I have packaged and uploaded LB2 'installed', for those of you who have Windows Vista or Windows 7 (32-Bit and 64-Bit) and can't even install LB2 because of errors.

Download, install and see the readme for usage info.

LB2-WinVista-7-Fix.exe (226.76 MB)
* from GameFront: http://www.gamefront.com/files/20031255/LB2_WinVista_7_Fix_exe
* from RapidShare: http://rapidshare.com/files/449369593/LB2-WinVista-7-Fix.exe

Note that you still need the LB2 CDs or images to play.

EDIT#1: I have now re-uploaded the file but now the new download link doesn't seem to work! I am getting really peed off with 'GameFront'. See if it works for you, if not, I'll have to re-upload it again but to another file hosting site! FileFront - the site I used to host my file - has now changed their name to GameFront. All personal user's download links have since been broken. I find this appalling service as users were not notified of the changes about download links being broken. Everything has to now be re-uploaded, and I'm sure that other user's beside myself had what they thought were 'permanent' download links there. I will re-upload the file and add the new link here at earliest convenience. Thanks for your patience and support. (Thanks to new member Lorien for noticing the broken link!)

EDIT#2: I just tried that above GameFront link and it actually worked for me just now. Just to be sure though, I've now joined RapidShare and have also uploaded the file there (linked above).

Thankx

Thanks Flyboy, works great.

What does this mean?

"This install is intended to be used with the Daemon-Tools (or similar) CD image mounting procedure."

And, why can't I find LB2.exe in the folder /Jane's/Longbow 2 after running this install program?

It means that most people will find it more beneficial to use a CD image mounting process, as this cuts down terrain map load times and means that you don't have to keep using the CDs. Daemon-Tools is the most popular tool to use to mount CD images.

Your LB2.exe file was probably quarantined or removed by your anti-virus program. This file is known to have a false-positive virus (meaning it is in fact not harmful) that AV programs still keep picking up on.

True. AVG will kill any LB2 install. I went out and purchased Panda Security just so I could fly Longbow 2.

Thanks. Now if only I can get McAfee to stop sending the .exe to quarantine... without turning off the bloody realtime virus scan

I hate McAfee, I got it pre-installed with my new laptop. It automatically removed 'suspicious' files, even from within .zip files - without even notifying me. I swiftly uninstalled it and replaced it with Avira.

Flyboy, I just dl'd this. Instead of just near perfect, this sim runs as flawlessly as when I first bought it. How did you manage this? It's awesome dude, and thx!

Well I'm very happy to hear that it works for you Phoenix. It' no big secret how I did it. I just installed the sim on to my old WinXP system (hell, we are moving fast if I can call XP 'old'), patched it, fixed it and then just put it in the installer. No magic, just old fashioned common sense (and a lot of input from guys on here in the past!)

Hey Guys:

This might help with antivirus. not the best method but it works. Before installing LB2, manually create the folder. Then go to your antivirus and exclude this folder from it. Once installed, yu can select to exclude just the .exe file and remove the folder exclusion if you don't feel comfortable with that solution.

Hope this helps....

Punisher is correct, that strategy about pre-excluding the folder before install worked like a charm. Thanks for the suggestiona and many thanks to Flyboy for a great install!

The game runs well so far, but my screen flickers every second or so when I'm actually flying. Its like everything switches to a negative color view for a split-second. Is anyone else having this problem or know how to correct it?

Do you still have to use a CPU slowdown utility to get accurate rockets? what about glide wrappers?

I'm using winThrottle and Zeckensack's glide wrapper and they work fine in XP. Anyone used them in Win7?

Yes, you do still need those. They are what I would call 'add-ons', and in this install I have only included the 'bare minimum' install just so the sim actually works. I didn't want to infringe copyrights or whatever by including other people's programs. Some people may not even want/need to use the add-ons so I didn't want to over-complicate it either.



Never tried, so I don't know.

How about the cpu slowdown utilities--like BirdDog says, did you still have to use these? Doesn't the sim run too fast under windows 7? The only way I was able to get it to work re timing and rocket, etc, was to install on an old win 98 computer.

SpyDoc - Read my reply to BirdDogICT above.

But just to expand on what I said - YES, you do most certainly need CPU slowdown programs, but even they aren't really enough for todays PCs. You may also want to turn off a core (if you've got a multi-core processor) and game stability in Windows 7 is questionable and a lot of people - me included - simply cannot get the game to run for any length of time before a game freeze or crash.

Rockets will no doubt still be a problem even if you slow down the sim enough for everything else to run properly. I personally don't use HE rockets anyhow. Can't you just hover and use MPSM rockets? You get a much better hit ratio as they have like a downward shotgun effect.

I should be doing an article for SimHQ sometime soon on LB2 with modern systems. Keep an eye out for that.

For now, further reading:
http://digitality.comyr.com/flyboy/lb2/setup/multi-core.html

great dl and works on win7 with dgvoodoo set!

so lets state all probs on this from there we can be improve

-rocket problem
-inverted color problem
-game freezes

John - the game freeze is the main problem that I hoped you wouldn't encounter.

The rocket problem is an old problem we've had ever since CPU's got 'too' fast and the inverted color problem is probably a graphics card/driver issue.

Try this fix to see if the game freeze stops. You want to go down to the 'Phoenix's LB2 Final Solutions' and get that one.
http://digitality.comyr.com/flyboy/lb2/setup/setup.html

This is as far as we've ever got for Windows Vista/7 fixes. If that doesn't work, you're f*ck*d to be perfectly blunt, same as me.

I'm playing on windows 7 premium 64 bit system, there are always ways to improve, they will come.

Bunch of old longbow 2 mods/utilities still online
http://home.mindspring.com/~bobtull/LB2/

any good?

Unlikely. Phoenix here is really the only one who has bothered to look into possible fixes, and he has now come to the end of his tether with that.

PositiveG was the main 'fixer' for LB2, and as you've been away for so long I don't know if you know... he sadly passed away in August last year.
http://digitality.comyr.com/flyboy/lb2/tribute.html

And although yet more people are still getting into LB2 for the very first time (even 12 years later!), none of them have any knowledge of how LB2 works internally or have the desire to do anything about it. And who can really blame them? We all have to let go at some point.

Dude we are so far past this point! You really have been away for far too long!

Also, these may be of interest to you...
http://www.simhq.com/_air10/air_320a.html
http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_437a.html

Been away from LB2 for a long while. Been flying LOMAC-FC2 and DCS-BS which now share
the same MP electronic battlefield. (see second picture below)

Regarding LB2 on MS Vista, Ive been running it pretty much stock with the CDs plus
the wrappers as we have been with WinXP and now Vista. Didnt need the Vista-fix-EXE. I say that
just as another data point. Glad the patch is working for those that needed it.

LB2 on VISTA Home Premium with OEM CDs



DCS-BS and LOMAC-FC2 on VISTA





oh man... i have been gone along time.
Kevin has gained his golden rotors.
Thanks for the tribute Flyboy.

Wow, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 'AV8R' on here. How are you man? We'd begun to think you'd gone the same way as +G. Don't leave it so long next time! You had us (well, me at least) all worried.

New member here.
First I wanted to say many thanks to Flyboy.
After buying a copy of LB2 on Ebay and going thru the frustration
of trying to get it to load on my windows 7 laptop, I found this
message board.
Following the instructions in this thread I was able to get LB to download and install (I did use the seperate folder suggestion).

My questions are:

When double clicking on the LB2 Icon the game starts out on a battlefield with tanks approaching.
Is there not a way to start it with the helicopter on the base ?
I dont have a Joystick yet, so how do I set the controls for a laptop?
Last question, I found a site that has the operations manual in PDF, but is there a site that has a zipped copy ??

Hi TexasThunder and welcome to the forums. To (try and) answer your questions...

When double clicking on the LB2 Icon the game starts out on a battlefield with tanks approaching.
* You should go to the base screen where you can select your pilot and game type, etc. This sounds to me like you're playing the demo!

Is there not a way to start it with the helicopter on the base?
* See above.

I dont have a Joystick yet, so how do I set the controls for a laptop?
* If and when you start the game and get onto the base screen, press Alt-O and you will go to the options menu, from there you can set controls. If indeed you are playing the demo, again press Alt-O in-game to bring up the options menu. Beware that on my Windows 7 PC, I have to reconfigure controls every time I enter a new mission - this might just be a problem isolated to me though.

Last question, I found a site that has the operations manual in PDF, but is there a site that has a zipped copy ??
* Why do you want a zipped copy? Can't you just download the PDF?

While doing a flyby (been busy doing DCS Blackshark, DCS A10C, IL21946, and SteelBeastsPro)...

Saw this download link again, and downloaded your Vista LB2 package FlyBoy.
It installed fine on my Vista32 Home Premium system, and it did run "out of the box", as long as it sees my OEM CD2.
However...
1. No matter which DX video card driver I select via LB2cfg, the graphics are poor quality (compared to DgVoodoo drivers)
2. Im unable to change the BASE TERRIAN in the options, all are inactive.

That being said,
I still have the OEM CDs and can install and run LB2 with those, (I do not have McAfee or Norton on this puter)
plus with the DgVoodoo drivers on my Vista system running in WinXP SP2 compatibility mode.

So, Im not sure why Im seeing what I saw with your installation and what drivers its using, if any.
Im betting that if DgVoodoo drivers are put in there, it will look great like my OEM install.

AV8R

Hi AV8R, wow it's great to see you in here again. I have previously asked about you as I was a bit 'concerned' at one point, after +G, you know...

Yeah you still need a game CD in the drive/or ISO image mounted. My package simply bypasses CD/ISO install as some Vista/7 users report problems even installing, and indeed can't install the patch or DDU either. It's also a neat way of not letting people play the game without first, hopefully, buying it. It is NOT a NoCD solution.

To answer your questions...

1. No matter which DX video card driver I select via LB2cfg, the graphics are poor quality (compared to DgVoodoo drivers)
* I can't remember now but I THINK the lb2cfg is set by default (by me) to 3DFX. So all you should need to do is install dgVoodoo (or not, if I included that - but I don't think so as different people have differing success with each different version - i.e. 1.40 Beta, 1.50 Beta, 1.50 Beta2). Sometimes I have seen the game automatically revert to Software mode if Direct3D is selected and is unable to be utilized, it MAY in some cases be the same with 3DFX). Yeah, the D3D drivers aren't a sure-fire way for LB2 on modern PCs at least, as there are some glaring graphical bugs. Why would you even use D3D over 3DFX?

2. Im unable to change the BASE TERRIAN in the options, all are inactive.
* Are you trying to access this particular menu option from the menu whilst in-game? If that's the case, these options are blanked out on purpose - by the game, not by me. You can change these options from the base menu screen only, before you get in-game. Press ALT-O at the base.

I hope my answers help - and of course, if you need any further help, I'd be glad to try - sir.

Flyboy,

If 3DFX was selected already by you when you made your install package, then what I saw after first installing was not what I see using DgVoodoo drivers. This is why I went back and played around with the DX choices. I will go back and try 3DFX setting again and report back. Its nice that you are trying to give more legs to this classic. Im hoping that DCS will eventually come out with a LongBow or Apache addon in the future. Only they seem to be able to do the job right.

I did see that you were asking for a multiplayer flight, its just not right that youve havent had the opportunity to do this yet. Somehow we will have to rectify that.

Regarding something happening to me, the rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

AV8R

Just make sure that you have 3DFX enabled in the lb2cfg.exe, and copy over the dgVoodoo files for the version of your choice - to the LB2 directory. If the game doesn't work in Glide after that, I haven't a clue what is going on.

Geez, only now reading back through this thread do I see where you answered someones question about needing wrappers.
I thought you put it all together in this install package. Why didnt you?

Nonetheless, after putting DgVoodoo in there, Im sure ill be back to the same level of graphic detail Im used to having
in my own OEM installs.

Still, Im not sure why others with the OEM CDs cannot install, add wrapper, and fly on Vista like I can.
Is it really about their antiVirus proggy? Im not running into problems on Vista. But note, I dont install
inside the C:\PROGRAM FILES folder where Vista's UAC would inhibit installation and running priviledges.
I install in a different drive altogether, where UAC doesnt touch it.

I didn't put in the dgVoodoo wrapper(s) because I didn't - and still don't - know where to contact the creator to get permission to use them, also, different people have varying success with different versions. To include any ONE version in my package may suggest (wrongly) to people that that version is the one they should be using. And to include all three versions may just get downright confusing for the more casual PC users.

Well of course you'll have the same level of detail as your 'OEM' installs, that's all this package is - but it allows you to bypass the actual install process yourself, as well as patch and DDU installs. It's NO different!

Most people haven't reported that they CAN'T install on Vista - just that when it comes to the map decompression - that fails. If you cannot pass this stage of the installation process, you can't play the game. As far as I know it has NOTHING to do with their anti-virus program. And of note, you cannot (or shouldn't be able to) install the patch and DDU in Vista/7 as they are 16-bit programs that seem to no longer be suppported by these two latest OS's.

I don't know where other people install their game to, but I have always used 'C:\Games\...' and have had the same problems as others report. Luckily, Win7 has much more relaxed and configurable UAC. Why are you still even using Vista!?

Why Im still on Vista?

Old old engineering axiom...

"If it aint broke, dont fix it."


Until I need to upgrade to a new computer, then ill get Win7 along with it.
Probably IL2-BOB will make me go there, but for now everything I have works fine on what I have...
Including DCS-BS and A10C, FlamingCliffs, MSFSX, Open Falcon, COD-BlackOps, ROF-ICE, IL2-1946, SteelBeastsPro, etc.
And lets not forget Longbow2 runs great on Vista with little effort.
Same thing on my older dual2core with WinXP. No problems there either.
I also have some older laptops and a 2.4Ghz single core. On this system even the rockets in LB2 seem to work better.

So why did you switch from XP to Vista? Lapse of judgement and temporarily forgot the old axiom?

JAMF

Some folks have need of more than one computer at a time.
And as a function of time, computers come with whatever OS was newest.

Hope that helps you with your question.

Ah, so you didn't pick the XP upgrade option for Vista then.

No im too darn cheap (frugal) to buy a new computer to upgrade the OS.

Ha, but Vista IS broke... badly!

No matter, it's good to see you posting here again AV8R!

But Vista IS broken!

Hi iam73, glad you agree!

Hi and thanks for everyone putting the work into getting this awesome sim working on the latest computers. It appears, however, that the link for the Win7/Vista fix is broken, or more accurately leads to a file not found. This is strange as there appears to have been several downloads of it in the past week. Anyone have any ideas?

I also have a question about what actually needs to be installed to get it to run(theoretically) on a 64bit Vista or 7 machine? I've seen various threads listing things that should be done but I haven't seen anything specifically related to the newer OS's. Assuming the fix is available do I still need to apply the official Janes patch, any of the d3d fixes (I assume not as has been previously mentioned they don't work on 64 bit machines)

Thanks in advance for any help

Hi Lorien, welcome to the forums!

The Windows Vista/7 Fix was created by me, and thanks for notifiying me of the broken download link. FileFront recently changed their name to GameFront, and all previous download links linking to a filefront.com address have now, it seems ALL been broken. When I was first made aware of this, it appeared that SOME file links remained intact. I may perhaps have been wrong or this has since been broken. The reason that it appears downloads have been had this week is because the site clocks up the number of 'Download' button presses - which as you know now leads to a non-existent page.

I'll re-upload the file at earliest convenience and when I do so, I'll amend the link at the start of this topic and may send you a PM here so you know.

And to answer the second part of your query, that is indeed what my fix is for - so you don't have to install everything individually or need to know what you need to run the game. Although, it should be noted that SOME users now need a separate Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit fix, and you do need a glide wrapper of choice for the pre-set 3DFX display mode - most use dgVoodoo v1.50Beta. All of that can be dealt with in good time though.

Thanks for the quick reply and additional info

Lorien - please see the RED text in the first entry on the first page of this topic. I have re-uploaded the file but am still having problems.

Unfortunately it still a "File not found"

EDIT
I've managed to get LB2 working, at least as far as I can see, and am now trying to fix some graphical glitches. *Reading through pages of posts trying to find the ones that relate to my problems*

Lorien - congrats! If you need any help PM me here. Just for your info, I have now also uploaded my fix file to RapidShare (find link on page 1).

Yes I downloaded it and it worked great (the version I had working didn't have the lb2cfg file so I would have to go into the files and change it manually). It seems I am facing the same choice others have had, either play in software mode, or play with a corrupted cockpit display.

Thanks again for your extended patience breathing life into this aging dinosaur of a sim.

Thanks for testing the download and my fix package. That lb2cfg.exe program is from the LB2 Display Driver Update (DDU) patch which allows you to choose between Software, Direct3D and 3DFX display modes. This was even in the pre-release demo so it's weird it never made it into the full game until a patch was released!

Are you using Windows 7? You running in 3DFX mode with dgVoodoo glide wrapper? To fix the cockpit, you can change the Renderer API setting in the dgVoodoo settings file to Direct3D9 - BUT, you will get a crash after each and every mission and won't be able to progress through a campaign or earn rank, etc. I guess that setting is currently on Direct3D7? If so, this is when you get that broken 2D cockpit view. You could always try Direct3D mode. It's not as nice-looking as emulated Glide but it would at least offer hardware-accelerated graphics. Select the 'Not sure' option in the lb2cfg.exe for which graphics card you have, under D3D. The only option after that is, yeah, Software mode.

I had been using Version 1.5 of DGVoodoo but discovered that I had downloaded a previous version awhile ago(1.4) so I tried that and, after some twiddling with the settings to stop CTDs on launch, the broken cockpit has been repaired. Aside from some lines appearing where the panels are stitched together it looks pretty good. It does appear though that I can't change the resolution. No matter what I set it to on the DGvoodoo setup it appears to remain at 640x480 both in the base and in flight. But hell it's an old game I can't expect miracles

Hi folks. First of all thank you all for your hard work on this. Its good to have hope of playin my favorite flight sim again. However i still have not been able to get my copy to work and i have about a million questions. Forgive me if this is a stupid question but i am pretty much clueless on how any of this stuff actually works. I have the longbow gold edition, which i discovered after countless hours of tinkering with different things, is pre-longbow 2. So will any of this advice work for me?

Thanks in advance for any help.
-Mike

Hi sythe1987, the fix that this particular forum topic is for is Longbow 2. Longbow Gold hasn't really been 'tried and tested' as much as LB2, on modern systems, but depending on your issues, there may be a simple solution. Please see your other topic in the forums for my answer to your query.

When I was installing the fix, Windows Defender detected a trojan:



I was hoping this fix would enable to run Longbow 2 without freezing.

On another note, Longbow Gold, and the other Jane's games based in DOS environments all work with DOSbox on both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows 7.

It's a common detection problem that happens in a number of AV programs. But no, it isn't a trojan. Does Defender give you the option to ignore rather than quarantine or delete? That's the thing to do, or disable while you install and when you run it.

What is it and what does it do?

Hi gaskin, as you may be aware this is my fix package for LB2 on Windows Vista and 7. Many anti-virus programs say that the LB2.EXE (the file needed to run the game) has some sort of Trojan virus or similar. It DOES NOT. It is what's known as a false-positive - a file that's said to be infected but really is not. There's just something in the LB2.EXE that triggers many AV programs.

The LB2.EXE is present in this fix package because it is needed to successfully install the game on systems that need this fix in the first place. If you have the option, choose to ignore this alert when it comes up as I can assure you it is SAFE.

This is a great fix - and it works so easy, flying Longbow 2 for the first time in 7 years.
Win 7, 64 bit, lots of RAM - no problem.

Thanks a lot!

Concerning virus varning - in AVG there is a simple utility where you manage exceptions, the easiest way is to install, when you get a warning about virus ignore the threat, manage an exception, and everything works, at least for me.

Hi Mats, great to hear that my fix worked for you and you are flying again! And yes, you are absolutely correct about how to handle exceptions in AV software.

got my copy of LB2 yesterday from ebay SEALED. need help with this fix. do i install it inside my installation folder of longbow 2?

ALSO THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM

whenever i try to run the LB2.exe(wether is installed in or out the installation folder of LB2) i get the "windows cannot access the specified device, path or file you may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item" error. i tried getting ownership of the .exe and folder, but to no avail. MS makes bunny cry

Hi FlightJunkie, welcome to the forums!

Congrats on getting a sealed copy of LB2! I hope you are not bankrupt now because of it, or got a thick ear off the missus!

OK, first things first.

I'm betting you get that 'Windows cannot access...' message because your anti-virus program has quarantined your LB2.EXE file. It is a commonly-known problem that many AV software programs detect a false-positive worm or something or other in the LB2.EXE. A false-positive is a positive detection of a false virus. Basically, your AV program is finding something that isn't there. To fix this, go into your AV program settings and exclude the LB2 folder from being scanned - in real-time and for manual scans, if possible.

Then, if you can restore the quarantined EXE to its original location, great! If not, re-install LB2 to the same location as it already is. Hopefully your LB2.EXE file should then remain untouched.

Yes, install the fix package to your LB2 folder and overwrite any files it asks you to. The fix includes the game, patch, and graphical driver patches in an 'installed' state. So it will basically install the game over the top of your installation. The reason you need to install the game at all, is so that theoretically every user has to have a copy of LB2 (a very basic anti-piracy measure) and so that the additional content that the game requires can be accessed from the game CDs or disc images.

Please don't hesitate to post back if you still have problems or any other queries at all.

its fixed! but i don't know exactly how. i have AVG free, but it was closed during install and after attempting to run the game NOTE: the game was able to run in compatibility mode before the fix was applied. the error occurred after applying the fix. what did i do differently: uninstalled AVG(didn't know how to exclude LB2.exe) and not applied the 2209 patch. is there a chance that this was caused by the 2209 patch? also the game is still fairly unstable. crashes on screen transitions is a constant gable while training will go on a loop crash. also there are a few other problems, the menu screen is tiny but that's not the main problem, but that is......colorful. i mean its like a rainbow. the problem somehow stops when i open the desktop personalization on resolution settings.


as for the bankruptcy, well it cost me 50$ and another 38$ for shipping, and that's not to much i believe.

I have AVG free too, and it's easy to exclude folders. I hope you have installed some kind of AV program!

As for the instability, try "Phoenix's Last Fix As Promised", here:
http://digitality.comyr.com/flyboy/lb2/setup/setup.html

Be sure to read the instructions!

Thanks for your help, but Phoenix's fix doesn't seem to be doing anything, unless im missing something. there were no instructions as to how to install it. i just unzipped it and pressed "install" and its said that it installed successfully. tried running LB2 in win95 mode, but to no avail.

also for some reason i cant enter 3d cockpit(F4) and i cant lock on(T)

You installed Phoenix's fix correctly, if it says it installed, then I guess it did!

What operating system are you using? Those fixes will only work for Windows Vista / 7.

Compatibility modes don't really work for LB2 on modern computers.

I've got to run and may not be online until nearer the end of the week.

For now, uninstall Phoenix's fix from Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs. It should be listed as 'LB2 Fix' or something. Go back to that page on my website and install Phoenix's Final Solutions. Try the game. If no luck, uninstall that and then try Phoenix's XP Fix on my site. If THAT doesn't work, I'm sorry to say it but you may well be out of luck.

There are some people who simply cannot get LB2 to run without crashing, or at all. The Phoenix fixes are really the last stand and if they don't work, the game generally won't get 'fixed' for you.