Trials of the Luremaster in Windows 10

[Guest IWD Lover]

I wasn't able to find a forum here at Gibberlings that seemed to fit this query perfectly, so feel free to move this elsewhere and inform me if necessary.  Does anyone know how to get the free Trials of the Luremaster patch/expansion from the internet to install in Windows 10?  My base game and Heart of Winter expansion installed from their CDs just fine (as they did on my previous rig that ran Windows 7).  Trials on the other hand in incompatible.  I get "An installation support file could not be installed.  Catastrophic failure" message when attempting to install.  The application already runs as administrator by default.  And I've tried running in compatibility mode for all the previous Windows versions that show up as an option.  No success.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Well, the Trials of the Loremaster is typical game patch, which means that you need to install the game correctly to be able to patch them... in Windows 10, this includes all the old type games that have free patches.

To do this, you need to "OWN" your game install folder, and in Windows 10, on the C drive, you only own your profile file folder, everything else is owned by others... well, the system. Yes, it's dum, you own the system, and while it owns the folder, you don't. Just a license. This is screwing customers from their property. But that's where this world is going. The cliff, yeah, we are so much past it ... 

So go into your profile files, that are always here: C:\Users\<username>\ - folder and make a custom folder for games, typically it's your native language "games" folder. Install the game there. Then you can just run the patch and install that to the games own folder. Not to the "games" folder. You will likely want to create a quick desktop icon from the games folder, so you have a quick access to the folders address to copy to the typical install processes.

So for example, I installed my gog diablo here: C:\Users\Jarno\Pelit\Diablo\

... it's the same for any other game that was made before 2015 that needs a patch to fix issues, it can't either install the patch or if it does, it puts the files in the wrong folder, as Windows 10 also comes with a native folder protection that allows no overwriting, but it mirrors the processed new files into the users own temporary folder, you typically have no idea where it is, where from the games can't see or use them as they are not natively Windows 10 compatible supported, because the Windows 10 didn't exist before that date. Or the programmer had to gain access to a pre-build of Windows 10.

31 minutes ago, Guest IWD Lover said:

And I've tried running in compatibility mode for all the previous Windows versions that show up as an option.

Yeah, the compatibility mode is not made for this purpose... if for any purpose at all.

Edited March 29, 2020 by Jarno Mikkola

[Guest IWD Lover]

Well awesome!  Thanks.  I guess I'll start with that.  In dinking around with other ways to get it to work I had already messed up my install folder and tossed it.  Noticed that Icewind Dale still seems to be in the registry though (in the list of programs that you can uninstall in Windows's settings).  Oddly it won't permit me to "uninstall" the base game and Heart of Winter from there.  I get the same error message when attempting to uninstall as when I tried to install the patch we just addressed.  Am I just stuck with my initial game install in my registry now?  There's no way to get it out and start over with a fresh install?  A friend mentioned CCleaner might get rid of it, but I don't want to dig my hole any deeper without knowing what I'm doing.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Just install the game to another computer and copy paste it to a USB stick and copy it from there. Yeah, I know it's inconvinient, but that's actually the best solution. Not that you actually need a Windows registery to be correct anyways, but tossing around folders not a proper way to manage it.

[Guest IWD Lover]

I did as you suggested (installed on another computer and moved the install over).  Windows 10 still does not permit me to "uninstall" Icewind Dale.  CCleaner apparently won't take it out of the register either.  I guess from here I just have no choice but to leave it in the register and proceed to install the game again in the profile folder you specified regardless?  And then hopefully when I attempt to install the Trials of the Luremaster patch the computer knows to throw it in said profile folder and the registry doesn't screw with it.

[Guest IWD Lover]

I did as you suggested (installed on another computer and moved the install over).  Windows 10 still will not permit me to "uninstall" Icewind Dale.  And apparently CCleaner won't remove it from the registry either.  I guess my only option at this point is to leave it in the register and proceed to install the game again in the profile folder you specified, regardless?  And then hope that when I attempt to install the Trials of the Luremaster patch the computer knows to associate with said folder and the registry doesn't screw with it.

[Guest IWD Lover]

Update:  Windows 10 permits me to install the base game in the profile folder you specified.  But it won't let me install even Heart of Winter beyond that, let alone Trials of the Luremaster.  I get the same error message for Heart of Winter as I had been getting for Trails of the Luremaster previously.  Am I missing something?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Well, if you installed the game and deleted the game folder, then the Heart of Winter(aka HoW) could be registered as already installed. .. but that shouldn't give you the previous error..

I would suggest that you restore the original deleted folder to the place it was. As I suggested before, install the game IWD + HoW to another computer in the same folder as you had it in this one, then copy the entire game folder into a USB stick or a USB harddrive, and then uninstall the game from that computer, and use the USB copy to paste it to the other computer deleted location, and use the existing uninstall files to uninstall it from there and then reinstall the game to the profile files. And after you have patched that to the TotL patch, you should make a backup of that into your USB drive* or what have you.

Or if you want, you could just skip the uninstall part as you can use a USB drive* copy's copy in your harddrive to play the game even if it's in the wrong directory from the point of view of the computers registery, as long as you use the correct .exe to start it(should be icewind.exe), and you have edited the icewind.ini file so it directs the game path into it's current folder.

[Guest IWD Lover]

I guess I should ask first: does anyone have a Trials of the Luremaster patched Icewind Dale (from CD and internet download of TotLM) running successfully in Windows 10?

I did as you mentioned with moving a copy of the game from another computer over.  From there (still unable to "uninstall" from Window's settings), popping the CDs into the optical drive and using the AUTORUN command to bring up the game menu, only the "install" option was able to be selected (as if the system didn't think there was an instance of the game on the computer).  I then decided to just go ahead and install another copy of the game in the profile folder you told me about.  Base game went fine.  Upon putting in the CD to install HoW, only "uninstall" was then able to be selected.  So I rolled with it assuming it'd take it out of my directory as I initially wanted.  Oddly, it took the base game out of the registry, but HoW remains.  At this point I still have a copy of the base game and HoW installed and functional in the inappropriate non-profile folder I used before you filled me in and now a copy of just the base game in the profile folder.  Putting in base game CDs only presents me with the option to install yet another instance.  Putting the HoW CD in provides me only with option for "install" but I get an error when I attempt said install.  And of course attempting TotLM install still gives the catastrophic failure message.

Starting fresh with a new install of Windows 10 sounds like a bit of a headache, but maybe would be worth it if a full TotLM patched Icewind Dale would be an option.  But I feel like I'd hit the same wall again.  Again, curious if anyone has a TotLM patched IWD from disc up and running in Windows 10 and where/how...

 

[Bartimaeus]

IWD: Inserted IWD disc, and had to extract disc's contents to desktop - would not run from the disc without doing so, as it would close with a bogus "insufficient memory"  error. Did a full install to C:\Games\Icewind Dale. It asks to install DirectX 7.0, won't install, but game launched fine okay anyways.

HOW: Inserted HoW disc. Again, refused to run from disc - extract to desktop first, and did full install. Launches fine.

TotLM: Installed patch 2.11.15.0 (aka Trials of the Luremaster). No errors. Game launches fine.

Windows 10 1809 x64.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Bartimaeus

[Guest IWD Lover]

You didn't have to place the installation in your profile file folder?  Yes, I got that same DirectX 7.0 message, but the game fired up regardless.  I didn't get a bogus "insufficient memory" error though and things booted from the CDs.  Sounds like the process isn't terribly consistent from one rig to the next.  I suppose that  makes giving guidance difficult and leaves me in the dark as to what'd work in my shoes.  I'm pretty sure I'd go through the hassle of a fresh operating system install and still run into issues.  I've got a separate drive in the rig.  Maybe I'll luck out with an install there.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Darn it, I have an 1DVD IWD and it refuses to start the install process. Might be that I have the IWDEE installed... but, that would be kinda absurd to interfer. Will get back to this, after I rumage around my archives. .. so yeah, the install process might not always go so well, apparently.

@Bartimaeus, at least the BG1 has the same kind of "insufficient memory" error, but it's just a notice there, that the discspace might run out, as the time the algorithm was written, there wasn't so many home computers that had large enough hard drives that it would be able to approximate the current technology, and so it's just a notice in at least BG1. You can dismiss it at least in BG1, and it will install just fine.

[Guest IWD Lover]

Many of those 1 DVD copies seem to get bad reviews/returned on Amazon.  I think they commonly have difficulties.  The original CDs have always worked great for me until this latest rig.  And even then, (despite not being able to take them back out of the directory once they're in there) they initially installed with no hiccups.  TotLM is where I encountered my first problems.

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, I recall the DVD versions of the Infinity Engines having some oddities that can annoy.

I would probably try deleting every IWD-related key in regedit before going straight into reformatting, but that's just me.

[Guest IWD Lover]

You mean before OS reinstall?  I haven't dinked around with regedit before.  Is deleting keys a pretty straight forward and safe process?