In the last few days we discovered something that I have never met before.

A would be user has a PC where the installation language is not English. In some screenies that he sent me it seemed as though he was logged on as "???????".
Your log-on name is part of the path to your desktop, which in my case is "C:\Users\mrjel\Desktop\"

In his installation language the user's name is not "???????", but a real name.

However, in this case it was read as "C:\Users\???????\Desktop\" by the installer program.

The upshot was that installer could not find the path to the list of things to be installed, and crashed.

The good news is that we solved the problem by installing things to the "C" drive and never on the desktop

That would typically be a 7-bit / 8-bit problem. The standard 7-bit ascii code contains only 'normal' letters and numbers. The 8-bit ascii code contains the 'funny' obes also -p.e ñ ç é . I did some major translation work - from english into french - and could only use the 7-bit ascii code. Sure made it quite unreadable, specially the long help texts ...

Yeah C root folder or 2nd drive is best.

It also avoids other Win10 problems besides tricky folder path names and long folder path names.

The problem that we encountered was on a Win 7 drive

Same issues, you want EAW on the C root folder or 2nd or 3rd or 4 etc drive..... I prefer users to use at least the 2nd drive.

Win10 just has the user account control. I don't remember if win7 has it. But some security and other settings keep the eaw.ini and saved games from being written.

Both use the UAC

UAC, I recommend to have it fully set to max, and avoid the \program files folder with EAW as well as what I previously posted.

I always install to a second drive. My current test environment is a 1.28e version, first installed in 2009. It has been copied over and over, to at least 3 systems, and currently resides on an external hard drive that I can move between all those systems. One of the great things about EAW is that it installs to a single main folder; it's not spread around through the documents, system and /or system 32, windows, etc. I make a separate install for each campaign. Avoids the defrag issue.

Well it does do windows registry entry, at least on win7 and up. Its how windows knows where it is and knows what to add for its own automated compatibility fixes.

But once you move the eaw folder you can delete the old reg entries if you have too. Sometimes too many will make the game not run anymore, anywhere on the system. Its weird.

However your overall correct on how easy it is to have on a 2nd drive., like you explained.

Mark, I'm running Windows 10. My cd drive quit working about a minute after the warranty expired, and I haven't been able to get a replacement to work either. So when I got the urge to get back in the game, I simply transferred it from an old computer to the newer one with an external drive. If Windows does a registry entry, I wouldn't know as I haven't done an actual "install" in at least fifteen years?? The last install was in Windows ME, I think, lol.

As a general rule, I have always had a second, D: drive, typically much larger than C:. I install everything to this drive, and use the C: drive for the OS and anything I put in the document folder. That way if I needed to reinstall Windows, I just copy the document folder over to D:, reinstall the OS, copy the document folder back. Reinstall of all my programs went pretty quick because folders were already in place. That way I didn't need to back up every frickin thing, it's already where it's supposed to be.

You may not know, but Win10 still makes reg entries when you run or access the game. (This is different from an installer making entries).

I have a guide on my site, it tells where the important entries for win8.1/10 are. They are regenerated each time there not present. Although win10 sometimes doesn't add the compat entry all the time, thats why some people get an error.

I thinks its my troubleshooting doc where I talk about the windows registry and EAW some what.

But I do hear you and what your saying, you can lift the game and move it or leave it on the 2nd drive and reinstall win10 on the C drive and EAW will most likely work the first time you run it.
I too have 10 copy's of the game on my 2nd drive. Since i experiment I have to clean my registry sometimes with CCleaner, it gets some of the irritating entrys and removes them if I have problems.

Good to know, Mark I will take a peak at that, thanks

Heres a link:

https://eaw.neocities.org/troubleshoot.html#winreg

If I have something wrong when you take a look, please fill me in if you know better.....
Check the Windows 8/10 Compatibility Layer topic out for basicly what win10 adds

Thanks for looking, might help in the future. Its helped me a lot.

Going back to the origin after watching this thread evolve, the situation was that the user had been advised to install the D3DWindower on his desktop, and a couple of runtime files installers there too. Having the windower program on the desktop was for convenience of use, and installers could be removed after they had put the runtime files in the appropriate system folder.
I made the post in case a reader with a "non-English" Windows o/s had encountered a similar problem, and I was not expecting the discussion that followed