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  • Making TS2 Custom Content work properly under Windows 7
  • Uploader: BoilingOil
#1
When you install TS2 on a Windows 7 system, the EA Games folder will be created TWICE: once in your own Documents folder, and once under Public Documents.
So when you open your "My Documents" Folder, you'll find TWO "EA Games" folders.

Now here's the problem: The installer will install all CC in the Public folder, while the game only reads CC from your OWN folder. So anything you install, will NOT be found.
If you delete the Public version of this folder, it will simply be automatically re-created by either the game or the installer, so that's no solution to the problem. The only way to prevent this crap from happening, is to do the following:

1. Open the C Drive in Windows Explorer
2. Then go to "Users", "Public", "Public Documents"
3. Open the "EA Games" folder, and move everything you find in there to a new folder (on the Desktop, for example)
4. Now click the "back" button in Windows Explorer, to return to "Public Documents"
5. Right-click the folder "EA Games" and select "Properties"
6. On the properties page, tick both the boxes at the bottom, saying "Read only" and Hidden".
7. Click "Save"

Your problem is now solved. If you open "My Documents", you'll see only ONE "EA Games" folder, and everything you put in there, will be found by the game. The Public EA Games folder exists, so it will not be re-created. But since access to this folder is restricted, no system will ever be able to use it again: neither you, nor the installer. Thus, everything is BOUND to end up in your personal EA Games folder, where the game can find it. Problem solved once and for all time!

If, in step 3, you found any stuff in the now defunct "EA Games" folder, that stuff should now be in the new folder on the Desktop, with ample opportunity for you to sort it out and find stuff that you might wish to move to the proper folders.

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Comments
#2 27-10-2012
Thanks, BO. It's odd; on my one machine, stuff shows up just fine. On the other, no. So I'll try this on the one where cc doesn't show. Sigh. Ginnie

#3 27-10-2012
I hope you'll get it to work there, Ginnie. Good luck Tongue

#4 12-06-2014
I've been loading stuff onto my husband's laptop lately which runs Windows 7. This wasn't a problem on my Win7 desktop I used to have, but the folder keeps appearing on the lappy. I will go ahead and take these preventative steps the next time I load it up so I won't have to worry about whether or not it will happen when I eventually start installing packs. Thanks for the tip!

#5 12-06-2014
You're welcome, Tamha. It was my pleasure :-)

#6 12-06-2014
Thank you for the very timely advice, sir! *tips hat*

#7 12-06-2014
I never had to do anything for this either. But then I always downloaded rar files to my desktop, extract, cut and paste it in. Other files get opened with clean Installer and I just click browse. Is this the old installer? *head scratch*

#8 12-06-2014
But even when cutting and pasting it in, if you just open "My Documents", you'll find TWO EA Games folders. Knowing which one to use - as long as nothing is in there yet - is impossible. Only if you always open the folders from the C:/ drive directly, can you be sure to pick the right one.

With the method outlined above, that limitation falls away. You simply use the Clean Installer to install to the default folders, without the need to browse to the right folders. It's simply a matter of making things simpler. :-)

#9 12-06-2014
Thank YOU, BO - and Tamha for resurrecting this thread!!!
THIS. This is the problem I have on my daughter's PC (W7) ...and it was driving me nutso!
She just installs things willy-nilly and then has a major fit when her new stuff isn't in her game. Then, besides calming her down, I have to go traipsing all over her bloody hard drive to find the stuff - she's on a controlled user account, so the 'public' folder isn't readily available to her... *sigh*
She also like to create things in BS, but when she imports it into the game it goes AWOL... Slap
OMG - the problem will FINALLY be solved!
And, it's such a simple and elegant solution! BO, you are a hero Big Grin
Thank you. Heart

ETA: Hey - @leefish - how come my smilies aren't working?

#10 12-06-2014
Big Grin

#11 12-06-2014
I just click library and the top folder is always the correct one, the other is empty. Guess it doesn't bother me. Clean Installer goes directly to the correct EA folder for me, I click browse because I always do 'create a new folder'. Maybe that's because I'm on a 64 bit?

Glad this is helpful for people having trouble though.

#12 13-06-2014
Well, @joandsarah, then you are lucky that for you it's always the top folder. Congratulations on your good fortune! Smile But in a new install, or on a different machine, I would not dare count on the situation being the same.

On *my* system, which was *also* 64-bit, when I allowed the Clean Installer to install files in the default folder or clicked browse to create a new folder, it would invariably use the wrong EA Games folder, and I would not find the new items in my game, as if they had not been installed at all. Mods would not work, installed sims and objects would not show up in the catalogs, etc.

The above method simply disables this wrong folder. After that, Clean Installer on *my* machine works exactly the same as on yours. That's the beauty of it.


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