I need help for someone else

For the past few months (yes: months) I've been trying to help a guy install my Windows 7 "Patch".

He's not very PC savvy and, finally, I think I figure-out what is not working.

Installing the patch is basically substituting the new COMBATFS.CFG for the original.

The problem he has is that, after right-clicking his mouse, he gets the following drop-down menu;

open

run as admin

troubleshoot compatibility

scan selecteditems for viruses

scan with avg

scan with malwarebytes

send to
copy

create shortcut

properties.

No "delete" or "rename" or "cut" or whatever. He has a W7 64bits that he bought specifically for CFS1 (which shows dedication, you must admit) and a Win 10 machine.

I know that he needs to reset his privileges - or whatever they're called - but the trouble is that I've done mine so long ago that I can't find what to do.

Anyone kind enough to take the torch and explain, in very laymen terms, how to get permission to delete any files under W7?

Please!!!

I will pass along to him a link to this post.

Just click run as administrator and continue.

Cheers Chris

And just how do you do that?

I mean step-by-step as if you where sitting next to him, screen captures wouldn't hurt.

P.S.- If you mean in the drop-down menu, it wont work. It will simply start the game.

This person has user account control active?

What you can do is simply copy the cfg file in there to a safe place and in the sim replace it with yours, overwriting it.

Priller

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Priller

This person has user account control active?

What you can do is simply copy the cfg file in there to a safe place and in the sim replace it with yours, overwriting it.

Priller

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He probably has a very restricted user account.

The problem is not the COMBATFS.CFG file. In fact, I told him not to play the game after a full install as to not create one.

I fiddle with his problem part of last night and I think he simply needs to get control over his machine by creating an administrator account and using it.

Will email him and come back with news later.

Problem solved??

Just curious,

hertzie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hertzie

Problem solved??

Just curious,

hertzie

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Sorta...:banghead:

It turns out that he his the sole user and has administrator status. I was almost hoping for a very restricted access user account!

If I was sitting in front of his machine, that would probably take me only minutes but he is in UK.

His lack of knowledge about M$ programs does not help but, alas, he's not alone in this case.

People have been making toasts for decades without any knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics, even less of electrodynamics. But they still make and eat toasts every morning.:mixed-smiley-010:

Seems some program took ownership of that particular folder...

Can you have the person rightclick on that folder, select properties, go to the security tab, click on the advanced button and check whether he is the owner of that folder?

Cheers,

Priller

Good point "Pips"!

I hope he will read this.

I know that some anti-virus "suite" have an overbearing tendency to make your life miserable. Our first PC came with Norton... and a lot of whining and screaming! :redfire:


Unfortunately, many A/V companies are operating under the motto; Our clients are idiots, so let put on them the straight jacket.

And M$ is not helping, quite the opposite.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hubbabubba

Good point "Pips"!

I hope he will read this.

I know that some anti-virus "suite" have an overbearing tendency to make your life miserable. Our first PC came with Norton... and a lot of whining and screaming! :redfire:


Unfortunately, many A/V companies are operating under the motto; Our clients are idiots, so let put on them the straight jacket.

And M$ is not helping, quite the opposite.

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Well, judging by what you posted in your first post, the man has AVG and malwarebytes installed. At least he's security conscious!! LOL!!

But I do think that user account control is in play here as well. This is on the Win7 machine, right?

Make him type user account control in the search field of the start menu and hit enter. After that a new dialogue box will appear. Make him pull the slider all the way down and then reboot and see what that gives.

BTW, where does one acquire CFS1 nowadays? That was my very first sim, many moons ago!

Cheers,

Priller

Couldn't he just rename the COMBATFS.CFG & then run your patch?

Open Windows Explorer

One A single deliberate Left mouse click on COMBATFS.CFG
Two Pause (say two in your head)
Three A single deliberate Left mouse click on COMBATFS.CFG

This should highlight COMBATFS within Blue Box.
A third Left click at the start of the BLUE BOX allows you to add or replace text. My suggestion is change to orig_COMBATFS.CFG

A final left mouse click effects the file name change.

This should allow the patch to place a new COMBATFS.CFG

Screengrabs are attached. I don't own CFS1, so I've illustrated the sequence by changing cfs2.cfg from one of my many CFS2 installs. The principle remains the same.

Hope this helps.

I'm pretty certain that something is interfering with his administrator privileges, Pips. But what does?

It took me weeks to figure out that he was running my patch (a replacement for COMBATFS.EXE) from the desktop! This epiphany only came when I was able to reproduce the error he was getting. We started advancing at a faster pace when I demanded screen captures, which he finally found how to make on his own using some third party prog called, I'm guessing here, snip (I gave him a simpler way to do so with print screen button and M$ Paint). Not having AVG or Malwarebyte, I'm basically shooting in the dark.

What you suggest won't work (I tried). It would only ask for permission, not bar you completely from doing anything.

Hello UncleTgt :wavey:,

First, it is the EXE file that would need renaming, not the CFG. And the fact is that he can't. His system does not authorize renaming, cutting, erasing, deleting of any kind! As Priller says, his security his air tight!:jump:

Do we know where CFS1 is installed? WIN 7 (& later) have extra restrictions on the default Program Files & Program Files (x86) folders. Otherwise it's looking like the hardware vendor gave him a "neutered" admin user profile to me. Otherwise Priller's suggestion in post #10 is the way to go, he may have the UAC settings up too high, which leads the OS to bar you from from ever changing anything useful (because we're all idiots, right?)...

IMHO, given the fact that this person is not too PC savvy, the simplest way forward would be for him to create another profile on the PC with full admin rights and start all over again. And of course disable UAC. he has more than enough security running, so UAC will only bother and confuse him.

Just my two € cents worth.

Priller

PS: Hubbabubba, check your mail mate! :jump:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UncleTgt

Do we know where CFS1 is installed? WIN 7 (& later) have extra restrictions on the default Program Files & Program Files (x86) folders. Otherwise it's looking like the hardware vendor gave him a "neutered" admin user profile to me. Otherwise Priller's suggestion in post #10 is the way to go, he may have the UAC settings up too high, which leads the OS to bar you from from ever changing anything useful (because we're all idiots, right?)...

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I've passed the info along, screen capture included.

It reminds me of our first PC, a Compaq, that was shared by the whole family. I was getting the "don't do that!" from my wife, who was working in an office where only "techies" could open the belly of the beast, constantly. We had a 3 years technical support and a 1-800 number to call 24/7, which I used to the fullest. I was known by my first name by everyone in their Chicago office.:173go1:

Hello Hubbabubba, et al.

It has been a long time since I did any significant work on Windows PCs, but one thing that I do remember that might be useful here is that sometimes Admin rights were not inherited by every process / utility that is run.
In a couple cases, I remember that it was necessary to run the Command prompt with a "Run As" Admin and then things would work. I was doing batch jobs using Windows NT at the time so things may not be exactly the same with the newer stuff.
I do know that there is the option when you right click on selections from the Start Menu, there is the option to "Run as Administraor".
You might want to try that with the Command Prompt and perhaps reset some of the file or directory permissions (and of course the parent directories as well).

Perhaps that might help.

Also as a security precaution, sometimes the account called "Administrator" was not the real thing. We would often reduce the abilities of the "Administrator" account because it was the most likely account to be attacked. The REAL administrator account might be under and entirely different and innocuous name.

- Ivan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ivan

Hello Hubbabubba, et al.

It has been a long time since I did any significant work on Windows PCs, but one thing that I do remember that might be useful here is that sometimes Admin rights were not inherited by every process / utility that is run.
In a couple cases, I remember that it was necessary to run the Command prompt with a "Run As" Admin and then things would work. I was doing batch jobs using Windows NT at the time so things may not be exactly the same with the newer stuff.
I do know that there is the option when you right click on selections from the Start Menu, there is the option to "Run as Administraor".
You might want to try that with the Command Prompt and perhaps reset some of the file or directory permissions (and of course the parent directories as well).

Perhaps that might help.

Also as a security precaution, sometimes the account called "Administrator" was not the real thing. We would often reduce the abilities of the "Administrator" account because it was the most likely account to be attacked. The REAL administrator account might be under and entirely different and innocuous name.

- Ivan.

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Hello Ivan,

I checked, through screen-captures, that he was the only account present. Something is blocking him, at least in his Program Files (x86). But he was able to rename (changing the extension) of a file on his desktop.

I was tempted to have him install the whole game there but he could not even move a file from the desktop to the 32bits folder. That's how I discovered that my file was running from the desktop via a shortcut in the game folder! No wonder he was getting an error message. Up to that point, I was under the impression that 1- His game was corrupted, or ; 2- My "Patch" was corrupted.

The second patch I send him confirmed that it was neither, with the help of screen capture.

Hello Hubbabubba,

There were actually two separate items.

One was the possibility of a hidden Admin account.
You have addressed that.

The second item was that even if you are logged in as the Admin account, sometime things don't work as expected if I remember correctly. I am old school with a Unix OS background, so I tend to do a lot of things from the command line and via scripts and also it made sense to test command syntax for batch CMD files from a Command Prompt.
Sometimes a regular Command Prompt did not work as expected but a Command Prompt run as Admin did.
Now keep in mind that this scripting was mostly done around 2001-2002, so maybe I am not remembering all the details, but I believe it is still worth a try.

- Ivan.

Can you get him to install anywhere else other than "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86)"?

Like Priller suggested, it's looking like the "enhanced" User Account Control (UAC) protection the Operating System uses for these folders is preventing him installing your patch as it is meant to be used.

IIRC it was to prevent unauthorised/ unacknowledged read/write to files within these folders. This is something these older sim programs do a lot of... (updating filelist.dat files etc.)

Considering the second point, Ivan, I wouldn't know where to begin.

As for your suggestion, UncleTgt, it was already mentionned in post #17. He has trouble moving a single file, imagine a whole folder.

Beside, if he wants to risk it, the decision is all his to make.

Hello Hubbabubba,

I have easy access to Windows 8.1, and Window 10 machines, but I believe your example machine is a Windows 7.
I know there is a Windows 7 laptop still operational somewhere in the house, but it belongs to my Daughter and I don't know where it is nor do I know the password.
My Daughter is off at College now, so I don't stay in constant contact. I will wait for her to contact me.
With acess to Windows 7, perhaps I can get a few screenshots to show what I mean.

The next question is that on the assumption that you can alter and replace files, what do you have in mind?
Do you just want to replace COMBATFS.EXE or are you looking to move things around?

- Ivan.

Just replace COMBATFS.EXE, that's all.

When he tried, he made a shortcut instead of moving the patched file. Just to be sure, I send him a patched file by email, changing the extension to XXX (I'm tempted to make a joke right here, but I will refrain...:p87:) so that anti-virus protection would not interfere.

That's how I know that he was able to rename the extension because the error message was;
couldnt load language resource DLL,

ERROR C:\Users\User\desktop\english.FLL code 0x7e(126)

So, COMBATFS.EXE was on the desktop (I later discovered that only a shortcut was in the game folder), I also noted the unusual "\Users\User\" path. Don't have that on my own machines.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hubbabubba

Considering the second point, Ivan, I wouldn't know where to begin.

As for your suggestion, UncleTgt, it was already mentionned in post #17. He has trouble moving a single file, imagine a whole folder.

Beside, if he wants to risk it, the decision is all his to make.

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Hubbabubba,

I wasn't saying move the install - I was saying do a fresh install, outside of the "Program Files" folders, because these have enhanced protection (my desktop is WIN 7, my work PC is WIN 10, which is even more restrictive).

I've attached a screengrab showing my CFS2 install folder structure. Maybe the first step is to see if, using Windows Explorer, he can even create a folder named "FLTSIMS", as I did?

I know I have CFS2 & not CFS1, but I imagine the same solutions would work for the older program?

If he can create a folder, do a fresh install to that folder, then try to copy your exe file into that location.

That's what I had in mind, UncleTgt. I passed along the suggestion.

Hello Hubbabubba, UncleTgt,

I believe I have a pretty similar setup on my machines.
One machine has CFS installed in F:\Games\MSFlight
Another machine has CFS in C:\Games\MSFlight but it is not installed.
It seems to run fine anyway, but some utilities are having problems with that setup.
(This was on my old Game Machine that had a HDD failure and the disk restore from backup restored CFS but it doe not show up as an installed program.)
There is yet another machine, but I don't remember which directory CFS lives in on that machine.

- Ivan.