Update not installing

[Shadrach]

Well, no-one from support said they wouldn't try to support you - did you open a support case?

Also, did you try to do remapping of the Documents folder to not use UNC (\\mac) paths?

And look at this, it appears you could isolate Windows more by using 'Like a PC' when installing Parallels:
https://kb.parallels.com/112146

[RogerJNeilson]

Ok just to close this off. Yes I did open a support request, yes I got a reply. The reply was - to paraphrase - we don't support stuff run on Parallels.

I'm not that desperate to run this game that I will play around with configs that may trash my other games - one of which has been running over 8 years....

So its another amount of my £ that has gone into the sinkhole of software that is either dreadful or doesn't deliver what I want.

Cheers

Roger

[BigDuke66]

Another Brexit....

[hingram]

That's why I use Boot Camp on my Mac.

[RogerJNeilson]

As you don't know me I assume that's a light hearted jest. Sadly the issue you refer to is the greatest act of stupid self harm my country has indulged in in my lifetime and probably in all of history.

Roger

[RogerJNeilson]

I take your point, but I prefer to be able to access all my software at the same time. Indeed for one of my Matrix games I use a Mac database to plan my activities.

Its not a big issue for me, its the only game I have had a problem with and I guess its a registry issue, but I am not going down that path without support advice - and I won't get that.

Roger

[Shadrach]

I think what probably separates TOAW4 from other games is its insistence on saving "user files" in Documents\My Games.
And it would appear the installer does not handle paths starting with "\\".

Personally I wish there was a way to tell the game to look elsewhere for this folder, or override it during installation, as the size of the TOAW4 files folder can get quite large with all the scenarios and mods (mine is 653MB).

Do you have other games with files in this folder?

Looking through the registry - there are no references to the install folder and similar which one would expect from other games, so I don't think it's solvable by changing reg keys.

Another idea - it's a longshot - if you could somehow install the game on another Windows machine, and zip down the entire folder:
c:\Users\username\Documents\My Games\The Operational Art of War IV\
Then unzip it to the same folder on your Parallels Windows. Then you might be able to skip the step of creating these folders. Question is of course, if the game will be able to read it afterwards, depending on how it accesses the directory.

You might also be able to zip down your entire TOAW4 install folder, by default "c:\Program Files (x86)\The Operational Art of War IV", from another PC and run it directly on Parallels, skipping the installer completely. AFAIK your serial is just stored in a file in the same folder, and not the registry so installer should be possible to skip.

EDIT: Just found the following key in the registry:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Matrix Games\The Operational Art of War IV
This contains your serial as well as the install location so it might be necessary to copy that data too... [8|]

[RogerJNeilson]

Thanks for your thoughts on this Shadrach. If I am going to install it on a laptop I will simply do that and run it on there, its not a burning desire to get into complex stuff like with my beloved WITP - it was more just a hmmm, lets have a look at this.

Certainly I don't want to start getting into registry editing and all that could go wrong there.

I am just going to pass on this now, with just a little regret that the 'we don't support parallels' was deployed so fast.

Hey plenty more things to keep me interested.

Best wishes

Roger