HOWTO: Fix your WinG problems.

The Problem
You get the error message "WinG Load Failure" when trying to start the civ2.exe program:



Description
WinG is a older set of drivers and libraries that are necessary to make old versions of Civ2 run. The files need to be in your \windows\system directory for games that make use of them to run. The exact filename that is available from MS for free is wing.exe, which is an install program that will copy the necessary files and fix you up.

The wing.exe file will install WinG on your system. I've uploaded it, or you can track it down yourself. As always, for your own peace of mind, check for virus, but it passed my check and works fine.


Procedure
1. The zip file (wing1.zip), contains the WinG.exe. Download it.

2. Simply extract the WinG.exe from the wing1.zip . (WinZip, WinAce, and WinRAR are good shareware programs to open .ZIP files)

3. Run wing.exe (double click it). It will want to extract to a directory (I personally prefer an empty one)...

4. Execute the file called MSSETUP.EXE (or maybe just MSSETUP). WinG will install.

5. (optional) If you wonder if you have ever had any WinG stuff installed on your machine before, seach your windows OS drive (C:\ most likely) for this: *wing* if you get files like wing.dll, or similar stuff, it was installed. You must decide if you wish to overwrite by re-installing it with the wing.exe installer file.

6. All done. Any game that needs WinG will now operate!


Caveats
1. I have not personally tested this on NT, Win2K, or XP. I suspect it may not work, because these three OSs are written and compiled completely differently than Win95/98/ME. Consult the MS Knowledgebase... I do not plan to install it on my W2K.

Rev. 1.00 16Jun02

Here is the wing.exe file from Microsoft, zipped into a file for you. Or you can visit the MS site to download it.

You must Unzip it, then run the wing.exe to extract the files, then mun mssetup.exe to install WinG on your machine.

Last time I built this computer with XP I got civ2 to run by installing Age of Empires and then uninstalling, which got me civ2 running with no advisors or video. Now I can't find Age of Empires and I'm stuck. I have read all of the tips and followed a dozen or so dead links, and found the ~~.de site had several files and downloaded all of them, since links seem to be dying off faster than WWII vets.

I installed Civ2 okay on XP sp2, but it had the issue with the stack error at first. I followed the fixes in the forum for that (think the patch kit civ242 fixed it?), but now I get the 'Error Notice' title-barred window with the message 'WinG load failure. Error: 19'. I have attempted to install most of the suggested patches in the forum on WinG errors but none of them run, they just scroll (even with AV disabled), disappear and are only found in the Windows task manager as a process with 0 CPU for as long as I have patience for until I kill them, usually about 10 minutes.

PLEASE HELP =:O

I disabled themes and a few apparent security holes in the services portion of computer management in XP, then used the priority setting in Windows Task Manager to crank up the installers and they ran. Now I don't have that problem, but having installed WinG (and everything else), when I attempt to run Civ, I get a 'SMEDS Application Error' entitled message with the yellow triangled exclamation point and description:
'Error: ERR_RESOURCENOTFOUND

File: D:\Ss\Smeds32\Port.cpp
Line: 1012

Stack trace not yet available in WIN32'
What have I done to myself?