Windows 10 issues

Hi all,

Not sure if anyone has come across this when trying to unpack an APK file? I have done the TSunpack fix and it is still coming up saying "Microsoft Train Simulator Installation not found."
I have Uninstalled and Reinstalled MSTS and still the same problem. I have done a registry repair check and I have done a Malware and Virus scan and it hasn't come up with anything.

Has anyone come across this or know of any way to resolve this problem please?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Andy

Rather than clicking on the .apk file, have you tried dropping the .apk onto the tsunpack.exe icon?
T

Hi Andy,
I was intrigued by your problem ... so I tried on my Win 10 ... and got the same result!!

However, the answer was very simple - set TSUnpack.exe to "Run as administrator" and Bob's your Uncle (or in my case, Dad )

... but, why aren't you using my APKExtractor??

Cheers,
Ged

slipperman12 wrote:
"... but, why aren't you using my APKExtractor??"

I do, Use it all the time!
It's Great, Thoroughly recomend it.....Thanks to Ged.

Cheers
Andy

slipperman12 wrote:Hi Andy,
I was intrigued by your problem ... so I tried on my Win 10 ... and got the same result!!

However, the answer was very simple - set TSUnpack.exe to "Run as administrator" and Bob's your Uncle (or in my case, Dad  )

... but, why aren't you using my APKExtractor??

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

I have used it, but being that I have been trying to get my Route buildings done, I didn't point it to your APKExtractor App. TBH, I completely forgot about using it.... Just concerned why even "Run as Administrator" on the orignal APK Extractor App still isn't working? By the way it is working fine with yours!

Any other ideas why the original app isn't working as it should? The regsitry settings aren't the same as when I was on Windows 7..... As per this link; http://msts.steam4me.net/tutorials/registry.html I seem to be missing the following;

"Path"=
"RouteExtractorPath"=
"EXE Path"=

I wonder if this is why MSTS is being fussy with Windows 10?

Cheers

Andy

Hi,
Andy (35005CP) - I still think it's concerning "Run as administrator": make sure MSTS is set so and run it once in that state.
The Win 10 Registry entries (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE) for MSTS should be the same as in Win 7.

Andy (Moody) - Thanks, mate, I'm very pleased to hear it

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

I tried as Administrator and still the same error message. I have now set .APK files to automatically point to your program now, so when you double-left click on an APK file it opens straight away, rather that using the drag 'n' Drop method.

Cheers

Andy

Hi all,

Not wishing to put the frighteners on those who are looking at not upgrading to Windows 10, but I have just come across the following article. How true this is I don't know! But I thought it would be best to share with everyone!

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/16/10780876/microsoft-windows-support-policy-new-processors-skylake

Cheers

Andy

Their going to frighten people into taking on WIN 10,as for it being the last system that's Bull unless they're going to start charging for all the updates.

It looks like you need to buy spare hardware that is currently Windows 7 friendly if you don't want to use Windows 10. SWMBO's new laptop has come with Windows 10 and she seems to be coping with it. Mind you Ilma is only interested in photos and letters - Paint Shop Pro X7 seems to work OK.
I note that MS has adopted a new approach to get us to upgrade to W10 whereby the displayed message appears to only offer you two options namely either [Upgrade Now] or [Upgrade Tonight]. Ar first glance it looks like you have to upgrade, however you can ignore this by clicking on the cross(X) in the top RH corner! One wonders of course how many users will assume you have to upgrade - it's bordering on being tricked into upgrading.
It this sort of tactic that both irritates and annoys me and deters me from upgrading!

Hi
My friend has recomended that I upgrade to windows 7 is so slugish now he reckons windows 10 will cure this problem,I was wondering what folders do I need to back up,do I need to back up my main MSTS folder,my open rails folder,my convoi folder and train store folder,or can i leave them alone as they are on the c drive,which is where I think widows operating system operates on.
I'm not really clued up about operating systems and where they are located on a PC,all I can remember from my computer operating days,was for microsoft,we had either dos,mvt1 or mvs operating systems

Mike

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi Mike,
I would treat that advice you've been given with a "pinch of salt"!

From my tests with Windows 10, it does show a very slight improvement in frame rates, but that could have been because my Win 10 partition isn't so crowded as my Win 7 one!

Also, if you're using an AMD graphics card, MSTS won't work under Win 10, unless you apply the fix, which I've publicised in another thread (sorry, but I can't locate it at the moment!). There's always the chance that Microsoft and/or AMD will make some changes which will invalidate that fix

Cheers,
Ged

Hi All,

In spite of what I posted some time ago I have taken the plunge and upgraded to W10. The main upgrade went smoothly and having applied the AMD Patch I have a working MSTS, OR and all the necessary extras. I am gradually getting everything set how I want and not necessarily how W10 wants. My biggest problem is that my Cd/DVD drive has vanished completely. It is a LITEON bought in 2011 when the last upgrade was done to install W7 and up till now has been working perfectly. Any thoughts, please?

As far as running MSTS and OR I think the frame rates are about the same but the graphics seem to be slightly better.
Accessing the internet using Google Chrome is vastly better than before, Internet Explorer is still a bit slow but again better than before - I am using Fibre. So far I have had no trouble keeping AVG Free anti virus which I have used ever since I first had the internet.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,
It seems to be quite a common problem with Win 10!
Try here : http://www.intowindows.com/fix-dvd-drive-not-detected-in-windows-8/
Although it's headed Win 8, the actual page shows Windows 8/10

If there's no joy there, try downloading and installing the driver for your DVD drive : http://www.nodevice.com/driver/company/LiteOn/DVD-ROM.html
- only download the driver for your model of drive!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

As ever your knowledge is amazing, I followed the instructions and now I have a working Cd/DVD Drive. THANK YOU - I never know where to start looking with these types of problems.

Thank You again,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the compliment
... but the trick is to know where to look for an answer. Your best friend, in many cases, is Google!! You very kindly included the name of your DVD manufacturer, so I Googled "Liteon DVD drive Win 10", or something like that; several links came up and I passed on the two which I thought would be the most useful to you

Cheers,
Ged

Hi All,
Windows 10 excludes the ability to read SecuRom protected CDs.  Although it affects many products, this post only concerns MSTS add-ons, and is raised as a result of a query appearing in the UKTS Forum.

It is now impossible to install the CD versions of The West Somerset Railway and Severn Valley Railway add-ons into MSTS, so if you are considering converting to Win 10 and have either of those routes, please be prepared!  It is recommended that the route is installed (using an earlier OS, but see below) and then backing up, or zipping, the resulting folders; it's also necessary to backup relevant Registry entries.  The procedure is too lengthy to be included in a "normal" post!

If you'd like to know if a particular CD can be installed into Windows 10, please ask I have numerous add-ons, but haven't checked them all!

Note that since September 2015, Win 7/8/8.1 users, also, are not able to install these routes, but that'll be the subject of a different post - in these cases, the problem can be overcome!

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged,

Running with Windows 10 I tried to install The West Somerset Railway without success as you indicated. I even tried running it in compatability mode for Windows 7 and Windows XP ( service pack 3 ) and again unsuccessful.

One bit of good news is that I successfully installed Bala Hub v4 albeit into a temporary location so as not to upset my current installation. Presumably as this Community Cd works then all the others should.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,
None of the Community CDs are protected in any way, so there won't be any problem installing into Windows 10

When I asked if anybody, contemplating a move to Win 10 would like to know if specific CDs would install, I should have made it clear I was only referring to Commercial CDs!

If you still have access to a pre-Windows 10 PC, I suggest you use it to create a backup of WSR. Rather than backing up a whole installation, it's better to backup just the elements pertinent to WSR, so if you need any help, just ask!

Cheers,
Ged

Thankfully I have West Somerset set up as a Mini Route. However I have a number of commercial routes such as Midland Mainline (MM) which I have never installed! I still do not have W10 but remain on W7 for my MSTS! Will I still be able to install MM on my W7 machine?

Hi,
EB Midland Mainline installs and runs correctly under Windows 10

To specifically answer your question, Alec, it also installs and runs correctly in Windows 7 both before and after the September 2015 update.

Disclaimer :  To check that a route "runs correctly", I have only started one activity and played it for less than 5 minutes.

Cheers,
Ged

Thanks for the reply Ged.

Hi Ged,

Unfortunately I don't have access to a pre W10 PC but as I don't intend to use The West Somerset Route at the moment it isn't a problem.

For those who are interested I installed the following Commercial Routes into Windows 10, again into a temporary location so I wasn't able to test activities etc. The installation was very slow in some of the routes so patience is a virtue.

The routes were:- Nene Valley Railway, Cambrian 2, Great Eastern plus update to Greater Eastern and North Wales Coast plus its update.

Regards,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,
I've found a way to get West Somerset Railway into a Windows 10 MSTS installation

It doesn't involve any dubious websites or hacks, but does have a couple of drawbacks :
(i) As the installer is not used, no Registry entry is created, which means (I think) that the update won't work.
(ii) Also, because the installer isn't used, the few files needed from the MSTS system are not merged into the route. The solution to this is to run Route_Riter, which will report the missing files and copy them into the WSR route, if so requested.

I don't yet know if the same procedure can be used for the Severn Valley Railway but will try it when I've got a decent procedure worked out for WSR.

Stay tuned ...

Cheers,
Ged

Hi,
I have just discovered that, although Microsoft won't be adding the SecuRom/SafeDisk service to Windows 10, there is a way to get these CDs to run.  See here : http://windowsreport.com/cd-games-windows-10/

I'll be checking it out, in particular where to get SECDRV.sys file (although the CDs contain a file of that name!).

Adding this system increases the vulnerability of the PC but, as it's only needed to install a route and not for actually running it, it should be possible to turn it off when it's not required.

Cheers,
Ged

EDIT : I thought we'd got something there, but I can't get it to work!! That doesn't mean it won't work, but I've followed the instructions given, to no avail - sorry, chaps!

Hi All,
It now turns out that Windows 10 itself can be used to enable these add-ons to be installed!

It might only need one download.  I say "might" because I found that my Windows 10 already contained the necessary file, but that could be because it was upgraded from Win 8.1.

I am preparing a "Helpful Facts and Links" post to cover this problem and hope it'll be available later today.

Cheers,
Ged

EDIT : It's now available as : MSTS - Helpful Facts and Links - Part 35 (Unable to install some MSTS Routes from CD)