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Theorist
Original Poster
#1 Old 25th Feb 2014 at 7:39 PM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default AGS on Windows 7 (64-bit)?
I'm thinking about downloading and installing AnyGameStarter, so that I don't have to constantly rename bunch of Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folders every time I start the game.

I've seen people having a lot of issues regarding running AnyGameStarter on Windows 7. I have all of my games installed on another partition (D:\Game Files\The Sims 2 Collection\...), not C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86).

Are there any critical, system-wise errors that could arise if my installation of AGS goes wrong? (I'm aware that there could be potential issues regarding running a 64-bit system, but I'm talking about having to reinstall my entire game or causing some sort of corruption of the registry.) Should I take any precautions when installing AGS?
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#2 Old 25th Feb 2014 at 9:38 PM
My suggestion is that you backup your registry and possibly the specific parts of the registry which will be changed by the AGS. You can also create a system restore point, but the registry files are handy so that you can compare what was originally in the registry with what the AGS changed it to. The system restore point will just help you to get things working again if they go wrong, so that you don't have to reinstall all of your games.

In general, you'll just have to make a few changes to some text files using Notepad: .BAT and .REG. Be sure to make a backup of your AppFiles folder once you've made those changes, since the AGS will "fix" your changes every time that you create a new AnyGame.
Theorist
Original Poster
#3 Old 25th Feb 2014 at 10:03 PM
Alright, before I downloaded AGS I made an entire registry backup and created a restore point.

Now, I read a thread Phaenoh opened about this issue, and it said something about adding a Wow6432Node to the paths. Now, in my registry, I have:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EA GAMES\The Sims 2

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\

In both REG files (ending with _Full and _PermaGame) there's only the first path, without the node. Should I add the Wow6432Node to both of the REG files?

And what about BAT files, what is there to modify?
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#4 Old 25th Feb 2014 at 10:21 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 25th Feb 2014 at 11:41 PM.
If your games are currently listed in the Wow node and AGS doesn't include that node, then you'll want to add it.

Here is the thread where we discuss some of the changes that are needed:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=450094

Some of the BAT files that we saw in that thread did not contain the full path for the EXE. If the AGS works fine, then you probably don't need to change anything. In general, both the REG and BAT files contain paths that need to be correct.
Theorist
Original Poster
#5 Old 26th Feb 2014 at 2:16 PM
This is strange, you don't seem to mention Wow6432Node at all in the thread you linked me to. Yet, it's the node that made my AnyGame functionable.

One more question; you emphasize how it's important to modify the REG files before running the AnyGame in order to prevent FullGame installation corruption. However, when I installed the AnyGame, I ran it, in order to see whether it's necessary to modify any of the AnyGame files. Yet, the AnyGame started as a FullGame (with every EP and SP I have installed instead of the ones I specified in the AnyGame setup).

After I realized that all the EPs and SPs were included in AnyGame, I quickly googled it and found Phaenoh's thread, as I mentioned before. This post was very helpful and helped me solve the problem.

After running the fixed AnyGame, it was all good, as expected. After closing the AnyGame, I ran my FullGame, and it was all good, too. However, you say that running AGS with unmodified REG files (which don't point to correct places) could cause issues.

Could it be that I managed to corrupt something, even though both games (AnyGame and FullGame) function properly at the moment?
Site Helper
#6 Old 26th Feb 2014 at 4:20 PM
I wouldn't say that you "corrupted" things, but you may have additional unnecessary registry entries in the non-Wow tree.
Theorist
Original Poster
#7 Old 26th Feb 2014 at 7:52 PM
Can those registry entries (if such exist) be safely deleted using a registry cleaner application, such as CCleaner? (In other words, is such a tool able to recognize unnecessary registry entries like these?)

Oh, and what about that registry backup I made? (Clicking Export... on the Computer node.) When is it safe to double click that REG file? Is it safe to do if I'd installed programs after I made that backup (or should those programs be uninstalled before applying that REG file)?
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#8 Old 26th Feb 2014 at 11:04 PM
That particular one? No, I doubt it. I suppose that there's no harm in trying CCleaner, though. It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing that is easy for a program to find.

If you double click on the registry backup, it will fix existing entries, but I do not believe that it will delete those new entries. For example, you can double click on a tiny REG file (like the ones created by the AGS) and it won't delete everything in your registry except those few entries (thank goodness!). Instead, it just sets the entries that are mentioned in the REG file and leaves the rest of your registry intact.

There may be a way to restore the registry so that it exactly matches the backup, but I'm not familiar with how to do that. You'd have to check out Microsoft's help website. Of course, if you do that, then the registry entries for any new programs that you installed will disappear.

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about the extraneous entries, as long as everything seems to be working OK. Another option is to delete those entries manually, since you know exactly what they are.
Theorist
Original Poster
#9 Old 27th Feb 2014 at 11:12 AM
Alright, thank you for all the help.
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