SC4 doesn't launch

[BaukeS 0]

I have sc4 deluxe for I think 6 years now and I have always loved the game.

And the game had always worked, until yesterday.

yesterday I started the game as normally and then in stead of launching he gave a pop-up message called acces denied: "Please login with administrator previleges and try again".

So I started the game as administrator but after he asked wheter he was allowed to make changes at the computer, as he always does, he did nothing.

I use the cd version (nr 2 of course) and my operating system is windows 7.

how can I solve this?

[rsc204 21,806]

See here :).

[BaukeS 0]

yes, I had already seen it.

I have uninstalled the "update" and it's working again

[SIMplemente 41]

Thank you very much in deed!

A big THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU! 

It perfectly worked. I just uninstalled this damn update KB3086255 and it's working again.

Jesus it was driving me crazy. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

When you have the funds, friends, it is worth picking up the digital version.  Will work on any version of Windows, doesn't need any optical media and has all the published Maxis patches. (1,1,641)

[selah757 0]

I could not get the digital version to work either.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

More information needed.  Where did you get your digital version?  Did you uninstall the disk version before you installed the digital version?  What happens when you try to initiate it?

What machine are you running, and with which operating system?

[selah757 0]

hello moose,

I got the digital version from origin and I didn't uninstall the disk version.  I still received the same message about logging in as the administrator.  I am running Windows 8, Dell.

[rsc204 21,806]

Have you tried running the application with full administrator access? This may require you to right click the application and select "Run as Administrator" rather than just double-clicking it. Bear in mind, this may also have been necessary when installing the game, so you might need to reinstall it in the same manner.

You might also want to try disabling UAC (User account control) when installing the game, although I'm not sure if Win8 still allows you to do this or not?

[selah757 0]

rsc,

I did try right clicking and that did not work as well.  I have no idea where to find uac and how to disable it, since im not that computer savvy. 

[rsc204 21,806]

Should be under Control Pannel / User Accounts (assuming it mirrors Win 7). Forgot about it before, but there is a dedicated thread on getting SC4 up and running on Windows 8 you might want to check here.

[selah757 0]

I never had an issue running it on windows 8.  not until Microsoft ruined everything with this update....

[rsc204 21,806]

Well the update itself only affects the DRM system on the CD-Roms, it wouldn't affect how the game runs. Simply you can't get that far because having failed to validate the disk the game quits.

Sorry I've only just noticed this:

I didn't uninstall the disk version.

I suspect there lies your problem. Since almost certainly when you click to run SC4 it's still linked to the original install. You will need to uninstall all versions of SC4 from your machine. Just to be safe, I'd then reboot the system. Then perform a fresh, clean install of the Origin version. After that hopefully you'll be back up and running .

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

A cautionary tale indeed.  Since both the Origin and the Steam installers use a different structure than the one generally used by SC4, both structures can be present, and the one at the top of the search rules will be the one found.  Since the disk version is in C:\Program Files ...  It will be early on the search list.

So, when switching from the CD version to the digital version from either of the DRM providers, uninstall the disk version first.  The regular vendor version overlays the existing CD version without a whimper.

This is yet another reason to avoid supporting games on so-called DRM sites that actually have no business retailing non-DRM games.

[shakman 1]

Good grief.  Windows has made a fine mess.

[markussaage 762]

Well, actually that's only one update for Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1. After uninstallation it's all good again... That's another good reason to change to one of the DRM free, fully patched non-CD versions from Amazon or GOG.

Besides, the installation takes only a minute with those versions... but who counts?!

Kind regards!