Civ 3, Windows Update KB3086255, & SafeDisc

GG have definitely changed and amended their Civ3Complete package over the years (or rather, Firaxis have).

Mine's always been the same. It's always had the non-working Vanilla exe.

So if it is that update affecting it in Win8.1, then it hasn't been applied to my XP-install yet (and I do usually apply any security updates that the laptop asks for!). Which would kind of make sense, since M$ had already long since discontinued official support for XP when that update was released.

I feel stupid now! :crazyeye: You wouldn't have that security update because support for XP ended last April. THAT'S why it runs on your XP laptop. On your 8.1 machine just look up KB3086255 under "Installed Updates" and if it's there, that would be the reason it doesn't work.

Problem is, neither of my current GG-installations actually include a Civ3X.exe, working or non-working (AFAICT, only the executable is missing -- all the other PtW-content is there, including the Editor! :crazyeye: ). Did/does yours?

All the PTW content has to be there since it's needed for C3C to run, but I've also never had the Civilization3X exe as part of any Gamersgate downloads. I got my PTW No-CD patch from elsewhere.

Now that online MP-play is back via Steam, I'm actually slightly curious as to whether GG has also updated their download-package yet again, to (re?)include the Civ3X.exe -- their current advertising blurb certainly claims so, but then again, that was also the case when I bought it last year -- but I'm not curious enough to want to reinstall the game with the Steam client attached... :vomit:

If I had to guess I'd say probably not. I, too, don't care enough to find out since everything is working perfectly now.
 
You wouldn't have that security update because support for XP ended last April. THAT'S why it runs on your XP laptop.

And that's also the reason why I keep XP on all my machines whose hardware still supports it: the probability of my machine getting messed up by an unpatched security vulnerability in XP is much much lower than the probability of my machine getting messed up by a Microsoft Windows update... :D
 
PC Games made a legal one available.

Edit: Or maybe not for PtW. I did not check that.
I tried downloading the PCGames package yesterday, and no, it doesn't contain a PtW .exe. Actually, it doesn't seem to contain a Vanilla1.29 .exe, either, AFAICT. Admittedly, though, that might just be a false impression I got, because TBH I got rather confused as to what files to put where.
Spoiler :
There appeared to be at least 2 levels of file-compression on the download-package, so I had to do 2 rounds of extraction, and Win8.1 -- German version, pre-installed on my machine -- then started playing silly-buggers with VirtualStoring some/all of the (semi-)extracted files. So I had some difficulty figuring out where everything was going.

And given that my existing C3C installation (which, FTR, is on a separate D-drive, not in my 'C:/Program Files' folder) is already working the way I want it to, I didn't want to allow the extractor to overwrite it in its entirety, but I wasn't given the option of specifying which files I wanted, only rejecting the ones I didn't want. And I didn't fancy having to do that for every single file of an entire Civ3 installation! So I gave up.
 
And that's also the reason why I keep XP on all my machines whose hardware still supports it: the probability of my machine getting messed up by an unpatched security vulnerability in XP is much much lower than the probability of my machine getting messed up by a Microsoft Windows update... :D
:dubious::nono: I couldn't tell if you were just joking, but if not, then this statement is categorically false. If you're connecting to any network via XP you're really taking an extreme gamble with your security, but to each his own.
PC Games made a legal one available.
Edit: Or maybe not for PtW. I did not check that.
The PC Games d/l does not contain a PTW No-CD executable.
Actually, it doesn't seem to contain a Vanilla1.29 .exe, either, AFAICT. Admittedly, though, that might just be a false impression I got, because TBH I got rather confused as to what files to put where.
When you open the zip archive, just extract the whole thing to your desktop. Inside the "PatchpaketCiv3" folder there are three additional archive files (ignore everything else). Extract the archive v1.29f (which contains the fully patched Vanilla exe) and v1.22 (which contains the Conquest exe) to your desktop. Rename them something different than the regular exe's (I add No CD to them) then copy them to your Civilization III Complete and Conquests folders respectively. I've also added shortcuts so I can access them directly from the desktop.
If so, care to tell me the source?
Sorry, I don't remember where I got it, it's been over five years.
 
When you open the zip archive, just extract the whole thing to your desktop. Inside the "PatchpaketCiv3" folder there are three additional archive files (ignore everything else). Extract the archive v1.29f (which contains the fully patched Vanilla exe) and v1.22 (which contains the Conquest exe) to your desktop. Rename them something different than the regular exe's (I add No CD to them) then copy them to your Civilization III Complete and Conquests folders respectively. I've also added shortcuts so I can access them directly from the desktop
Thanks for clarifying that -- the readme was next to useless. Assuming I understood it right, it said to extract the files directly to the destination directory(s) -- but that would have meant authorising overwrites, and I didn't want to risk doing that, screwing something up, and then having to reinstall everything from scratch...

Extracting to the desktop and then renaming/moving the extracted file makes a lot more sense -- especially since the extracted Civilization3.exe patchfile (~1.8 MB) has been given the same filename as the already-existing DRM'd Civilization3.exe (~7.6 MB). (Whose idea was that...?! :crazyeye: ) I renamed the patch to 'Civ3 NoCD.exe' per your suggestion, shoved it in the D:/Games/Civilization3 directory, set up a shortcut for it on the desktop, and Vanilla is now working again on my machine. Yay!

So thanks again (now, where did I find that Vanilla-GOTM mod...?)
 
I renamed the patch to 'Civ3 NoCD.exe' per your suggestion, shoved it in the D:/Games/Civilization3 directory, set up a shortcut for it on the desktop, and Vanilla is now working again on my machine. Yay!
Or... nay...

Just got to the end of my Vanilla test-game
Spoiler :
Romans, Tiny, Random-map, Random opponents, Raging Barbs -- according to the CAII listed map-properties, I got a warm 3-bn year old 80% 'Pangaea', shared with the Indians, Greeks and Egyptians, with 1 large, 1 small offshore island
and experienced several oddities/ problems during/ after play:
  1. CivAssistII does not appear working properly with the Vanilla Civ3-NoCD patch (under Win8.1); regardless of whether I start CAII first, then Civ, or vice versa, it does not recognise that Civ3 is running ('Manual mode' rather than 'On lookout'). I can open savegames manually, but would rather not have to do so every turn.
    • Not sure if this is a .net issue (sometimes I get an 'unhandled exception' error-message when starting CAII, but the program still runs if I click 'Continue'). If anyone has any ideas for a fix, I'd love to hear them.
  2. In the test-game, I didn't get the victory-pop-up (Conquest) until the 570 AD IBT, 2 turns after I'd auto-razed the last enemy town (in 550 AD). I noticed that the pop-up coincided with the last resistor being quelled in a town I'd captured 3 or 4 turns before the last one.
    • I don't usually play for Conquest-vics (this one was actually my first ever!), so I'm not sure whether this is normal, i.e. you don't get the win-credit until every captured town is fully under your control?
  3. The game's delay in recognising Caesar's obvious superiority was odd, but not a major issue. More irritating is the fact that when I tried to move on from the taunt-screen, the Civ3 NoCD.exe crashed. I had to shut it down, so I was neither able to continue with the game, nor to see the replay, get my title, and have my score recorded.
    • Is this possibly a similar problem to the one reported recently for Win10, where the Space-race movie won't play?
The 560 AD savegame is attached, if anyone wants to try it...
 

Attachments

  • Caesar of the Romans, 560 AD.SAV
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Hi,
I've been playing Civ3 with the German patches successfully. Its good to be back playing. BUT I keep getting a trojan warning from AVG - only on the 1.29f patch with Conquest. Has anyone else had this issue. I accidentally let AVG "fix" it which uninstalled the file. If I try to run the game without the conquests version my saved games don't open - file read error. And if I try to reinstall and ignore the Trojan I'm not having any luck.

Anyone know where I can get a clean copy of the German patches without the trojan??
FYI this is the alerted Trojan Name:
Trojan horse Downloader.Generic.14AJGK
 
tjs282 - I don't know if this will help you much as I haven't really used CAII much, but here are some interesting things I found after loading your save.
  • It took me four tries before I could get through the end game screens w/o crashing. This was w/o CAII running. I don't know why that was happening, but interestingly it never crashed on the same screen twice.
  • After the above I could run Vanilla and CAII through all the end screens, but as you reported CAII was always in "Manual Mode".
  • I checked all my No-CD exe patches that I have - Vanilla; PTW; C3C - No Raze, No City Limits, No Raze-No City Limits, No Raze-No City Limits-No Unit Limits, and Antel's p4; and CAII would not actively monitor any of them. Only the Complete exe from my Gamersgate d/l would be "On lookout".
I'm still not sure why the Vanilla game crashed randomly at the end only sometimes. In any event, the issue with CAII not actively monitoring seems to be related to third-party developed No-CD exe patches.

ais_civ3 - Sorry I haven't heard of anyone reporting the d/l from the German PC Games website as a virus/Trojan. It could be a false positive depending on your antivirus settings. You might try getting Malwarebytes and scanning the d/l with it and see what comes up. It's very good at finding things and the passive scanner is a free d/l.
 
tjs282 - I don't know if this will help you much as I haven't really used CAII much, but here are some interesting things I found after loading your save.
  • It took me four tries before I could get through the end game screens w/o crashing. This was w/o CAII running. I don't know why that was happening, but interestingly it never crashed on the same screen twice.
Thanks for taking the time to do that. Nice to know that the crash-problem isn't a 100% event.
  • After the above I could run Vanilla and CAII through all the end screens, but as you reported CAII was always in "Manual Mode".
  • I checked all my No-CD exe patches that I have - Vanilla; PTW; C3C - No Raze, No City Limits, No Raze-No City Limits, No Raze-No City Limits-No Unit Limits, and Antel's p4; and CAII would not actively monitor any of them. Only the Complete exe from my Gamersgate d/l would be "On lookout".
In any event, the issue withCAII not actively monitoring seems to be related to third-party developed No-CD exe patches.
I thought the PCGames patches were supplied by Firaxis? The PCGames Vanilla NoCD patch certainly isn't a full game .exe file in itself (it's too small, and does nothing without the full DRM'd version in place and correctly named). So I would guess that the PCGames patches rather act as a sort of 'shell' around the corresponding official (DRM'd) game .exe -- presumably telling the computer to run it (or parts of it), but to bypass the lines of code which do the CD-check. If so, perhaps the extra layer of the NoCD patch renders the actual game .exe 'invisible' to CAII? (Would that make sense? My total knowledge of programming language consists of extremely fragmentary BASIC, about 25 years past its use-by date!).

As for the 'no-raze' and 'no city limits' patches, my understanding was that those are actually hacked versions of the full, original game .exes -- which users then generally (re)name as e.g. 'Conquests no-raze.exe' (or similar), to avoid overwriting the originals? But if CAII is looking for one of the 3 'official' .exe file(name)s being run, then of course it would fail to recognise a differently-named hacked version as a civ3 executable (whereas a .sav generated by one of those versions would still be open-able manually). So the 64,000-dollar question is, would CAII work with a hacked/patched .exe, if you renamed the .exe to the 'official' filename?
 
been watching this thread since oct, that german fix is too much trouble.

so finally I dug this up on my own.

haven't tried it yet but here's a copy & paste of what I come up with :



Re-enable the secdrv service on Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1: If you’re not using Windows 10, Microsoft provides instructions for reenabling the secdrv.sys driver they disabled with the recent security updates. To do this, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator. (Open the Start menu, search for “Command Prompt,” right-click the Command Prompt shortcut, and select Run as Administrator.) Run the “sc start secdrv” command to start the service, and run the “sc stop secdrv” command to stop it afterwards. Microsoft provides instructions for enabling it automatically at boot using both commands and the registry, too.

This will make your Windows PC less secure, and it shouldn’t work on Windows 10, where the driver has been completely removed. If you do do this, you should disable the service when you’re done with the affected game to keep your PC more secure.


Microsoft Support sez


Important •All future security and nonsecurity updates for Windows RT 8.1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2 require update 2919355 to be installed. We recommend that you install update 2919355 on your Windows RT 8.1-based, Windows 8.1-based, or Windows Server 2012 R2-based computer so that you receive future updates.
•If you install a language pack after you install this update, you must reinstall this update. Therefore, we recommend that you install any language packs that you need before you install this update. For more information, see Add language packs to Windows.

Known issues in this security update
•After you install this security update, some programs may not run. (For example, some video games may not run.) To work around this issue, you can temporarily turn on the service for the secdrv.sys driver by running certain commands, or by editing the registry.

Note When you no longer require the service to be running, we recommend that you turn off the service again.

Warning This workaround may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.

To do this, type the following commands at an elevated command prompt. You should press Enter after you type each command. • To disable the driver's service, type the following command: sc config secdrv start= disabled

•To set the driver's service to manual, type the following command: sc config secdrv start= demand

•To enable the driver's service (and to set it to automatic), type the following command: sc config secdrv start=auto

•To manually start the driver's service, type the following command: sc start secdrv

• To manually stop the driver's service, type the following command: sc stop secdrv


Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows


Or, you can edit the registry directly. To do this, follow these steps: 1.Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2.Locate and then click the following subkey in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\secdrv

3.Right-click Start, and then click Modify.
4.In the Value data box, do one of the following: •Type 4 to disable the driver's service, and then click OK.
•Type 3 to set the driver's service to manual, and then click OK.
•Type 2 to set the driver's service to automatic, and then click OK.

5.Exit Registry Editor.


I just don't have the time to engage the people I want on this forum; the ones I wish to outclass me anyway. just want time for one more turn ; )
 
Twig - By German fix, I assume you mean the No-CD patch from the PC Games site. That method is by far and away the simplest and most risk-free method of overcoming this issue other than going through Steam/Gamersgate. The two methods you outlined here are exactly the same as I've already outlined in post #1, under the second option. Both have their own risks to your system and are relatively more difficult to enable, especially if you're not sure what you are doing, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no other choice.
 
I notice you reminding a couple of people already

as I said I haven't tried anything yet, don't want to have to uninstall and reinstall
it looks to me the command prompt would get around that

I've got the German No-CD patch, but you need to do an uninstall and reinstall to use it.
And exactly where in my new Civ games folder do I direct the zip ?

Also the patch packet contains three other zips, I need 122 and 129f only ?

wondering if I'll have screen resolution problems too. I only play Civ Conquest

downloading from a game site is out of the question since I'm on dial up

Any advice you would care to give is much appreciated

am running Windows 7pro 64bit on a HP dual core

by the way the last time I tried to run the game disk I got the install uninstall, read me screen off the disk and stopped there
 
I've got the German No-CD patch, but you need to do an uninstall and reinstall to use it.
No you don't.
And exactly where in my new Civ games folder do I direct the zip ? Also the patch packet contains three other zips, I need 122 and 129f only ?
Under Option 1 in the first post I link to another post where I responded to someone else on which patch to install and how to install it. One thing I didn't mention is that I always extract archive files directly to my desktop first and then copy the files to their proper location.
 
I can confirm the Sid Meier's Chronicle's Civ3 disc works just fine with KB3086255 installed on Windows 7. It does not work on Windows 10 though.
 
I can confirm the Sid Meier's Chronicle's Civ3 disc works just fine with KB3086255 installed on Windows 7. It does not work on Windows 10 though.
That's interesting to hear -- but when you say 'it works', are you talking about just the conquests.exe, or can you actually run all 3 of the Civ3 .exe files (without NoCD patches) from this CD-based installation?

I ask because last weekend, out of curiosity and further to my posts above, I tried putting my old (wrongly assumed defective) Conquests disk into my new Win8.1 box, and copied the civilization3X.exe from the CD to my GG-C3C installation. However, when I tried to run it I got the 'you need Admin privileges' message; when I confirmed Admin, nothing happened. I also used a USB-stick to copy the civilization3X.exe over to the GG-installation on my old XP-laptop (its CD-drive is busted). This time when I tested it: 'Please insert the CD'. I therefore concluded that this (CD-based version of the) PTW file also needs secdrv.sys for its DRM, and would therefore need either a NoCD patch to run under WinVista onwards, or a working CD/DVD-drive to run under XP.

...Or would it? Begging a further question, which just occurred to me: Would it be possible for me to
  1. Legally clone my legit Vanilla1.07 and Conquests1.15(?) disks onto a USB stick (or 2 sticks)?
  2. (Uninstall the GG-C3C from the XP-laptop HD and then re-)Install Vanilla + PTW + Conquests from the stick(s) instead, i.e. so that the laptop looked at the cloned 'CD' on the E-drive for confirmation of legitimacy?
  3. Patch the stick-based installation(s) up to the latest versions without breaking them?
If not, does anyone know anything about the 'Matroschka-loader'? Specifically, would it be possible (and reasonably straightforward!) to duplicate/adapt the Matroschka file(s) which are already in the root (Vanilla) folder, in order to allow me to (also) run the DRM'd PTW .exe within my existing GG-install of C3C (at least on the XP-machine)?
 
That's interesting to hear -- but when you say 'it works', are you talking about just the conquests.exe, or can you actually run all 3 of the Civ3 .exe files (without NoCD patches) from this CD-based installation?

I ask because last weekend, out of curiosity and further to my posts above, I tried putting my old (wrongly assumed defective) Conquests disk into my new Win8.1 box, and copied the civilization3X.exe from the CD to my GG-C3C installation. However, when I tried to run it I got the 'you need Admin privileges' message; when I confirmed Admin, nothing happened. I also used a USB-stick to copy the civilization3X.exe over to the GG-installation on my old XP-laptop (its CD-drive is busted). This time when I tested it: 'Please insert the CD'. I therefore concluded that this (CD-based version of the) PTW file also needs secdrv.sys for its DRM, and would therefore need either a NoCD patch to run under WinVista onwards, or a working CD/DVD-drive to run under XP.

...Or would it? Begging a further question, which just occurred to me: Would it be possible for me to
  1. Legally clone my legit Vanilla1.07 and Conquests1.15(?) disks onto a USB stick (or 2 sticks)?
  2. (Uninstall the GG-C3C from the XP-laptop HD and then re-)Install Vanilla + PTW + Conquests from the stick(s) instead, i.e. so that the laptop looked at the cloned 'CD' on the E-drive for confirmation of legitimacy?
  3. Patch the stick-based installation(s) up to the latest versions without breaking them?
If not, does anyone know anything about the 'Matroschka-loader'? Specifically, would it be possible (and reasonably straightforward!) to duplicate/adapt the Matroschka file(s) which are already in the root (Vanilla) folder, in order to allow me to (also) run the DRM'd PTW .exe within my existing GG-install of C3C (at least on the XP-machine)?

That time I just ran the conquests.exe, but I ran the PTW one after reading your post, and that worked as well. For the vanilla one though, it said it couldnt detect a civ3 installation. I assume this is because my disc copy is not actually properly installed directly from the cd. I had copied it from a previous computer and I didnt bother reinstalling directly from the cd; and it worked fine anyway I didnt see a reason to go through the process. I'll run the installation here soon just need to go get the other 2 installation discs.

EDIT:
Civ3 Vanilla works too after I reinstalled it from disc files.
 
Nathiri - Very curious, there must be something unusual that you've done to allow Civ to run as it seems you're the only one so far to be successful. Can you elaborate where on your system you installed Civ? Can you verify that the KB3086255 security update is in fact installed on your system? Also, can you verify whether the secdrv service is enabled on this system?
 
Nathiri - Very curious, there must be something unusual that you've done to allow Civ to run as it seems you're the only one so far to be successful. Can you elaborate where on your system you installed Civ? Can you verify that the KB3086255 security update is in fact installed on your system? Also, can you verify whether the secdrv service is enabled on this system?

Well, on my new computer which I've only just gotten recently and I eventually downgraded it from Windows 10 to Windows 7, I had mostly everything installed on the 2nd partition drive (D : ) that came with the computer because of issues I had with the Windows 10 OS causing me to reset it several times. One thing I had to do with the installing of civ3 that I just did is, I had to run the install from the computer, not the disc. When I tried to install from the 'Auto Play' it would just sit there doing nothing. So I copied the disc files and ran the setup.exe (from a folder on Desktop, and installed civ3 in the place it was before, on the 2nd partition). Usually I have my disc civ3 installed in Program Files.

After I did the clean install of Windows 7 about a month ago, I installed a bunch of Windows Updates. I checked Installed Updates just before posting here initially and found KB3086255 security update there in the list.

I have not done any modifications to settings that are mentioned in this article. Is it possible that there has been?
 
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