SC4 Deluxe Keeps reverting to wrong plugin folder

[Prophet42 1,500]

Previously I had a Windows 7 Professional installation.  I had two accounts on the computer, one Admin and one Standard.  I ran SC4 from the Standard account off CD.  I had all my plugins in the Standard account and SC4 had no issues using the standard account plugin and region folders.

I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and did a clean install.  I again set up an Admin and a Standard account.  I installed the GOG digital version of SC4 from the Standard account.  Now when I run SC4, it always goes to the Plugin and Region folder of the Admin account. I want SC4 to use the Standard account. I have tried the following:

1) Changed the configuration file and set users to the Standard Account.  This did not work.  Every time I start SC4 it changes the configuration file back to the Admin account

2) I tried using the SC4 Launcher and set the Mods folder to the Standard account.  When I start SC4 from the launcher, it still uses the Admin account.   And the configuration file has reverted back to the Admin account

I do not know why SC4 keeps changing back to using the Admin account.  Any suggestions on how to get SC4 to use my Plugin and Region folders from the Standard account and stop changing the configuration file back to user Admin?

[rsc204 21,805]

What's a bit wired, the Admin files should not be accessible by another logged on account to my knowledge. Perhaps this has to do with Windows 10? I don't know how the built-in Admin account works, but it would seem they are linked somehow?

Have you tried some other applications, are they saving data correctly (or defaulting to) the User account's directories? Or do they show similar behaviour?

 

[markussaage 762]

If SC4 is started with the Standard account AND the UAC comes up and ask for administrative privileges, then the game runs within the Administrators account which means the plugins folder in the Administrator acoount is used. I had SC4 run on Win10 with a Standard user account and no SC4Launcher and had no problems at all. So it is possible, but I admit because of a million different hardware configurations out here it can be tricky.

Kind regards!

[Prophet42 1,500]

@rsc204 Only other applications I have used so far are notepad, MS Excel, MS Edge and Firefox and they seem to be saving data correctly to the appropriate User accounts.  I may try turning the UAC off to see if SC4 will pick the right directory when it isn't 'interrupted' by me having to type in the Admin password.  If that works then I will try creating an on demand task using elevated privileges to start SC4.  This should allow me to bypass the UAC when starting SC4.  I don't really want to turn UAC off totally.  Other than that, I'm not sure what else to do.

[rsc204 21,805]

@markussaage correctly points out that by switching an application to the Admin account to run it, you will be using another account for the session with that game thereafter. Disabling UAC doesn't prevent the application requiring Admin privileges, it just stops the computer asking your permission. I.e. disabling a way of preventing malicious code from being run on your machine. I run this way, but it's certainly not for everyone.

I suspect the use of Admin privileges is down to the location of SC4 in Program Files (x86). Windows 10 likely locks things down that run there, since you've the GOG version, you could move the install location to something like C:\Games\... That would probably stop the need for Admin access in the first place.

[markussaage 762]

For security reasons it is highly NOT recommended to turn off the UAC or play or use your computer with an administrative account ALL time. This account is  intend to use it for configuring purposes only. And with the UAC you don't have to switch accounts anymore. That's the good thing about it. What I recommend to try here is grant your Standard account user Full Permission to the game folder. Don't forget to turn OFF the inheritage from the above folders and turn it ON for all files and folders in the SC4 game folder. That should give you enough rights to run the game and use your own Plugins folder. Well, when you do this, I'd check the permissions from your Standard user account at all. Your Standard user should have Full Access in the Security tab.

Kind regards!

[Prophet42 1,500]

@rsc204 - I directly installed the game in a folder I created (called Program Files-Games), so I never had to deal with the (x86) folder issues.  It did not stop the need for Admin Privileges.

I already tried to create the Elevated Privileges short cut, but it did not work.  The task will run, but says 'waiting for privileges'.

@markussaage - I will try your suggestion with the permissions.  By the way, I use the Standard account for all my computing.  I use the Admin account sparingly, mainly only for configuration and some computer maintenance.

Thanks guys for your help.  I appreciate it.  I will let you know how it goes.

[Prophet42 1,500]

Okay, so I tried changing the privileges of the SC4 game folder for the Standard account as suggested by markussaage.  That did not work. The UAC still runs which then switches SC4 to use the Admin account.  At this point my only two options seem to be

1) Move all my SC4 content to the Admin account and run SC4 from the Standard account.  I assume I would have to allow the Standard account access to the Admin accounts SC4 files.

2) Go back to Windows 7 where everything was working as I wanted it to (I am seriously considering this).  Luckily I created a system image of my Win 7 system before converting over.

I do like Windows 10, but some things about it really frustrate me.  For what I want to do with this laptop (mainly play SC4), Win 7 seems to be the better choice

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

FWIW, I'd be highly in favor of reverting to 7 over the downgrade to 10.

[Prophet42 1,500]

@CorinaMarie At this point, I think I agree with you.

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

1 hour ago, Prophet42 said:

@CorinaMarie At this point, I think I agree with you.

Agreeing with Cori is always a good plan!

But, seriously, since your main goal is to play SC4 it seems like you'd have less headache going back to 7.

[markussaage 762]

10 hours ago, Prophet42 said:

Okay, so I tried changing the privileges of the SC4 game folder for the Standard account as suggested by markussaage.  That did not work. The UAC still runs which then switches SC4 to use the Admin account.  At this point my only two options seem to be

1) Move all my SC4 content to the Admin account and run SC4 from the Standard account.  I assume I would have to allow the Standard account access to the Admin accounts SC4 files.

2) Go back to Windows 7 where everything was working as I wanted it to (I am seriously considering this).  Luckily I created a system image of my Win 7 system before converting over.

I do like Windows 10, but some things about it really frustrate me.  For what I want to do with this laptop (mainly play SC4), Win 7 seems to be the better choice

Going back to Windows 7 isn't a bad idea at all, because from what I can say, the game itself and all tools are working without any problems under Win7. The weird thing, that bothers me, is, that you can't get it to work under Win10 with Standard permissions. I guess, I have to run a test again and see what happens. As I said earlier, when I did that a year ago I had no problems running the game in Standard user environment. Well, maybe Microsoft changed some behaviours on the UAC, who knows?! I'll let you guys know anyway!

Kind regards!

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

I'm using the GOG installer and SC4 digital version as well, and am using Win 8.1.

If you are referring to the user documents folder then there should be one each for the 2 accounts.  Upon installation the GOG installer reports the following:

[1207664593]
Dirs=1
Dir_0=C:\Users\*account name*\Documents\SimCity 4

This indicates that initially only one account was recognized, and it maybe that the second account was only recognized when the game was started from the 2nd account.  I created my 2nd account 'after' I installed GOG SC4.

Look for the file: goglog.ini  in the GOG Games folder and see what it says, then consider either deleting or modifying this file.

The reference number may also refer to a registry entry which could be modified to direct to both accounts.

Let me know.

 

 

[Prophet42 1,500]

@RandyE Thanks for the tip.  Unfortunately, I have already reverted the laptop back to Windows 7.  However, the desktop has Windows 10 with the GOG installation of SC4 and is displaying the same behaviour.  I will try what you suggested on the desktop and see if it works.

[Prophet42 1,500]

@RandyE I tried modifing the gog.ini file.  I changed the account to the standard account.  I also changed the SC4 config.txt file user back to the standard account.  I ran SC4 from the standard account.  The UAC came up and when the game started it reverted back to the standard account.  I checked the gog.ini file and it stayed on the standard account.  I then checked the config.txt file and it had reverted back to the admin account.  For some reason, I think the UAC is causing SC4 to revert back to the admin account.

I would turn the UAC off before running SC4 to test it, however Windows 10 does not allow that from the standard account.  I guess my next test will be to look through the registry and see if there is some key that is forcing SC4 back to the admin account.

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

42 minutes ago, Prophet42 said:

@RandyE I tried modifing the gog.ini file.  I changed the account to the standard account.  I also changed the SC4 config.txt file user back to the standard account.  I ran SC4 from the standard account.  The UAC came up and when the game started it reverted back to the standard account.  I checked the gog.ini file and it stayed on the standard account.  I then checked the config.txt file and it had reverted back to the admin account.  For some reason, I think the UAC is causing SC4 to revert back to the admin account.

I would turn the UAC off before running SC4 to test it, however Windows 10 does not allow that from the standard account.  I guess my next test will be to look through the registry and see if there is some key that is forcing SC4 back to the admin account.

This immediately seems to be the result of the system persisting with registered files and locations, fetching from the cache and attempting to maintain a stable environment.  The UAC doesn't seem to be the culprit as it is just to ensure that nothing else than the user can control the computer.   I'm going to go through the registry again looking at what GoG put there, but there seems to be several files involved in the loading, including GoG .dll files.   Have you tried giving the standard account admin rights to the SC4 app?      There is an option to take ownership, that may be the solution. 

 

 

 

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

I went through the registry and the only key I could find that refers to the user account is the uninstaller key.   There are a few encrypted keys, but something as simple as which user account on the local machine is being used usually is not considered necessary to encrypt.  So its back to the Gog.ini file and how to modify it, it may be necessary to actually go into the system cache and replace the file there. 

[rsc204 21,805]

I'm not sure any of the GoG installed files have anything to do with the operation of SC4. I too have scanned them and the registry entries at one time or another, so far as I can work out they are all related to GoG keeping details of the install. Therefore editing these is unlikely to get the desired effect, whilst it may stuff up the uninstaller if you are not careful.

[SecretMbr_735754 2,157]

Right. the Gog.ini file is more likely a static file indicating the install location and user(s) installed to, changing it would be useless even if still accurate for an uninstall.   Okay, so disconnect the internet, disable all security systems, enable all user access and admin rights on all accounts and go from there.