Step by step fresh Vista x64 installation

[Hyman Roth]

Long time time lurker, longer time Civ player, and first time poster here...

Tomorrow I'll be building a new computer with Vista x64. I've done some forum searching on various installation issues and what not, but haven't seen it all put together in one thread. That said, I'd like to know the best method to go about installing the game. My concerns include the following:

-I should run the installation programs in administrator mode, correct?

-Do I need to concern myself with any compatibility modes, or just do everything normally?

-I intend to install vanilla Civ IV and BTS (skipping out on Warlords). In terms of installing those 2 programs and the various patches, what's is the best order in which to do so (Civ4 -> Civ4 patch -> BTS -> BTS patch?)? Is it okay to just install the single latest patch for each, or would multiple sequential patches be necessary?

I think it would be a good idea to make a sticky thread on this topic... a "You just bought Civ today, so this is what you need to do to get up to speed" sort of thing, including any different wrinkles for different OSes.

Thanks in advance, this is a great site & forum.

 

[ori]

Welcome to CFC

install all items with admin rights, i.e. right click on each installer and choose run as administrator - just using the admin account does not mean it installs with admin rights, apart from that do the below:

install the most recent version of DirectX 9c from Microsoft
Install Civ4, immediately patch it to 1.61 (download it fresh from here)
Install Beyond the Sword, immediately patch to 3.17 (download it fresh from here).

it should run without compatibility mode, however some people experience "disc not found" errors without XP mode (try it without first though)...

 

[Hyman Roth]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I phrased my first question badly, and you actually answered what I meant to ask.

So ultimately I'm looking at: Make sure DirectX9 is up to date, run Civ4 install in administrator mode, patch to 1.61, run BTS install in administrator mode, patch to 3.17, then enjoy Civ goodness.

This will be my first real experience with Vista, as well as my first experience with a properly purchased copy of Civ4 & BTS, so I'm hoping everything works out smoothly.