huntress+xp+guide



Installing EAW in WIN XP (Submitted by Kay 'Huntress' Hammil)

QUESTION - Problems with installing EAW in WIN XP.

ANSWER - See below:

EAW can and does install and run under Win XP; there are no differences relating to EAW between Win XP Home and Win XP Pro. The easiest path to take is to install Service Pack 1 for Win XP since Microsoft included an EAW-specific compatibility module as part of its legacy games support provided in the service pack. Since this method gives a better compatibility than using the more general compatability modules XP natively includes, these instructions assume that SP1 has been installed prior to installing EAW.

So, from the top, you would install EAW, using the full install option in the event that you will want to use one of the no-cd fixes available. Do not allow the game installer to create shortcuts--you will create your own later. (While most XP users can use installer-created shortcuts, enough cannot that I advise against attempting to use them; rather, create your own after you've finished your install entirely.) The installer may create the shortcuts anyway; if you cannot launch the sim using them, just delete them all and they can be created later, following the installation of the Microprose/Infogrames (now called Atari) game patch or following the addition of your chosen modified executable file, whichever you decide to use after installing the patch file.

Note: If you are unable to run the EAW installer from the CD because you get an error telling you that EAW will not run under NT, or the the installer is not a valid Win32 application, cancel the installation process. Leave the CD in the drive. Open Windows Explorer and browse to the setup.exe file on the CD. Right-click it, choose Properties, choose the Compatibility tab, and check the box to the left of Run this program in compatibility mode for: Choose Windows 98/ME. You are assigning a compatibility mode only to the installer. It should now run for you.

Once the sim has installed, go to Start | Run, browse to the location of your EAW install and select the executable file. Run it. Launch one single mission. Take the plane out of the hangar, then hit your Esc key. This is enough to cause the game to create your eaw.ini file so that you can now install the patch that takes the sim to v.1.2. Run the v.1.2 patch and let it find your install and patch it. If you have the Infogrames version of EAW, this patch is located on your CD. If you have the MicroProse version, you can download this patch from Sandbagger's EAW Key Files page, located here: Key Files. You will want to choose to patch your sim to v.1.2 for the purposes of most add-on campaigns which include executable files; while you can use the v.1.1 executable file following patching, other changes to the sim files are made during the patching process upon which those campaigns depend so the recommendation is to patch the sim to v.1.2.

Note: Some people are not able to launch the mission necessary to create the .ini file due to compatibility errors. This happens more often with the Infogrames version than with the MicroProse version of the executable file. MicroProse always advocated beginning a single mission prior to installing any of the patches; it was their position that the patch might not fully install if a .ini file had not been created prior to running the patch file. Some do install this patch with success without creating the .ini file; I would err on the side of caution and do what I could to launch that mission. To this end, a MicroProse version of the v.1.0 executable file has been provided here: HERE. Download this file. In Windows Explorer, browse to the location of your current executable file, right-click it and choose to Rename it to eawold.exe or something like this. This preserves this file in case you ever want it again. Extract the downloaded file into your EAW directory and use this as your executable file. From Start | Run, browse to the location of the downloaded executable file and run it. If this file will allow you to launch the sim, then start a single mission, Escape from it as soon as your plane leaves the hangar, and then you can run the patch file. If this version of the executable file will still not run for you, then a very generic .ini file is also available from the same page as is the MicroProse v.1.0 executable file, located just below that file. Download it, extract it, and copy it into your EAW directory. You will need to double-click this file which opens it in Notepad and verify that the letter assigned to the CD-ROM in the line Debug Path= is the same letter EAW would assign to your CD-ROM; the letter in this file is D. Change it if needed and hit File | Save to save your change. Now run the patch file either from your Infogrames CD or from Sandbagger's. Many find that the patch for EAW also helps in the area of compatibility for Windows XP, so you should have no more problems once the patch installs successfully. On your main menu screen in EAW, the verison number is located in the lower left corner so you will know if the patch took, hopefully fully. If you are not able to launch the sim from the Start | Run command line, try double-clicking the executable file in Windows Explorer. Just be sure that the file you are trying to run is named eaw.exe.

If you do not want to use any of the modified executable files which will include no-cd fixes, then you may now create your shortcuts to the Desktop and/or Start | Programs menu by opening Windows Explorer, browse to the location of your EAW folder. Highlight that in the left pane, right-click your eaw.exe file in the right pane and choose Send To | Desktop (Create Shortcut). Leave the shortcut alone if you just want a Desktop one; if you also want one on the Start | Programs menu, drag and drop the shortcut on the Start button. Create another for the Desktop or the QuickLaunch tray if you want by following the same procedure and dragging and dropping the shortcut where ever you want it.

If you do want to use a modified executable file and one of the purposes is to take advantage of the no-cd fix, then do not make your shortcuts just yet. Instead, in Windows Explorer, browse to your eaw.exe file and right-click it. Choose to Rename it, and call it something like eawold.exe or something like that. This preserves it in case you ever want it for some reason. Now copy in your chosen modified executable file (Andy has several of them at his Add-Ons page at Sandbagger's Dispersal site here: Andy's Add-Ons ), right-click that file, and rename it to eaw.exe. Under Win XP, the executable for EAW must be called eaw.exe or it will not run for you. You'll get an error telling you that EAW will not run under Win NT if you try running an EAW executable file with another name. Once you rename the file, then you can now make your shortcuts to this file using the instructions above.

Lastly, to take advantage of the no-cd fix using one of Andy's files, you will need to edit your eaw.ini file in Notepad. Browse to the file in Win Explorer, double-click it to open it in Notepad, and under the Miscellaneous header, you will see a line which begins with Debug Path= and continues with the path to your CD-ROM. Remove the path and replace it with .\ --that is, your line will now read: Debug Path=.\ where you have typed a period and a backslash following the equals sign. Hit File | Save to save your change.

For the purposes of installing EAW under Windows XP, you are now finished. You may face other issues with video cards, however, which are documented in other areas. NVidia chips as well as Radeon chips have rendering issues which have been solved with one degree of success or another by the EAW community and those solutions are located elsewhere on the site. These issues occur regardless of operating systems and have to do with hardware and driver changes over the years, not your choice of operating system.