Trainz Windows Files
- Thread starter DaSnakke
- Start date
AFAIK no files are created outside of the program files folder, however some registry entries are created. Of course, you might have manually stored downloaded files, backups, archived assets, additional documentation etc elsewhere.
Trainz is very unusual in storing all its data files in its program files folder.
John
Trainz is very unusual in storing all its data files in its program files folder.
John
The destruction of the registry entries would be sufficient to cause it to say that.
On the other hand, after reinstalling Windows you would have had to reinstall Trainz which would of course recreate the registry entries so I'm confused. Do you really mean reinstall Windows or some less drastic operation?
John
I really have to reinstall it..I have had this problem with it before..
First, it takes about half an hour for Windows to actually show the entire desktop..pretty odd, since my computer is relatively high-end.( thank god I also have Windows 7, aside XP )
Second, all the drivers went corrupt, thus I don`t have sound, internet, etc.
If there is a way for you to tell me where to find the registry entries that Trainz creates somewhere in Windows, I wound be a happy person.
Regards.:wave:
First, it takes about half an hour for Windows to actually show the entire desktop..pretty odd, since my computer is relatively high-end.( thank god I also have Windows 7, aside XP )
Second, all the drivers went corrupt, thus I don`t have sound, internet, etc.
If there is a way for you to tell me where to find the registry entries that Trainz creates somewhere in Windows, I wound be a happy person.
Regards.:wave:
Only an expert would be sure of listing all the registry entries. You could try searching for words such as auran, trainz, etc but that might not find them all.
Have you done a full check for viruses, rootkits and other malware?
Provided you clear down absolutely everything including the system partition and rebuild from nothing then when you get to that stage the Trainz reinstallation will create new registry entries.
John
Have you done a full check for viruses, rootkits and other malware?
Provided you clear down absolutely everything including the system partition and rebuild from nothing then when you get to that stage the Trainz reinstallation will create new registry entries.
John
shamrock2002
Member
To the best of my knowledge there are two registry keys that you would need to export from regedit if you wish to restore trainz :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Auran
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Auran
I imagine there will also be a number of entries in HKEY>CLASSES>ROOT that maintain the file associations for .cdp files and .cmpa files and the trainz:// protocol for downloading files from the download station directly into Content Manager. There may be some others in there too... I'm not entirely sure.
One way to rescue your existing trainz install if you really have to reinstall windows though is to follow the steps below:
1. If you keep TRS on C: drive, backup the entire TRS folder first because the only way to properly reinstall windows is to format C: drive. You will obviously lose everything on C: drive by doing this. If you keep TRS on a separate partition (say under E:\Games) then rename your existing TRS folder by adding .old to the end of the foldername (you may be wondering why but this will become clear in a moment!)
2. Reinstall Windows as you normally would, along with whatever drivers, patches and updates you need.
3. Reinstall TRS to your chosen location. This will recreate all the required registry entries as John mentioned before. Remember to turn off your anti-virus first!
4. Once you have reinstalled and patched this new TRS installation back to the same build number as before (this is important - it must be the same build number for this work properly), rename this folder by adding .new to the foldername.
5. This step is the key to succesfully restoring your old TRS installation. Restore the backup you took in step 1 to the same location you just installed TRS to. Windows should not prompt you to replace/over-write the existing folder, as you have just renamed it to move it out of the way in step 4. If you installed TRS to a different partition and renamed the folder in step 1, simply rename that .old folder back to the same foldername you just chose to install TRS to.
Remember, when you install trainz, it creates a number of registry entries based on whatever folder and pathname you chose to install TRS to. The basic goal is to get your existing installation of trainz back into that same location after reinstalling windows. I have used this method a number of times to quickly restore all of my 20gb of content, and it can also be easily adapted to run the one copy of TRS on a multi-boot system, keeping the same content available in each installation of Windows you may have.
Cheers - Brian
HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Auran
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Software>Auran
I imagine there will also be a number of entries in HKEY>CLASSES>ROOT that maintain the file associations for .cdp files and .cmpa files and the trainz:// protocol for downloading files from the download station directly into Content Manager. There may be some others in there too... I'm not entirely sure.
One way to rescue your existing trainz install if you really have to reinstall windows though is to follow the steps below:
1. If you keep TRS on C: drive, backup the entire TRS folder first because the only way to properly reinstall windows is to format C: drive. You will obviously lose everything on C: drive by doing this. If you keep TRS on a separate partition (say under E:\Games) then rename your existing TRS folder by adding .old to the end of the foldername (you may be wondering why but this will become clear in a moment!)
2. Reinstall Windows as you normally would, along with whatever drivers, patches and updates you need.
3. Reinstall TRS to your chosen location. This will recreate all the required registry entries as John mentioned before. Remember to turn off your anti-virus first!
4. Once you have reinstalled and patched this new TRS installation back to the same build number as before (this is important - it must be the same build number for this work properly), rename this folder by adding .new to the foldername.
5. This step is the key to succesfully restoring your old TRS installation. Restore the backup you took in step 1 to the same location you just installed TRS to. Windows should not prompt you to replace/over-write the existing folder, as you have just renamed it to move it out of the way in step 4. If you installed TRS to a different partition and renamed the folder in step 1, simply rename that .old folder back to the same foldername you just chose to install TRS to.
Remember, when you install trainz, it creates a number of registry entries based on whatever folder and pathname you chose to install TRS to. The basic goal is to get your existing installation of trainz back into that same location after reinstalling windows. I have used this method a number of times to quickly restore all of my 20gb of content, and it can also be easily adapted to run the one copy of TRS on a multi-boot system, keeping the same content available in each installation of Windows you may have.
Cheers - Brian
It's just MRU's (most recently used list) and file association and uninstall info that's stored in the registry, none of which are needed to get it to work.
You don't actually have to reinstall assuming the Trainz folder exists say on a drive other than C or whatever is the system drive or you have saved it somewhere that isn't going to get wiped out by a reinstall of Windows.......
If you browse to trainz.exe and click on it, it will run, you can set up the shortcuts manually (right click on trainz.exe > send to > desktop) and also associate cdp's with CM2 if needed (right click on any cdp file > open with > browse to Auran/bin/ContentManager.exe and tick always open with).
MRU's and location will get added back into the registry the first time you launch Trainz, the uninstaller in the trainz folder should you need to, will work from there as it won't show up in add remove programs or the Vista / Win7 equivalent although if it was never installed to start with a simple delete achieves the same thing, looks like as with 99% of Windows programs it doesn't remove registry entries anyway. CCleaner however will do that job nicely.
For info......
You can actually copy Trainz from one PC to another or to another folder on the same PC where it is installed without actually installing it, just add the shortcut, call it say Trainz2 or Trainz backup. This method also works well if running Trainz in Linux with Wine.
You can also use a backup program to keep both versions in synch in case you mess one up or a patch doesn't work as expected, copying is a heck of a lot quicker than reinstall and re adding / committing Content
Also if, as I do you run multiboot systems you can have one copy of Trainz and use different OS's on the same PC.
For example I have Trainz installed on it's own drive and set up to run from XP, or Win7 with no problems and another set up to run with a couple of Linux OS's and XP.
Note that file association will only work for one copy per OS.
Malc
Hello!
Thanks everyone for the info, much appreciated.
I`ve came up with an ideea and I want to share it with you, just to see your point of view.
What if (assuming I`ve reinstalled Windows) I copy the contents of the older Trainz`s Local and Editing folders into the new Trainz`s specific folders? Then detele assets.bku and assets.tdx and force Trainz to rebuild its database. It will then recognize all the content that I`ve copied.
I`m 99% sure this will work, but I want to see your oppinions too.
Thanks everyone for the info, much appreciated.
I`ve came up with an ideea and I want to share it with you, just to see your point of view.
What if (assuming I`ve reinstalled Windows) I copy the contents of the older Trainz`s Local and Editing folders into the new Trainz`s specific folders? Then detele assets.bku and assets.tdx and force Trainz to rebuild its database. It will then recognize all the content that I`ve copied.
I`m 99% sure this will work, but I want to see your oppinions too.
Last edited:
shamrock2002
Member
I've never actually tried that myself, but I can't see a reason why that wouldn't work.
The main reason I suggested renaming the folders, is that moving or copying the local folder's contents can be quite time consuming if you have alot of downloaded dependancies. Renaming the top level TRS folder is very quick because everything just "falls" into place once you've renamed it. Of course, now that I think about it, if there's something in your old trainz folder that is causing a problem, you're only going to bring that problem across to the new installation, but I've never experienced that myself.
Cheers - Brian
The main reason I suggested renaming the folders, is that moving or copying the local folder's contents can be quite time consuming if you have alot of downloaded dependancies. Renaming the top level TRS folder is very quick because everything just "falls" into place once you've renamed it. Of course, now that I think about it, if there's something in your old trainz folder that is causing a problem, you're only going to bring that problem across to the new installation, but I've never experienced that myself.
Cheers - Brian