BSC Games and Windows Vista by
Thomas Ward Introduction In January 2007 Microsoft unveiled it's newest operating system Windows Vista. This release of Windows has made many changes in security, graphics technology, and changes in the way hardware operates with the operating system. As a result some older programs such as the BSC Games have had some issues running under Windows Vista. In this guide I will explain some of the differences between Windows XP and Vista, and give helpful solutions to making all of the BSC Games run properly under Windows Vista. Changes in DirectX Since the release of DirectX 8 DirectX has shipped with a Visual Basic 6 library called dx8vb.dll. This file is necessary for any Visual Basic 6 application to gain access to the Microsoft DirectX API, and without it none of the games out there written in Visual Basic 6 will operate. When Windows XP was released it shipped with Microsoft's 9.0 and had backwards compatibility libraries installed for DirectX 8.0. It also included dx8vb.dll for Visual Basic 6 applications. When Windows Vista was released it shipped with Microsoft's new DirectX 10 technology. Unlike earlier versions of DirectX version 10.0 does not ship with any support for Visual Basic 6. So the first thing you must do as a gamer is install the missing DirectX dependencies. If you have access to a copy of Windows XP open up c:\Windows\System32 and back up dx7vb.dll and dx8vb.dll to a cd, back up hard drive, etc... Now, copy dx7vb.dll and dx8vb.dll to your Windows Vista c:\Windows\System32 directory. Vista's user account control feature will ask you to continue or cancel this operation. Tell Vista to continue. Once complete you should have a compatible DirectX library for your accessible games. User Account Control By now anyone who has been using Windows Vista is aware of Vista's new security feature, the user account control, which is responsible for managing who has access to secured programs, files, installation rights, etc. The user account control feature built into Windows Vista is a major step forward in Windows security, and should prove useful in cutting down on malicious software like viruses, worms, spyware, and so on. One way that UAC, (user account control,) accomplishes this is by looking for digital signing. For example, if a Vista user was to stick the Microsoft Office 2007 cd into the disk drive UAC would pop up and inform the user that Microsoft Office 2007 setup.exe attempted to run. It would then inform the user that it was digitally signed by Microsoft. UAC would offer two buttons allow and don't allow. Pressing space on allow will of course allow setup to continue as normal. However, what happens when an older program isn't able to give a digital signature? Usually, older programs that Vista is really unsure about UAC will prompt the user to allow, or for a standard user, it will prompt for the administrator password. In either case it usually isn't a major issue. However, with some BSC Games like Troopenum when it is run UAC blocks the game from properly initializing. the user may receive an error such as: Error 1566 confusion/insanity found in encrypt module.. If this is the case you will have to bypass the user account control while playing the game. Fortunately, doing so is very easy. Use control escape to open the start menu. Arrow to the all programs button, and press space. The all programs tree view will open. Arrow to the games icon. Rather than pressing enter on the games icon press the Windows context key found on most keyboards between the right Windows key and the right control key. A drop down menu will appear. Arrow to run as administrator, and press enter to select it. User account control will announce the game is unidentified, there is no digital signature, and prompt you to allow or don't allow. Tab to allow and pres space. After that the game should initialize and run normally without error. Thomas D. Ward Developer for USA Games Interactive http://www.usagames.us --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
