There are a couple of other related things in that folder as well. Is there a particular problem with nested folders using the same name?

It's the same one that errored before. I meant to remove it before installing again, but forgot. I was surprised when I saw which it was, as I had misunderstood the problem - I thought it was long file NAMES that were not installing, rather than file PATHS.

I assumed that the entire folder would have disappeared from the Permagame after being 'ignored', but it was there, and the files inside looked fine, except the objects didn't seem to be in the game. (As they are new, I haven't yet seen them in-game, but I couldn't find them.) I have now replaced the folder completely, so they will probably appear next time I run it.

I'll leave the BGS alone for a few more days then. Thanks for your help.

yes, you remember well, I had problems with bgs and ags from Vista on (never with XP and it was fantastic and this is the reason why I cannot give up ), and on october it was my Vista a bit messed up yes
but this time is different, Numenor .. I think I was a bit inaccurate in relating about the documents path request, yes, the path was C:\Users\Alisar\Documents of course (as far as I can remember AGS requests were about 2 %USERPROFILE% and 2 C:\something else and I chose the one mentioned before ), but I cannot imagine what my registry may have wrong as my pc has a clean installation (but for win updates, antivirus updates, video and audio codecs, my nokia pc suite and the various tools related to the sims2... )... my antivirus does not describe any shell changement and actually my shell is no longer in system32.. .
I can assure you things have changed with AGS - I did not have any yellow documents folder before, just my relaxing green one so, before writing you, I read your last pms back and I checked and I found nothing strange in my registry anyway I did what you suggested (I didn't unistall anything this time, just waited for your answer as a good baby'd do ). I am restarting my system now (crossed fingers Hope this time it will go!)

Thank you for the moment - I will let you know in any case
cheers,
Ali

I'm glad to inform you that v2.0.3 RC2 works for me.

Standard Game with all EPs and SPs will not open my normal neighborhood anymore. The new AnyGame was created under AnyGame1 folder without problem.

No more complaining about M&G disk when I made an OFB+FT AnyGame either.

It's strange that apparently I'm the only person who had this problem. My computer is not that lightning fast, I built my current machine almost two years ago.

FYI, my PC spec:
Intel Core2Duo 6400 (2.13GHz)
4GB ram
ATI Radeon HD 3800

Thanks again for all your hard work you put into debugging.

No, there is no problem with sub-folders with names identical to their parent folders. I was just pointing out a useless lengthening of the path.
The installer seems to have a 256-character limit regarding the entire PATH+FILENAME (excluding the drive letter).
In any case, I confirm what you have already discovered: even if a single file fails because of any problem (path length or else), the other files are copied correctly, if possible.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

ALISAR - I'm puzzled, too, that the AGS did find something wrong in your registry, in a (almost) fresh Vista installation. Unless I've misunderstood something, there are 4 "documents paths" in the Registry :

• Current User, Shell Folders: "C:\Users\Alisar\Documents" (absolute path to your documents);
• Current User, User Shell Folders: "%USERPROFILE%\Documents" (relative path, based on the "USERPROFILE" system variable, that should always poit to "C:\Users\Alisar"; as a consequence, this path and the previous one always point to the same physical folder);
• Local Machine, Shell Folders: "C:\Users\Public\Documents" (absolute path to the shared documents);
• Local Machine, User Shell Folders: "%PUBLIC%\Documents" (again, a relative path bound to the PUBLIC variable, that should always point to "C:\Public", so that this path and the previous paths always point to the same physical folder).

However, apart from the technical discussions, the AGS creates a backup of the original Registry settings, and I'd like to read those values.
If you can, I'd like you to open the Registry and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Numenor\Backup.
You should see, on the right panel, 5 values (4 documents paths and 1 language setting). Can you please post here the 4 paths? Or - if you prefer - you can export the entire key and post it here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Lord Darcy - I'm so glad that now everything works fine! I don't know why only you had that problem, but anyway I've taken my chance to improve the installer code, making it even more error-proof.
Thanks for running so many tests, and providing such accurate reports!

Okay, thankyou! Hopefully that's it now from me!

WHAT'S NEW IN THE LATEST VERSION

• Version 2.0.3 (03 Jan 2009)
  • New "Debug Mode" icon in the Start Menu: use it if you have problems with the Documents folder; the icon forces the installer to open a folder selector, where to select the right Documents folder.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the correct conversion into PermaGame of old BGS games created with BGS installers older than v. 2.2.
    Many thanks to Aelflaed for reporting and helping tracking down the bug.
  • Fixed a rare bug that caused the AnyGame/PermaGame batch files to be mangled, thus preventing the AnyGames or PermaGames to run at all, or forced the Any/PermaGames to run using the "full" save-game folder.
    Many thanks to Lord Darcy for reporting and helping tracking down the bug.

ok i am very confused by this anyamestarter thing. I guess my main question is this: does this mean that if we download this that we can start the game without having a certain sims 2 disk in the CD/DVD drive? Because my sister and i both have the games on each of our computers and it says we both have to use Free time to play but we only have one free time game. so if i downloaded this would i be able to play the game without using the free time disk?? sorry if this seems like a stupid question but i am very confused

Numenor!
As always: GREAT!

amk51789 - The games created with the AnyGameStarter do require the CD in the drive; only, the required CD is not always the same, but depends on the latest EP included in the chosen game. If your problem is that both you and your sister want to play the game with all the expansions, then you both need the same CD, and the AnyGameStarter is useless for you.
However, as far as I know, the CD is required only when starting the game, and then can be extracted from the drive and used in the other PC, to start the game.

I can tell you for sure that Yes you can remove the disk right after game starts. I share with my two daughters and I am always forgeting the disks in their computers. (my 2 cents).

any chance you can do this for mac users as well? ;]

No, I'm sorry. The AnyGameStarter heavily relies on the Inno Setup installer (only working under Windows) and DOS batches (again, a Microsoft exclusive).
I don't even own a Mac -

Hey this looks great, I just have one question. I am trying to write a story using the sims for pictures, and everytime I go to install a new EP, mainly for my main game that I play just for fun, it disrupts the custom content I use for my story. So it's almost like I have to choose between my story or playing the game. Is the AGS installer something that can fix this? Can I create a game that just has the EPs up to Bon Voyage and then transfer my saved files to that game and use it for my story? And then be able to play my main game seperate from that? I've been reading through everything and trying to figure it out myself, but any help you could give would be greatly appreciated! Good work!

After you have played a neighborhood (even one time only!) with an EP, you can't play that game any more with an older EP; for example, if you install FreeTime and play the game, you can't copy the saved game to another game that only contains the EPs up to Bon Voyage. The game would crash.
The only thing you can do with the AGS is to create a separate game that contains the same EPs than the main game, and use it for your stories, without interefering with the main game.

I frankly don't understand what you mean with "installing a new EP disrupts the custom content"... We all know that whenever e new EP is installed, the custom content is temporarily turned off, and must be reactivated. But after that, the custom content should work exactly like before (except, maybe, some particular global mods).

Thanks for the help. I do have a sims 2 folder saved that is before I installed free time...and I did turn the custom content back on, but when I entered a lot that was for my story some of the custom content was blue and flashy.

So I could then use the AGS, and choose the expansion I want it to be good up to, and then copy my saved files over to the new game? It would be nice to have them separated for future things even if I have to deal with the custom content I've already lost.

If you have a sims2 folder lastly played with Bon Voyage, then yes, you can create an AGS game with the EPs up to Bon Voyage (I suggest to use the "standard game" option), and use your saved Sims2 folder to replace the one installed by the AGS installer.
Test the AGS game, to check that everything is in good order, and then transform the AGS game into a PermaGame, so to be sure that it won't be deleted by mistake

Sweet! Ok then one more question, I promise! So if after I install a standard game and transfer all that stuff over and yada yada yada, then if I want to install a new EP on my main game it won't affect the game I created for my story?

Your awesome, thanks for all the help and rad stuff you make!

Installing a new EP won't affect your AGS game, BUT the AGS game must be updated anyway. You see, the AGS game changes the Registry, in order to fool the game, and the it must restore the "full game" values in the Registry: i.e. the AGS must "know" that you have installed a new EP, or won't be able to restore the correct values.

However, the update of each and every AGS game, old BGS game and PermaGame happens automatically, simply starting the AGS installer. You just have to run the installer after installing a new EP, and cancel as soon as the AGS gives you chance to.

First Numenor, many thanks for this program.
I seem to have a little problem with it though. When I run an AGS for the first time, all is well, with CC or not (well, provided that the CC is compatible, of course!). Only, after I close the AGS game, add, say, a download or two, and try to run it again, I often get the message "Wrong CD, please insert BV's" (BV is the latest EP of my full game), no matter if I'm running a base game, a Uni one, an NL one or a Uni+NL one. Of course, it would be no problem if I only wanted to build one lot, but since I'm working on a large project and sometimes forget to add this or that critical download to my folder, it gets a bit aggravating to move the downloads/NH files back and forth while I reinstall an AGS again and again to be able to run the game. I was using the latest (Jan 3) release, too.
I have joined the Appfiles folder, as you asked. I hope you can fix this problem so that this program can be enjoyed to its full potential

PS: It appears that sometimes, the problem fixes itself. After posting this, I ran the AGS game again and it didn't complain. I'm wondering why.

The French Sim - Your PC seems to rush a little during the 60-seconds countdown executed before restoring the normal path to the Documents folder; your poor AGS game has actually only 30 seconds to start up, and sometimes this time is just too short. As a consequence, the path to the normal Documents folder is restored too early, and the AGS game is forced to run using the full game folder (thus asking for the Bon Voyage CD).

I'm not sure to have explained the problem clearly enough but anyway, the solution is simple: allowing the AGS game a longer time to start up.
Download the attached file, and unpack it to your AppFiles folder, overwriting the old "RestoreDocs.bat".
NOTE 1: keep a copy of this modified file in a safe place! Every time you run the AGS installer, it will replace the RestoreDocs.bat with the default 30-seconds version, and you have to copy it again in the AppFiles.
NOTE 2: there is only one copy of the RestoreDocs in the AppFiles, shared between all the three AnyGames; and then, there is another copy in the AppFiles of each PermaGame (if you use them). Remember to replace the RestoreDocs with the modified version in all the games.

Oooooh I see! So that's a matter of running the game when the computer isn't slowing down too much, so that it manages to launch the AGS game before the path is restored? Guess what - after I closed most of my other applications and ran the game in "Nightlife only" mode... it ran. Without moaning about the wrong CD being inserted!
I'll keep that file though, in case I really, really need it. Thanks for the explanation, I'm reassured!

I just installed the newest version of your AnyGameStarter because the Drag'n'Drop methode for .Sims2Pack didn't work for me anymore. Now I installed one lot. Worked fine... but I can't install any more lots by Drag'n'Drop. It tries every time to start the game . The S2PCI doesn't even start.

Uhm... Please do this:

- Try installing a lot by drag&drop
- When the game starts, close it
- Immediately zip your AppFiles folder
- Post here the zip when you can, and I'll examine it.

You could also try different settings such as a different resolution (fullscreen/windowed), or a different sound setting (sound on/off).
If you see that some settings work, and other don't, please let me know.

Numenor! I was so happy my problem seems to be solved that I did not come back but now to thank you so only now I read you had asked me reporting excuse me! My registry is exactly as you say - I attach the reg file so that you can check yourself I must add this is after I did what you had suggested, so we cannot be sure about what it was before but who cares? my reg is exactly what yu expected, isn't it?
as per my problem, I followed your instructions and then I created an AGS2 minigame and WOW no more problem with full game SimPE or anything else :lovestruc !!!!

you are my hero

p.s. I will be back to see if you need me to do anything else next time I log in, I swear :P

Yes, the registry is as I expected; thanks for telling me that now everything works fine!