Game won't load saves in Vista - file access issue?

I just put together a totally new system running Vista Ultimate, and have
been having a nightmarish time trying to get a game I was playing fine on my
XP Pro system to work correctly in Vista.

There's a lot of details to what I've tried, but here's the summary:
The game has problems loading its saves unless I give my account admin
priveledges, or strip out UAC altogether. (And even then it's a bit spotty).

The long story:

The main problem now is that I'm unable to load most of the saves I made on
the XP system. The game exits with an error that the there was a problem
loading the file because it was corrupt. But I know the files are fine,
because I can load them as administrator (see below). I suspect the game
tries to open the saves for more than just read access and I think it gives
the "corrupt" error if there's any sort of problem at all during the load.

I set the ownership of all the game files and save files to my account, and
have full access rights, but all the game and save dirs show a solid blue for
the read-only attribute, and it won't permanently go away. The game places
its save files in its own directory tree under "My Documents", or just
"Documents" now in Vista.

When I changed my account have administrator access, I was able to load the
saves correctly and play the game, but when I changed back to standard
access, I was unable to load any saves, even ones created in Vista, except
for the last, most recent save. (I did a direct comparison of the
attributes, permissions, and ownership of the loading and non-loading files,
and they seem identical.) If I loaded the one working save, I could create
new save files, but those were *also* unloadable, so I can't even continue.

I tried using the "Run as administrator" option, but then the game couldn't
even see any save files to load.

I've tried making the game directories and save directories be fully
accessible - I have ownership, and the user/system/administration groups all
show full control, but no luck. Am I missing something?

In frustration, I turned UAC off, and I also found the "XP compatibility
mode" option and activated that, and now I seem able to load my saves OK.
But I really don't want to have to do that.

Is there any way for me to just truly open up the priveledges and access on
the game's save directory and program directory to all access from anywhere
so that I can re-enable UAC and run the game without having to be an admin?

By the way, the game is X3: Reunion by Egosoft.

Hello,

This is a nasty example of a poorly written game. Hopefully the game
developers release a fix.

As for your saved game states, changing the permissions on the files to
explicitly give your username (or the users group) access will allow
(almost) all programs that you run to be able to acquire such access without
needing to be ran as administrator (the exclusion being Internet Explorer).

Without being able to see the permissions you have assigned the saved game
states, I cannot tell if the permissions are the problem. If you want, open
a command prompt and run "icacls filename" on the saved game states and
report back the output, and I will look for any problems.

I think the reason why the game doesn't see your savegames when you run it
"as administrator" from a standard user account is because in this scenario,
the game runs as if the administrator account, not your standard user
account, started it (which technically it did) - so it is looking for the
savegames for your administrator account, NOT from the account you are
running in.

If the permissions aren't the problem, the game might just not work in a
standard user account because it is programmed so badly that not even
Vista's compatability hacks can help it.

You might try moving the game's savegame states to your administrator
account's savegame folder, and then the game should see those savegames when
you run it as administrator from your standard user account.


--
- JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User

Windows Vista Support Faq
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

Thanks for the reply! I checked the icacls as you suggested both with UAC
disabled, and then again after I renabled them, for both a save file that
worked and one that didn't, and they were all the same. But now, the game
seems to be working fine and loading any/all saves without a problem, from my
standard user account, without needing admin.

I don't know why it works OK now - I didn't change anything besides going
from UAC on (with problems) to UAC off (working OK) back to UAC on (working
OK).

Thanks again!
-Bryon

PS - I read the FAQ on your web site - very helpful, thanks!


"Jimmy Brush" wrote:

> Hello,
>
> This is a nasty example of a poorly written game. Hopefully the game
> developers release a fix.
>
> As for your saved game states, changing the permissions on the files to
> explicitly give your username (or the users group) access will allow
> (almost) all programs that you run to be able to acquire such access without
> needing to be ran as administrator (the exclusion being Internet Explorer).
>
> Without being able to see the permissions you have assigned the saved game
> states, I cannot tell if the permissions are the problem. If you want, open
> a command prompt and run "icacls filename" on the saved game states and
> report back the output, and I will look for any problems.
>
> I think the reason why the game doesn't see your savegames when you run it
> "as administrator" from a standard user account is because in this scenario,
> the game runs as if the administrator account, not your standard user
> account, started it (which technically it did) - so it is looking for the
> savegames for your administrator account, NOT from the account you are
> running in.
>
> If the permissions aren't the problem, the game might just not work in a
> standard user account because it is programmed so badly that not even
> Vista's compatability hacks can help it.
>
> You might try moving the game's savegame states to your administrator
> account's savegame folder, and then the game should see those savegames when
> you run it as administrator from your standard user account.
>
>
> --
> - JB
> Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User
>
> Windows Vista Support Faq
> http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
>