<Another> Windows8 Broke My FFXI Thread

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<Another> windows8 broke my FFXI thread
 Asura.Teleniel
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By Asura.Teleniel 2014-10-24 20:22:12
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Alright so I've done at least *some* research trying to figure out what I needed to do.
I just upgraded my PC which given I was still running on a PentiumD w/ Windows XP it kind of had to happen.

System Information
Quote:
Windows 8.1 Pro
Intel i7-4790
8GB Ram
64-bit OS, 64x-based proccessor

I dredged up a few things.. related at least in some way to my problems.

from ZAM, "Installing Final Fantasy XI on Windows 8.1 enterprise x64"

Again from ZAM "FFXI registry edits"


That being said what I have done so far:
1: fresh 8.1 Pro instal, with the 3.5 & direct play features enabled and updated before any other updates.
--at this point POL kept saying it could not run on this operating system.
2: realized my POL was still the wrong version, and upgraded to the Windows 7 version of POL.
--at this point I can login to POL, and get to the "play" selection, but I get "Final Fantasy XI is not installed"
3: went through the registry edits, and made sure that they were all correct file paths. I have Final Fantasy installed on a SSD (D:)
--"0001"="C:\\Program Files\\PlayOnline\\SquareEnix\\FINAL FANTASY XI\\"
--"0001"="D:\\SquareEnix\\FINAL FANTASY XI\\"

POL will still not recognize that XI is installed. at this point I can't find what I'm supposed to be doing from here.
 Asura.Teleniel
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By Asura.Teleniel 2014-10-24 21:17:13
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Update: tried a fresh instal of FFXI using the SE download from the last return campaign. POL still is not recognizing that XI is installed on the computer.

I loaded to C: with everything else and updated the registry to say it was there, and still no luck.
 Asura.Teleniel
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By Asura.Teleniel 2014-10-24 21:42:29
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So in looking at the registry paths, I checked the EU paths which included the POL & Tetramaster locations, but not Final Fantasy. At this point I updated the registry for the EU option as well. Doing this fixed it and POL now lets me "update" final fantasy, version checking now.


EDIT: Just to make things clear,
the EU load path was set for my D: drive
the US load path was set for my C: drive (fresh XI-and expansions instal).
POL loaded from the US registry file path, but required there to be an EU file path to recognize that XI was loaded.

Second Edit:
the D: file path is giving Error code: FFXI-9001 (-1), file path not valid.
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By Jetackuu 2014-10-24 23:02:45
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Sounds more like a needlessly complicated install broke your FFXI thread.
 Asura.Teleniel
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By Asura.Teleniel 2014-10-24 23:07:02
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It would be nice if there was a single source download and install provided for people with an FFXI subscription (which is fairly common these days).

The fact that it still wants to instal (in parts), patch (installer, game and options separately, has multiple config files which could have been combined, and gets lost somewhere in the fact that it's not compatible with windows 8.1 (a joint windows / XI problem)
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By Jetackuu 2014-10-24 23:15:34
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Easier solution: install to the default paths and don't use windows 8.

There should be a download available from them, but having multiple config files for multiple parts of the system makes sense, not to mention multiple languages.
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By Crevox 2014-10-24 23:58:56
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There's nothing wrong with windows 8 in this case. Just install it normally. People are way too hasty to blame windows 8 for everything.
By volkom 2014-10-25 02:12:20
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Another work around is get XI on Steam then use windower.
 Fenrir.Mariane
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By Fenrir.Mariane 2014-10-25 08:22:31
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If you move the game files to somewhere else you need to run regsvr32 on all FFXI DLLs because it uses windows installer. Windows installer has a integrity check that the OS runs every time you open the protected application. If the DLLs are at a different directory/folder then it will bring you a dialog telling you it's not installed correctly.

And finally since you're on a 64bit OS, the paths are different. Your paths on the registry entry are wrong. Check them up.

64bit OSes put stuff that runs in WoW mode(Windows on Windows, aka 32bit emulation) on "Program Files(x86)" or something named similarly.
 Asura.Isiolia
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By Asura.Isiolia 2014-10-25 09:43:57
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The game works just fine on Windows 8.1. I've never had a problem installing where I want the game, then copying the updated folder on top of it.

When I shifted my install to an SSD a couple months ago, however, I did find that the instructions for registering DLLs and all didn't work right. I wound up needing to uninstall (I renamed the folder so it didn't actually delete it, just the registry entries), then reinstall.
 Odin.Jassik
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By Odin.Jassik 2014-10-25 09:53:34
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Fenrir.Mariane said: »
If you move the game files to somewhere else you need to run regsvr32 on all FFXI DLLs because it uses windows installer. Windows installer has a integrity check that the OS runs every time you open the protected application. If the DLLs are at a different directory/folder then it will bring you a dialog telling you it's not installed correctly.

And finally since you're on a 64bit OS, the paths are different. Your paths on the registry entry are wrong. Check them up.

64bit OSes put stuff that runs in WoW mode(Windows on Windows, aka 32bit emulation) on "Program Files(x86)" or something named similarly.


Windows 8.1 no longer uses that 32 bit virtualization, I'm not sure how it gets around it, though. I have 8.1 pro and it runs FFXI with no issues. Run as administrator in XP compatibility mode.
 Asura.Isiolia
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By Asura.Isiolia 2014-10-25 10:06:08
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Odin.Jassik said: »
Windows 8.1 no longer uses that 32 bit virtualization, I'm not sure how it gets around it, though. I have 8.1 pro and it runs FFXI with no issues. Run as administrator in XP compatibility mode.

My 8.1 x64 still has the Program Files (x86) folder and Wow6432Node section in the registry.
 Odin.Jassik
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By Odin.Jassik 2014-10-25 10:14:23
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Asura.Isiolia said: »
Odin.Jassik said: »
Windows 8.1 no longer uses that 32 bit virtualization, I'm not sure how it gets around it, though. I have 8.1 pro and it runs FFXI with no issues. Run as administrator in XP compatibility mode.

My 8.1 x64 still has the Program Files (x86) folder and Wow6432Node section in the registry.

older 64-bit windows actually virtualized a 32 bit instance, 8x doesn't actually virtualize it, hence the conflicts. I'm not sure how it handles compatibility now, but it is a different process.
 Bahamut.Orinthia
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By Bahamut.Orinthia 2014-10-25 10:22:14
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Asura.Teleniel said: »
Update: tried a fresh instal of FFXI using the SE download from the last return campaign. POL still is not recognizing that XI is installed on the computer.

I loaded to C: with everything else and updated the registry to say it was there, and still no luck.

All you had to do was go through the entire installation process instead of stopping somewhere in the middle and needlessly fiddling with the registry. It couldn't have been easier, literally just keep hitting next for all the xpacs for a complete install. Takes like an hour or two to update; I did this recently with a fresh install of the game on win8.1 u1. Can copy over your previous profile (for macros, map markers, etc) once you've got your info and such back in.

After you get past POL and into the game, win8/8.1 will prompt you to install Direct Play. Game will probably crash at this point. Relog and it should work fine.

One thing to mention: anything that dims the screen for a UAC prompt will crash the game, so turn UAC off or to one tick above off to stop the dimming. Otherwise, game just works.
 Asura.Isiolia
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By Asura.Isiolia 2014-10-25 10:31:40
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Odin.Jassik said: »
older 64-bit windows actually virtualized a 32 bit instance, 8x doesn't actually virtualize it, hence the conflicts. I'm not sure how it handles compatibility now, but it is a different process.

Ah, I see. I haven't run into much that didn't just work anyway.

I was saying that more because, as Mariane pointed out, if the install is on x64, then the POL path would normally be in \Program Files (x86)\ wouldn't it? The double slashes are also odd, but maybe that's a non-US version of Windows.

Either way, the missing install thing is likely because of bad entries there, or possibly POL and XI installs not being in the same place.
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By Odin.Jassik 2014-10-25 10:44:07
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Asura.Isiolia said: »
Odin.Jassik said: »
older 64-bit windows actually virtualized a 32 bit instance, 8x doesn't actually virtualize it, hence the conflicts. I'm not sure how it handles compatibility now, but it is a different process.

Ah, I see. I haven't run into much that didn't just work anyway.

I was saying that more because, as Mariane pointed out, if the install is on x64, then the POL path would normally be in \Program Files (x86)\ wouldn't it? The double slashes are also odd, but maybe that's a non-US version of Windows.

Either way, the missing install thing is likely because of bad entries there, or possibly POL and XI installs not being in the same place.

I don't know what the original path would be, but I ran it on 64 bit Vista without having to change the install location. That's the only reason I pointed out the difference in compatibility, since they were installed in the x86 folder at that point as well.
 Bahamut.Orinthia
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By Bahamut.Orinthia 2014-10-25 11:05:55
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Asura.Isiolia said: »
The double slashes are also odd, but maybe that's a non-US version of Windows.

Double slashes are how most scripting or programming languages escape the \ character so it is read as a character instead of division or some other modifier. Same way you'd input a " into a string: \" to escape it so it is treated as a character instead of the ending marker to a string. This is normal and expected, otherwise the reg entries would not work.

In x64 versions of windows, all x86 programs are defaulted to \Program Files (x86)\ , you don't have such a folder in pure x86/32bit versions of windows. The folder is just a folder though, you can put your installs almost anywhere you want.