal gave normal users full access to the C drive folders by default.
David
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01-05-2010, 10:11 PM,
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Pegasus
Private 1st Class
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Posts: 38
Joined: Mar 2002
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RE: Vista Help
Not wanting to confuse the issue even further, but microsoft applications are also fooled as to where the files actually are. For example, Windows Mail thinks the game saves are in the default location in the C drive, when they are acutally physically in C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Matrix Games\Saves\, however, if you are using Firefox to access web mail and point to the default location to attach a file, it won't find them.
David
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