Impulse Doesn't Correctly Show My Games/Updates

from GalCiv2 Forums
There's a thread on this in the generic GC2 forum, but I thought it should also be here in this forum.  So, I'll just post with what I've seen.

Early yesterday, I downloaded Twilight of the Arnor (TA) via Stardock Central (SDC). Prior to that, I had followed Cari's advice and uninstalled the beta and removed its vestiges. I used SDC to make sure everything else was up-to-date. When TA came out, I downloaded it without problem. In SDC, Dark Avatar (DA) shows up as version 1.80g.100 (dated 04/30/2008) with no later update available. TA shows as version 1.90.018 (dated 04/30/2008) with no later update available.

I then thought I'd try Impulse. Under Updates, the only thing showing is a Dark Avatar update from 1.80g.100 to 1.80g.103 (dated 04/29/2008 -- one day earlier than the lower-numbered version SDC is reporting as being installed). Under My Games, it's showing GC2 (installed), DA (update available), and TA (available, even though it's installed and I'm playing it).

I'm at a loss as to what to do.  In various other threads, people talk about DA not installing into the correct directory and the registry keys being wrong.  I don't know if I'm supposed to 1) install that DA micro-update, 2) change the registry and then install it, or 3) uninstall DA, change the registry, and then re-install it.  Regarding TA not reflecting it's being installed at all, I'm totally clueless.
7,025 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I get exactly the same problem, TA available under Impulse even though its installed and working fine.

The micro updates have benn answered in another thread WWW Link

any advise ??
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
For any Stardock application with version xx.yy.zz, if only zz is changed, it merely denotes a change on the backend and is not significant. It will probably not hurt anything to not update.

If however, you do choose to update, and you installed all of the games under SDC first, you might want to read through my comments in reply #10 here and make sure the registry keys for the GalCiv2 games are correct. If something is missing or incorrect, you run the risk of having the game installed in the wrong place.

-HM
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I also should have posted that I'm running Vista Ultimate (x64) w/ SP1.

BTW: I took a look at the registry and it's not matching what Hollow Man is seeing. First, under Vista x64, the registry path is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Stardock\Drengin.net\GalCiv2\Twilight (or whichever package you're looking at)

Wow6432Node has to be tucked in there between SOFTWARE and STARDOCK. Also, the GalCiv2 PATH statement looks fine, but there are no PATH statements at all under the DarkAvatar and Twilight keys (groups? paths?). Instead, they each have an EXE key with what looks like the added part of the path pre-pended to them:

Dark Avatar: DarkAvatar\DALaunch.exe
Twilight: Twilight\TALaunch.exe

AFAIK, these look correct.

I'm wondering if Impulse has problems with different registry paths under Vista x64 and that's why it's not working in my case. Although, it's odd that DA shows up (mostly) correct under Impulse, but TA doesn't show up as installed at all with the same type of registry information.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
David,

First, did you uninstall the Beta of Twilight. If you installed Twilight from scratch in Impulse, it should not have given you that string for EXE.

That's what mine in beta used to have, even though I have XP. It used to work, but with the last update of Impulse and the release of Twilight, Impulse didn't see my stuff properly. And when I applied the small Dark Avatar patch, it installed it into the wrong folder and really messed me up.

Try removing the "Twilight" from the EXE value, making it simply "TALaunch.exe", and see what happens. Also make sure the PATH variable is set similarly to what I reference (see above).

But be sure you uninstall the beta of Twilight first. That should remove the registry keys so you get the right ones upon install.

-HM
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ignore this, heh. Every time I make a new reply, then I can edit the previous one! Agh!

-HM
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ignore reply #5; I was able to edit reply #4. :)

-HM
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yep. I had followed Cari's suggestions for removing the beta before downloading the production version. Also, I have yet to download anything from Impulse. Everything was downloaded and installed from within SDC.

When I changed the EXE values by removing the pre-pended directory, Impulse just changed DA to show as Available (just like Twilight). Putting the pre-pended directory back for each caused Impulse to again show DA as Update Available. But, TA is still just Available.

I can't do anything with the path: there's not even a path key under either of the DA or TA registry groups. The only path is the key specified under GC2 and it's fully specified and correct. For some reason, the pre-pended directory on the EXE key to the DA executable works, but the one for TA doesn't.

Of course, this isn't the end of the world. I can still use SDC and can play TA just fine. It's just that Stardock needs to be aware that there's something wrong with how Impulse is seeing installed games (at least those installed via SDC).
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You'll have to go back to earlier posts I made on the Impulse forums, but if I recall, the problem is that yes, SDC does not put the "Path" value in place for the expansions. Without it Impulse can't see the expansions, thus, thinks they're not installed.

So if you want Impulse to see the games, you have to either a) add the path var manually, or b) uninstall them from SDC, then reinstall them with Impulse. Installing them w/Impulse will put the path variable in place.

-HM
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Under both the DarkAvatar and the Twilight registry keys, I added new String Values. I gave each the name "Path" (mirroring what was under the GalCiv2 key) and then modified the data to show the actual path to those games (I just copied the string from the GalCiV2 Path in the registry, pasted it in, and appended the DarkAvatar or Twilight folder name). I then modified the EXE values in each registry key by removing that pre-pended directory name (leaving just DALaunch.exe or TALaunch.exe). In Impulse, DA stayed the same (it wants the micro update, but that's not a problem), but now, Twilight shows the proper Installed status (yeah). There appear to be no unwanted side-effects.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yep, you're good to go. Now the micro update for DA should take place instantly, and if it does, you know everything is perfect.

-HM
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

So if you want Impulse to see the games, you have to either a) add the path var manually, or b) uninstall them from SDC, then reinstall them with Impulse. Installing them w/Impulse will put the path variable in place.

Goind forward this update should be handled by Impulse automatically.  A dialog stating that installation information hsa been updated (click OK) will display.  Then just mouse over the items in the list to have them update to Installed or close and open Impulse.