Patching to 18.2.0 - Change of prefs location?

[Troxxor]

I'm running Windows 7 RC 64-bit, I haven't logged into my XP machine yet.

OK so I patched up fine, no issues, but when I logged into game I appeared to have a very old version of my prefs (like from n00b island)

I logged out & checked my prefs in:

C:\Documents and Settings\%my username%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Funcom\Anarchy Online\Prefs\%account name%\%char number%\

(checking the Prefs.xml file's date modified field)

It hadn't been updated since I logged off yesterday... so I checked my AO installation directory (again looking at the modified date on Prefs.xml):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Funcom\Anarchy Online\Prefs\%account name%\%char number%\

This date matched with the old prefs that appeared. Hmm, FC moved it? OK so I copied my prefs from my user's virtual store to the AO installation & logged back in.

Prefs restored, everything looked fine. Hurray!

I make a mental note, it's the Prefs in the installation folder that's being used now... fine....

Just for completeness I log out again & check the modified date on the relevant prefs.xml file... It's the one in the virtual store that's been updated with todays date, not the one in my AO installation?!

So I don't know if there's a bug, where the prefs are taken from the AO installation folder the first time you log or what? I don't know if anyone else has experienced the same thing or what?

It seems to be working fine for me know, but some people might not know how to find their virtual store on w7/vista, so it might lead to some people thinking their prefs have been wiped.

[Honorbound]

The prefs folder was, is, and should be, in AO's installation folder.
It's just that virtual store crap in Vista/Win7 which is messing with it; creating duplicates and then updating/writing/reading the alternate filesets randomly as it sees fit at the given moment.

Simplest solution: do not install the game into C:\Program Files, instead create something like a C:\Games and put AO there.

[Mereditche]

OMG, I need to redo my backpack names, setup and everything on over 40 characters?

Is there a way to solve the prefs back to normal?

[Tazalanche]

Anarchy Online Bulletin Board > Community forums > Tech Help > Solving common installation/patching issues, especially on Vista

Even though it is not officially released (& therefore unsupported by Funcom if they follow the same ways as when Vista was not officially released yet), the same location guidelines would apply for Win 7.

[Mereditche]

Well, problem solved. For other people with the issue.

1) I first copied the whole folder to a games directory oustide of program files => prefs still wrong

2) I looked for the appdata folder as said by OP (you need to make hidden files visible for that, which is a pita in Vista). Copied prefs and everything was fine again
EXCEPT!!!
Performance dropped by a lot!!! On zoning I saw buildings popping up again while before everything loeaded smooth without pop ups.

So
3) I copied everything back to the Program Files folder and now everything seems... ok.

[Troxxor]

Thanks for the link Taz, very handy (I really should have searched before posting >.<)

After reading that I'm going to move my AO installation to outside of C:\Program Files

1) I'll copy my patched up 18.2 AO installation to another location (probably an external or second hard drive)
2) Backup the prefs in my virtual store too
3) Uninstall AO
4) Reinstall AO from CD (like 14.0 or 15.0, lulz) into C:\Anarchy Online
5) Copy the patched 18.2 version from my other hard drive over the new installation in C:\Anarchy Online
6) Check prefs & if necessary copy them from the backup of my virtual store

Hopefully there'll be no more messing around with prefs that

EDIT: Haven't noticed any performance change here... but I have told my anti virus to ignore my AO installation directory

[Mereditche]

One cool thing I've noticed. After moving AO out of program files, and then back into Program Files, when I made a screenshop it showed up in the program files directory and not in the virtualstore. I don't know if this will persist, but seems like a good thing.