Help with Vista

J

Jagdflieger

Jr. Admin
I'm currently using a lap top with Vista OS. Last week, I lost the ability to edit CFS 2 files (aircraft.cfg, dp files, etc.). When I try to save the edits, I get a message that "Access was unauthorized." Last I checked it was my computer, but for some reason it prohibits this function.

How can I get it to recognize me as the owner/administrator and allow me to do this? The book on Vista that I bought doesn't seem to address this.

I'm the only one with an account on it and when I set it up, I set myself as the administrator, although it does show three accounts; Systems, Me-administrator and me.
 
There are several options:
-Disable UAC (User Account Control is the mechanism that "protects" your sytem from unauthorized system file modifications). This is NOT the way I personally would advise you to go; UAC has definite benefits to keep you safe(r) from malware, turning it off reverts you to the "I am God I know better than Microsoft" mode from XP.
-Start up Windows Explorer as Administrator when you want to do those edits: in the start menu->accessories->right-click Windows Explorer icon and select "Run as Adminsitrator" (note the little shield icon). The screen will go dark and you'll get a popup to ask if you are sure. Any action you start up from that explorer window will now have the permissions to mess up your CFS2 install ;)
-Install/move CFS2 to a location that is not protected by UAC (for instance your c:\users\Jagdflieger folder, or on a different drive. This is the way I do it for applications I mess with a lot.
 
Taking Sander's recommendation further for moving the sims to an unprotected new drive (btw, welcome back, dude :wavey:), if you choose that option i would suggest that you purchase Acronis Disk Director online (latest version for Vista/W7) and use it to repartition your single drive into two partitions - C & D. During the process setup, instruct the program to also format the new D drive partition as NTFS.

Temporarily void your current Microsoft Games folder with all its sims by renaming the folder. You'll have to void the current installs so the CD's will prompt you properly for new installations. Otherwise they'll just give you the "Play..." option when you pop them into the tray.

Create a new Microsoft Games folder on the new drive and this will be the directory path into which the new sims are placed. This will cause the system registry to "relocate" the installation paths. This is critical for any new third party addons which demand valid MS sim installation paths in order to install their addons, like A2A Simulations for one example. Now reinstall each sim to the new partition. When all reinstallations are finished, delete the new contents of each sims' main folders and move the older contents of your current sims' main folders into these new locations. By doing this you retain all the addons and mods you've done for each MS sim in the past and the new registry paths are fully recognized by the system.
 
DANGER, WILL ROBINSON !

Jag, this happened to me about a week ago after a M$ autoupdate, JUST before my laptop crashed and I lost all of my December / January work....

Be VERY careful how you proceed, Brother
SC
:kilroy:
 
bearcat241 said:
... (btw, welcome back, dude :wavey:),...
Click to expand...
Cheers mate, good to be back, where we all appreciate and leech off each others art and expertise so much (btw I'm a Microsoft certified engineer, also on Vista (MCITP-EA Windows 2008), but vowed to go out of my way to avoid providing support for Vista as I find it a total piece of :icon35::icon35::icon35::icon35:....Not entirely MS's fault, more "the industry" for bad drivers, bad software and unfulfilled promises at a high co$t for the end user. Now a reasonably happy w7 user).
Good tips too. Vista's UAC is more picky on protecting the C:\ as a whole than w7 (with the default less-strict setting in UAC), and not configurable so yeah it might be a good idea to move it to a new partition. Moving it to the users-folder is however the quickest permanent fix without compromising security.
 
I've run Vista for a long time. The solution is surprisingly simple. Copy or move whatever file you want to edit to the desktop, make the changes, save and replace.
 
I turned the User account feature off, and CFS2 has been fine since on my laptop.
 
wsmwsm said:
I've run Vista for a long time. The solution is surprisingly simple. Copy or move whatever file you want to edit to the desktop, make the changes, save and replace.
Click to expand...

I found out exactly the same :)
 
As far as installing valuables on a separate partition goes, you've heard the old wisdom, "Think ahead and stay ahead", right? Suppose a big nasty sneaks past all of your trusted defenses and buggers your system to the point of needing a total hard drive wipe to clean it all out. What do you think will happen to your beloved valuables in that wipe? But if you have it all on a separate partition, you only have to wipe the system partition (C drive) and everything stays intact and unaffected on the second. It beats constantly updating backup CD/DVD's and external drives for the rainy days. ;)
 
SdC Redux said:
Still need to do that regardless!
Click to expand...

Now there's some words of wisdom and I agree 110% with SdC Redux. You just cannot rely on a HDD to store data. A partitioned HDD is even less stable and we won't mention RAID drives.

I wouldn't even recommend storing anything of value on CD/RW or DVD/RW. Always use CD-R or DVD-R if you want to keep the stuff for as long as possible.

Cheers :ernae:
Lindsay
 
Yeah i know Sander, you're right, but i'm making soooo many mods and continuously working in addons that i can't stop with every turn to sync my backup installs on the external for every sim and game i play daily. I can do this periodically, but not every time i pop the hoods to tinker! Multi-partitioning gives me a certain peace of mind between syncs because the valuables don't share the same drive as the system. As for the stability factor, i've been using this setup for 10 years without a single loss due to viral infections with the alternate partitions. I did have an episode once where i had a massive system meltdown due to hardware failure which caused me to have to recover all of my alternate drive data, but that was a piece of cake.
 
Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for all the tips.

I used option 2 and 3 in Sander's first post and I think that'll do it for now.

Placing the file on the Desktop for editing works, but when you are adjusting weapon's positions, Machine gun and cannon zeros or flight models it adds to the labor. With CFS 2 you can make adjustment while the Sim is running (on pause) and then just reload your aeroplane to immediately see the results. Editing the files while they are still in the planes folder while the Sim is running is convenient and efficient and was thus the reson de etre of this thread and why I needed a solution to edit them in the plane's folder.

I routinely back up my files on two different external hard drives for long term storage. Thankfully I haven't had to resort to them other than updating them. I guess if I had a larger hard drive, I'd try the multi-partition approach.

I'm afraid this lap top I'm using is about done for as it's getting quite neurotic and failing to start properly now and then as well as other odd activities. I use Norton 360 almost daily on it, but it is getting more unreliable than usual. Hope it will last another 6 months.

Thanks again for the tips. This is definitely the place to come for not only CFS 2 tips, but also general info as well.
 
leroy10 said:
Now there's some words of wisdom and I agree 110% with SdC Redux. You just cannot rely on a HDD to store data. A partitioned HDD is even less stable and we won't mention RAID drives.

I wouldn't even recommend storing anything of value on CD/RW or DVD/RW. Always use CD-R or DVD-R if you want to keep the stuff for as long as possible.

Cheers :ernae:
Lindsay
Click to expand...
RE: RAID drives; depends on the RAID level; RAID is designed to bundle multiple disks together. Depending on the RAID level, this protects the data from failure of one or more disks. Only RAID0 is an exception; it spreads the data over multiple disks without redundancy. This is often used in desktop PC's to get better performance but offers no protection; if one of the disks fail all data is lost. In our datacenter we use at least RAID level 5 on our disks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

RE: CD/DVD: a LOT of my CD-R's from over 5 years ago are now FUBAR. It is not a suitable medium for permanent reliable storage.

So, to sum it up, I'd change your "You just cannot rely on a HDD to store data" into "You just cannot rely on a SINGLE HDD to store data".
 
Jagdfleiger:

I understand your quandry now. Didn't realize you could make changes to CFS2 while the game was running. Moving things to the desktop won't do the trick.
 
Thanks for the tips Bearcat and SDC. I also have been using the drag to desktop method but I really think partitioning would be a good idea. I'll try it when I get a chance. Sooooo busy. :wavey:
 
Help Menu

I'm slowly getting CFS 2 to work with vista and this lap top. While it'll never compete with my PC back home, it should allow me to make a few missions and check out all the new stuff being made by the faithful.

Do any of you using Vista and CFS 2 have access to your Help menu? I get a window saying that Vista doesn't support older Help formats.
 
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