No pointer

[hawcot]

Just installed TOW battle for Moscow version 1.30.56

When using the mouse various buttons do highlight, but the pointer is not visible. Operating system Vista business 32 bit.

Any suggestions ??

[Schrullenhaft]

TOW 1 should be at version 1.10.0.81, the 'uber patch'. I can't remember off-hand if this is installed BEFORE the Battle for Moscow battle pack or not. I believe that it IS installed before the Battle for Moscow battle pack.

You may want to download (if it is not a part of the discs for Battle for Moscow) the 'uber patch' and install it to see if that makes any sort of difference. I assume this is all Battlefront versions you have and the Battlefront version of the uber patch is what you'll need.

If you're not doing so already, I suggest launching the game by right-clicking and selecting "Run as administrator" from the popup menu. This can also be done by modifying the shortcut (right-click > Properties > Compatibility tab > Privilege level section > check 'Run this program as an administrator').

Try changing the resolution and see if the mouse pointer comes back. If this doesn't work, then we may need more details on your system.

[hawcot]

Thanks for suggestions. First downloaded the Moscow disc and then put the "uber patch" in the same file and voila, the pointer/curser appeared.

Game does play, I followed the whole training thing, but playing the first battle it stated suddenly to beep and get back to windows desktop.

So still not all is OK !

[hawcot]

But.............having it run once was fun. But after logging out and trying to start again it did not work. Could not find any saved games either !

Think I am giving up on TOW

[Schrullenhaft]

If you're running Windows Vista or new, launch the game by right-clicking and selecting "Run as administrator". Unfortunately the TOW series really needs this setting to write to the '\Program Files' directory that it is installed in.

Starting with Windows Vista (and all later Windows versions), Microsoft implemented a security feature called UAC (User Account Control). One of its features was to redirect writes to anything within the '\Program Files' (or '\Program Files (x86)' for 64-bit versions) to a hidden directory called the 'VirtualStore'. Programs were not supposed to know the difference, however the TOW series didn't quite work well with this. So the 'Run as admin' setting allows the game to actually write within its own directories. This should help with game saves and other settings that get saved.

[hawcot]

Thanks again, but no improvement, I still do not get the curser back. Left or right clicking makes no difference

[hawcot]

Funny thing, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. This at random.

Think I give up on this game

[Schrullenhaft]

The only solution I've heard regarding this problem was to change the resolution that TOW runs at. However I don't know if that will really resolve the issue of the cursor appearing sometimes and not other times.

Within TOW's main menu go to 'Options' and then 'Video' and change the setting for 'Hardware mouse cursor' (assuming you have the mouse pointer showing - I don't know how to make the selection with just keyboard maneuvering). Usually I would assume that you would WANT this box checked. But if that is the case already, then uncheck it. TOW will have to be restarted for this to take effect.

[hawcot]

Funny game !! When starting the game I have no pointer but by maneuvering the mouse I can get things highlighted in the panels, but no curser/pointer visible

But... pressing the Microsoft button ( between Ctrl and Alt) the pointer appears together with the "run" panel. But I cannot move this panel and but can use the pointer on the screen outside this panel. However a soon as I click the Microsoft button the "run" panel disappears as well as the pointer and I am back to where I started !!

[hawcot]

I installed the game on a old XP computer and guess what, I can not install the game as I can not register the game.

This comp has no internet connection so I have to put the initiating number in and file it and then all freezes ! Tried to copy all the data required to get acceptance number from the initiating site mentioned in the TOW program but I can't copy !

Looks realy like a dud game to me.

[Schrullenhaft]

Have you installed the 'uber patch' ? Does your 'old XP computer' happen to use Intel integrated video ? If so, then TOW will NOT work with those video chips (even the newest ones), since something is lacking in Intel's OpenGL support within their drivers.

Regarding the 'off-line licensing process', at what point are you running into a problem ? Here's the process to use. If you still run into a problem tell us exactly where you run into the problem among these steps. Also be aware that there can only be two concurrent activations of the game (otherwise you get an 'error 11' during the activation process):

Here's the process for 'off-line licensing':

1. Launch the game. If running Windows Vista or Windows 7, then right-click and select "Run as administrator" from the popup menu.

2. Click the 'license' button in the activation dialog box.

3. In the 'license key' box enter your license key.

4. Click the 'Get off-line license' button.

5. Follow the instructions listed in the window/box, these will generally amount to:

6. Click the 'Save license request to file' button.

6a. If this results in the license activation process locking up, then close down the game executable (Ctrl-Alt-Del, Start Task Manager) and perform the previous steps again.

6b. Once you get to Step 6, instead highlight ALL of the text (including the portion that are 'instructions') and copy it (Ctrl-C). You can either paste the text into a Notepad document (and save it) if you have to connect to the internet on a different computer or just keep the info 'copied' in memory if you can connect to the internet on this computer (this 'in memory' copied data will disappear if you 'copy' something else).

7. Open a browser (on this computer or another one if you have issues connecting to the internet from this computer). Go to http://www.license.net . If your accessing the internet on a different computer, then you will need to copy over the file you had previously saved for the 'license request' (or that you had copied to a Notepad file and saved) to the computer that has internet access.

8. If you previously saved the 'license request' file, then open that up (in Notepad) and highlight ALL of the text and copy it again. If you did NOT save a file previously, but instead 'copied' the text into memory (on the same computer) then go directly to Step 9.

9. Paste the text (Ctrl-V) into the window/box in the browser at www.license.net.

10. Click the 'Generate off-line license' button on the browser (which is underneath the window/box you just pasted the text into).

11. Click the 'Save to file' button on the browser. If you're on a different computer than where you're licensing, then you will need to save this file. If you're on the same computer you can select (if given the option) to 'open' the file in Notepad, otherwise save the file. This file is DIFFERENT from the one that you originally pasted into the website - name it differently and make sure to remember the name for the newest file that was generated from the website.

12. If you are licensing on a different computer, then move this saved file (off-line license) to the computer that is activating the game.

13. Open the off-line license in Notepad and then highlight and copy (Ctrl-C) ALL of the text in this file, even parts that are instructions.

14. Go back to the license dialog box (for the game) and click the 'Install off-line license' button.

15. Paste the previously copied text to the blank window/box or click the 'Read off-line license from file' (and browse to where you copied the file) if you copied the file from a different computer or had to save it earlier.

16. Click the 'Complete installation' button.

17. You should now hopefully get a 'success' message and you should be able to play the game now. If you get an error message, make note of the numerical error code.