Trouble Installing Civ IV Complete Edition

[KennyTheSage]

Hello everyone. I've been playing Civ IV without any expansion packs for a while, and yesterday I decided to pick up Civilization IV: The Complete Edition. The problem is that I'm having trouble installing it. My PC runs Civ IV vanilla just fine, so I don't think that it's a problem with my system specifications, or anything like that. The installation process seems to go through cleanly, but I'm never prompted to create a desktop icon, the expansions do not appear in my start menu, and when I try to run the game from the CD, Colonization runs automatically without allowing me to chose the normal game itself.

The manual says that I should double-click the desktop icon or select it from the start menu, but neither of those are options. The website that it directs me to for support is no use, so I was referred here by a friend of mine who says that you guys might be able to help. Any advice?

 

[Furiey]

Welcome to CFC!

This is typical of Complete (do you have Vista or W7?) so it's nothing you have done. The expansions are installed, it just fails to create the shortcuts. You should find the games in your games folder in the start menu, or find where the .exe files have been installed and create your own desktop shortcuts.

 

[KennyTheSage]

Thanks for the response, and the welcome. I'm glad that I'm probably going to be able to work this out, I was afraid that I spent $39.99 for nothing. I looked in my games folder, and I'm not seeing the expansions. Obviously I don't see them in the Firaxis Games folder either (that was the first place I looked). Can you tell me how to locate the .exe files? I tried Google first, but to be honest I'm not very computer-savvy. To answer your question, I have Windows Vista.

 

[Furiey]

You may find it simply installed under "program files\firaxis games\..." (mine is), or you may find it has installed to "<Logon Name>\AppData\Roaming\..." where <Logon Name> is your login on the PC. AppData is a hidden folder so you will have to make sure that you have got windows explorer to show hidden files or folders or you will not find it. I'm afraid it's just a question of searching to find out where it has been installed on your computer. They will be in a folder called something with civilization in it (not sure what complete calls it, mine's called Sid Meier's Civilization 4), but Warlords will be in a subfolder of that called Warlords and BTS in another subfolder of the main Civ folder called Beyond the Sword. The files are Civ4Warlords.exe and Civ4BeyondSword.exe if you have to resort to searching for them by name.

 

[KennyTheSage]

Found it. Thank you very much!

 

[NorthNovas]

Great question and answer in this thread. It's been a while playing Civ 4 and Warlords. I just purchased Civ 4 the Complete Edition and loaded on Windows 7. I was suspicious of receiving only 1 DVD in the case and when I fired it up only seeing the vanilla only to play I was concerned.
Logged on the forum (its been a while) and stumble upon this thread and my problem was solved!

 

[Rathelon]

For Windows 7 with the Complete Edition; it is located in Program Files(x86)/2K Games/Firaxis Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete/Beyond the Sword

 

[FiveRings]

I have installed the Complete edition, have played the BtS but tried to load the mods and play some GoTMs. Lot of problems - I guess, thnks to the Vista - and I have reinstalled. Now I can play the Vanilla and the WL, but I get the "insert the right disc" when I try to play BtS. Any ideas what to do? Thanks!

 

[waynne]

wow. There seems to be significant problems loading this game on anything above an XP OS. I'm trying to load it in compatibility mode of XP w/SP-2. It sure ain't working for me. I've started a thread called "Weird Installation issues" . If your pretty savvy with this kind of thing I'd sure appreciate any insight.

 

[kiwitt]

I have installed the Complete edition, have played the BtS but tried to load the mods and play some GoTMs. Lot of problems - I guess, thnks to the Vista - and I have reinstalled. Now I can play the Vanilla and the WL, but I get the "insert the right disc" when I try to play BtS. Any ideas what to do? Thanks!

This is why I recommend installing into C:\GAMES\CIV4 instead of the default "C:\Program Files" (and "C:\Program Files(x86)\" folder as Win 7/Vista changes the permissions and add additional protection to this folder