Running Startup Manager on Windows 7 or newer

[junspud 1,066]

I really liked using this program when I had Windows XP, but it does not seem to work with Windows 7. The program loads and such, but the plugin profiles doesn't work anymore.

[xxdita 1,097]

1 minute ago, junspud said:

I really liked using this program when I had Windows XP, but it does not seem to work with Windows 7. The program loads and such, but the plugin profiles doesn't work anymore.

I'm thinking it's a matter of running the program in compatibility mode with XP SP2 or 3, as Admin, with the proper 32bit (x86) framework installed. This has been the case for most custom programs "broken" with Windows upgrades through the years. 

[junspud 1,066]

16 hours ago, xxdita said:

I'm thinking it's a matter of running the program in compatibility mode with XP SP2 or 3, as Admin, with the proper 32bit (x86) framework installed. This has been the case for most custom programs "broken" with Windows upgrades through the years. 

I did try this but had no luck unfortunately. I'll have to try and experiment a bit more with it I guess.

[xxdita 1,097]

I haven't had an issue loading the program, creating a new region, altering existing region maps, or creating Plugins profiles. But of course, none of that does any good if you can't get the program to load the game, which is where it's stalling for me. 

I'll check with Andreas to see if he knows a solution. 

In the meantime, it may be helpful if staff could move this and the last 3 posts to a new thread. It's a topic that should be addressed, but probably in its own thread. 

[xxdita 1,097]

If all else fails, read the directions. 

So in the ReadMe, located in C:\Program Files (x86)\SimCity4 StartupManager\Help\en for me, the first file is configuration-fscm.html

This is where directions are located for manually editing the ini file, should you encounter an issue with loading. 

sumhkmodule.ini
[sumfcserver]	this section is about generel FSCM settings
FileControlMethod	comma-separated list of file control methods (implemented as DLLs) ordered by preference; with the default settings, it's ordered by performance
you can change the order, if a specific file control method doesn't work for you

IndicatingDirectoryIcons	setting this to “0” prevents the FSCM from showing red or green arrows as folder icons in the Windows Explorer to indicate, whether the files are currently hidden or not
[sumfmserver]	this section only applies, if the sumfmserver control method is used
FolderSuffix	defines a folder suffix for the “Plugin” folder, the deselected plugin files are moved to
ScriptFileName	defines the file name for a VBS file, which is used to reintegrate the moved plugin files correctly
[sumhookffnc]	this section only applies, if the sumnjserver control method is used
HookFindFile	setting this to “0” prevents the FSCM from hiding the plugin files in the Windows Explorer

ini's are simple text files, so easy to edit with Notepad in Windows. You may want to open that and see just what yours is saying. In the meantime, I'm still trying to get a copy from someone who has a stable setup going already. Because even though most of the words look like English, I can't make sense of it to put a proper ini together myself. 

But SUM does apparently work, with a bit of finagling. 

[xxdita 1,097]

Thanks to @CaptCity for this solution at SC4D! 

If StartUp Manager isn't working the way it is, then you need to switch the loading order in the ini. 

His version, which I can confirm works for me as well looks like this:

Quote

[sumfcserver]
FileControlMethod=sumfmserver, sumnjserver
 

This reverses the order of the files loading, allowing the program to work as intended. 

StartUp Manager can be found here.

[junspud 1,066]

2 hours ago, xxdita said:

Thanks to @CaptCity for this solution at SC4D! 

If StartUp Manager isn't working the way it is, then you need to switch the loading order in the ini. 

His version, which I can confirm works for me as well looks like this:

This reverses the order of the files loading, allowing the program to work as intended. 

StartUp Manager can be found here.

Interesting, thanks.

The problem I was having is the plugin server would start, and SC4 would launch. However, whenever I tried to launch from a specific city or region from inside of the Startup program, it didn't function, SC4 would just load as normal.

After exiting SC4, the sever dialog would be unresponsive and I would have to end it from the task manager. But the other features such as region editing/ect still worked.

Anyway, thanks for this, hopefully this works for me after applying this fix in Windows 7.

[xxdita 1,097]

Maybe try starting a fresh region with no plugins in the profile first, or maybe just NAM? 

What's happening behind the scenes is that any plugins not selected for the profile are being hidden from Windows (and SC4). After exiting the game, all the files get unhidden. It sounds like this is the part it was hanging up on for you. 

If the screen seems stuck, try clicking on change to main window. 

[CaptCity 4,753]

Hi... just noticed this here...

 

Quote

The problem I was having is the plugin server would start, and SC4 would launch. However, whenever I tried to launch from a specific city or region from inside of the Startup program, it didn't function, SC4 would just load as normal.

Not sure what this means... Are you seeing the SUM Region screen shown below and using the Region buttons to load SC4?

Strike that... I believe I understand your question. Are you trying to access the program through one of the 'Swap Screens'?

 

 

If so, yes,  individual cities can have their own profiles assigned, and the game will have the corresponding plugins for the profile loaded. However, I think the game will still start through the region screen as usual because the SUM points to the SC4 application when it starts. And since the profile will be in effect for the whole region, you'll just need to select the desired city once the game opens. (I could be wrong, but that's the way I remember it working.)

 

Quote

After exiting SC4, the sever dialog would be unresponsive and I would have to end it from the task manager.

This also happens to me on Windows 10. As @xxdita mentioned, I also do need to click on the 'change to main window..'  button to get the uninitializing process to complete and return to the Region screen. Not sure if the same effect will happen with Windows 7.

  Edited February 20, 2020 by CaptCity  
New information.