Re-installing without re-installing

[ceedj]

Ok, I've got an install of VC. I have my program discs. My main.scm got hosed and I need to replace it. I DON'T want to uninstall the game, however whenever I run the setup program, it asks me if I want to do just that. Is there anyway to trick the installer to think the game is NOT installed, WITHOUT uninstalling my current installation?

 

Got all that?

[DexX]

you have to uninstall it, or at least trick the installer into thinking so. either way, backup whats left of your game before trying either of these!

 

i've done this. take your current installed game and copy it (yes, the whole thing). the copy will be your "backup", so you'll still have all the files you do now.

let the un-installer do its thing, then re-install, and grab the files you need to replace. delete the new installation, and re-name your backup to what it was and you should be good to go.

 

Tricking it is similar; simply re-name the current VC folder to something else, and it will still attempt to un-install, but since it doesn't find the folder, it will take all of a second (as it cannot find the folder to remove files from), then give the "uninstall complete" message. then you should be able to freely re-install. then grab what you need, copy it, and delete the rest, then re-name your original install folder.

[ceedj]

Argh. I was hoping for a slightly easier way to get one file, but that's my fault for assuming I backed up the stupid thing (I even have a Backups folder in all my GTA directories). But, you gets what you gets. Or something.

 

Thanks Dexx.

[jarjar]

With San Andreas you can edit the register to make the Splash Screen in the install say install, however to actually let InstallSheild let you install it again you need to know the installations ID. Which has a technically name, but I forget it. The string is about 28 characters long and looks something like this : {1234-5678-91874-89765348-3985631}. So if you can find what it's install ID is you will be able to trick it. I don't think it will be very easy however.

[ceedj]

Um, hello?

 

 

Ok, I've got an install of VC.

 

But thanks for trying.

 

EDIT: Actually, the GUID for the install is in the setup.ini file. For VC it is anyway. But I think I got one of my cast to send me the file, so it's all groovy.

[Vlayer]

Not sure but maybe if you put the VC Disc inside and then go to My Computer and choose the Disc Drive, and then choose explore then i think you can find the main.scm somewhere(since the installer doesn't make the files, only put them in your programs)

 

Hope that works. .

[ceedj]

Only replying in case anyone else runs into this...

 

Nope, the files are stored in InstallShield's data1.cab and data2.cab.

[toooomas]

Just move your VC installation to another directory, then run installer and it "unistalls" (deletes) the game. Then move the game back there, where you want to install the game, delete the "main.scm" there and run installer. Game installs itself and produces the files you want (you have deleted in game directory), without overwriting the existing files.

I don't know if it works on VC, but I don't know why it shouldn't. I have installed and uninstalled my copy of SA with this system several times.

[steve-m]

You can extract files from the InstallShield .cab archives. I've done it before ages ago, using a tool named i6comp. There doesn't seem to be an official website, but you can find it everywhere. No idea if there's a better tool available by now.

[jarjar]

You can extract files from the InstallShield .cab archives. I've done it before ages ago, using a tool named i6comp. There doesn't seem to be an official website, but you can find it everywhere. No idea if there's a better tool available by now.

I remember that tool, used it while back. Not very easy to use if I remember it correctly. Still does the job though .

[ceedj]

Yeah, the point of this was really to try and work around my own stupidity of not backing up the file first. I had never needed to before since I use the C++ hooks, but I started messing with MB again and the decompile/recompile issue with MB 1.5 reared it's ugly head and POOF. No more main. But a certain "CRAPpy" cast member has hooked me up, so it's all good now. I'm very appreciative of the replys, especially considering the boneheaded move I made.

[Meeloh]

Shouldn't there be an entry in the system registry that you can delete to trick the installer? Thats what I did for SA anyway.

[jarjar]

 

Shouldn't there be an entry in the system registry that you can delete to trick the installer?  Thats what I did for SA anyway.

Well you can go : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE --> Software --> Rockstar Games --> GTA San Andreas --> Installation and change the "Installed" string to 0. Which is boolean, in boolean 1 = TRUE and 0 = FALSE. So doing this mean the game isn't installed, but all it does is means on the splash screen that auto-loads when the game disc is put into your PC will have the "Uninstall" option replaced with "Install". It doesn't trick the installer itself, only that splash screen.

[jarjar]

Woo. I think this deserves a new post, I just cracked it. And it was along the same lines as I originally thought. Now InstallShield saves all data to a folder right, the folder is named with the InstallationGUID. I found the GUID while looking at the registry, it was in the games Uninstall path. The GUID is {D417C96A-FCC7-4590-A1BB-FAF73F5BC98E}. Now the folder for this (after an hour of searching and checking through other parts of the registry) is in fact "C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{D417C96A-FCC7-4590-A1BB-FAF73F5BC98E}". Now delete the folder, and wallah, you can install another copy of the game on your computer .

 

Can't believe I managed to find it, this is going to be a huge help to me, and maybe many others. Now other ways of stopping InstallShield could be to delete that folder, rename it, move it or delete all content files in it (so all files in that folder, but leave the folder itself basically).

 

Now in-order for this to work as per normal, you much of course edit the register data I mentioned in the last post above me, that will mean you will be promoted to install the game when the DVD disc is inserted.

 

Happy Re-re-installing .

[ceedj]

Excellent find jarjar! Perhaps we should add this info to the modding wiki?

[jarjar]

Excellent find jarjar! Perhaps we should add this info to the modding wiki?

Thanks . Yeah that would be a great idea, I will add it as soon as I can. I can't believe we manged to crack this. I wanna try and do it for VC and GTA3 now, sadly the registry doesn't help much in that regard, as it doesn't have it's uninstall information in there. But hopefully that won't matter. Wish me luck .

[jarjar]

Okay, found the GUID for GTA3 and Vice City too, so now it's possible for all 3D GTA games. Here's the information you need to know, in a nice little table :

 

 

Game	GUID String	InstallShield Installation Information Directory
Grand Theft Auto 3	{92B94569-6683-4617-8C54-EB27A1B51B30}	C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{92B94569-6683-4617-8C54-EB27A1B51B30}
Grand Theft Auto Vice City	{4B35F00C-E63D-40DC-9839-DF15A33EAC46}	C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{4B35F00C-E63D-40DC-9839-DF15A33EAC46}
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas	{D417C96A-FCC7-4590-A1BB-FAF73F5BC98E}	C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{D417C96A-FCC7-4590-A1BB-FAF73F5BC98E}

 

Now using that information run the same process as already outlined before and you'll be fine.

 

 

Now delete the folder, and wallah, you can install another copy of the game on your computer .

 

Now other ways of stopping InstallShield could be to delete that folder, rename it, move it or delete all content files in it (so all files in that folder, but leave the folder itself basically).

 

Follow that and wallah, you can install multiple versions of any GTA game on your computer.

Edited January 6, 2007 by jarjar

[ceedj]

Excellent stuff. However, my GUID for SA is different; could this be the result of mine being US?

 

My San Andreas GUID (US v1.0)E0303B6A-C675-4102-95DA-C013625BFA99

 

 

I'll look into the others as well. Great job working this out.

[steve-m]

My GUID for SA (European/German version):

 

086BADF8-9B1F-4E89-B207-2EDA520972D6

 

 

GTA3 and VC are the same as jarjar's.

[jarjar]

Thanks steve and ceedj. Thats a great help . I'm thinking, logically with each recreation or recompiling of a setup in InstallShield a new GUID is generated. So for each region with a new game it would be different, an probably the same for San Andreas v1.0 and San Andreas v2.0. Although, in SA v2.0 the setup may not have been edited at all, since it still have the v1.0 readme in it. Hard to say.

 

If I can get a large amount of people to give me this information from their installation, their game version (for San Andreas) and their region I may be able to work it out. But I would say, each regional release of the game has a new GUID.