[BTS] Need to reinstall, but install program thinks it's still on the computer

[RecurCivity]

I was having some problems with Civ4 after it had been running just fine. I thought that uninstalling it and reinstalling it might help. However, now that I've uninstalled it (via the control panel programs & features), I can't reinstall. All of the selections for Civ4 are checked and greyed-out with "installed" beside the component. I even went in with a registry cleaner and removed all of the Civ4 registry entries, but to no avail.

Even more frustrating, the problem I was having was actually caused by the Win10 April 2018 Update -- it locked my display resolution on the "recommended" resolution for everything, not just Civ4, so I had to roll back to the previous version of Win10 (older programs, especially games, don't work well with such a high resolution -- the fonts become unreadably small).

I still have the program installed on my previous laptop and I could copy the files over from there, but that might not work, either, since it's not really "installing" the program.

I have my game files still in the Documents/My Games folder, since I was in the middle of hosting a long multiplayer game, but I don't know why that would cause the installation program to think it was already installed.

Any help? I'm rather desperate to get back into the epic game we've been playing for the last couple weeks!

ETA: I'm using Civ Complete with BTS.

 

[rmazzon]

I have the same issue. Installed Spring 2018 Windows update and could not start Civ4 BTS. I tried uninstall of BTS, which seemed to go well, then attempted removal of Civ4. That failed with a runDLL error "There was a problem starting C:\Program <line break> The specified module could not be found" I adjusted the file explorer view settings and discovered a protected/hidden folder called "C:\Program Files Nonsystem\Sid Meier's Civilization 4". I don't know if that existed before.

Attempts to install from original DVD fails because it sees that it is already installed and that it is higher level than the DVD version. This is courtesy of the 1.74 patch. The message unhelpfully suggests I remove that version first. Can't figure out how.

At this point I am at a loss how to proceed. I will be content to remove and install from scratch. Suggestions?

 

[rmazzon]

I resolved my issue. Downloaded an uninstaller, in my case Revo Uninstaller Free, and cleared out everything related to Civ4. I was then able to restore Civ4 and BTS. It took me a couple of tries with the uninstaller. My first try allowed me to install Civ4, but not BTS. I was using the DVD's for this and the BTS install simply went away early into the install. Used uninstaller again to start cleanly. copied contents of all DVDs to disk and I was eventually able to install both, plus patches. I noticed in my various attempts that Windows still could not natively uninstall Civ4. So I am sure there are lingering issues under the hood that will cause future problems.

I did lose all profile, customization and game play history though.

 

[s.bernbaum]

If you ever have to reinstall again, rename the CIV4 folders in your Documents folder to something else before uninstalling and deleting everything. After the install is completed, delete the CIV4 folders that were created in your Documents folder and change the names of the ones you changed before back to the CIV4 names. That is where all the things that you lost are stored. Since they are all only data, switching back to them will not cause any problems with your new install.

 

[RecurCivity]

Hey there, rmazzon! I'm glad that worked for you! Thanks for posting. If this happens to me again, I will use a combination of your solution and s.bernbaum's. It could be that it wouldn't reinstall because I still had the user folders on there.

I had tried cleaning up the registry using CCleaner, but that hadn't worked.

My solution was to copy over the entire installed files from my previous computer to my new one. I know that this is not technically installing the program, but it worked. The game has played flawlessly, and I also no longer get the message when starting to multiplayer game that the other player has a different version of the game -- I knew that made some tweaks to the previous installation back when I first installed it, but I couldn't remember precisely what they'd all been.

Anyway, if I ever need to uninstall the game, I may have problems since I didn't install it correctly, but for now, it's working properly.