Ok, first of all, excuse my English.

I found a way to run EiB in Vista.

Starforce doesn't let you install the game in Vista, but if you still dualboot your system with XP, all you need to do is install both games under XP, then copy bia.exe from C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Gearbox Software\BrothersInArms\System to C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Gearbox Software\EarnedInBlood\System .

You don't even have to rename the file, because bia.exe is capable of running EiB from its original DVD. Just copy bia.exe into your EiB \System folder to bypass Starforce protection.

If it doesn't work for you, there IS still another way to make this game work, but I'm not supposed to tell you in this forum, as it is not a legit method. If you are still interested, and I bet you are because you PAID for a game you cannot play as I did, you can contact me directly, my e-mail is lmtalina@msn.com

Just for the record, I have BOTH games legit and also Windows Vista Ultimate legit, but I didn't have XP installed in my computer anymore, so I had to go through the "unlegit" process to make the game run.

I hope it works for you as it worked for me. It IS a great game but WE, legit owners, weren't able to make this game run in Vista so far because Ubisoft seems to be too busy to please their consumers.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: leotalina,

I can confirm this works. I just copied the exe from the Road to Hill 30 system directory over into the Earned in Blood system directory. You do need the Road to Hill 30 DVD in the drive though.

great what about if you dont have XP or hill30?
im not going to be forced to buy either just to get a game i paid for to work.. there must be some other solution.. amazon states that bia works with vista too. fooled me.

Yeah, Ubi/Gearbox need to get with the play and release a patched eib.exe so we can install it properly.

It's not the Starforce drivers per se, as these can be installed manually.

As our fiddling with bia.exe has proved, there is NO reason that EIB can't run on Vista other than the launcher/installer.

This has also proved that Ubi technical support have made no effort at all to investigate this and are just hiding behind a parroted "It's Vista's/starforce's fault not ours"

Sorry, if your game installer is so badly written that it won't work at all on Vista (when without exception, every other piece of software I own works fine) then you have an obligation to your paying customers to fix it.

Just bought the game and am disgusted it wont work with Vista.
Bad form, very bad form!

Yeah, that's what I feel to: I'm very disgusted that this game doesn't work on Vista. I hate that fu**ing OS!!

Can't you just copy the EiB files to the harddrive and then just put the BiA.exe file along with them? I can't install it because I don't have XP. So what's the unlegit way to make it work? I sent you a mail, but you're not answering

You probably can copy the files straight off the EIB DVD, but they have to be unpacked as they are in a compressed format on the DVD. If you look over on the Gearbox forums, I recall someone posting a batch script that fixed broken RTH30 installs by re-copying and expanding the files. This shouldn't be too hard to modify...
You'll still need the RTH30 DVD and bia.exe tho.

Have a look at this thread...there's a link at the end to the batch file for rth30 that could possibly be modified.

(Note: this is not a crack or anything like that, just a potential way of getting the files off the EIB DVD onto Vista. You still need a legit RTH30 disk).

http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=64768&page=5

I haven't got XP either. There must be a crack or patch that some clever person can figure out
I too have been in touch with Ubisoft and got the standard reply
"There are no plans to release any further patches for this game. The game is only supported for the operating systems listed in the minimum requirements section on the bottom of the box."

hello my name is dan.
ive just got brothers in arms earned in blood and its not instaling.
ive re on here that there is a way of doing it. my computer skills are not that good and was hoping that someone had a step to step to help me get round theproblem

hope this helps haven't tried it yet

This installer will only work if you own both EiB and RtH30 and is to install EiB.

1) Download this zip file and extract the 3 files to a folder called Earned in Blood. This can be anywhere, mine was D:\Games\Earned in Blood\

2) Insert the Earned in Blood DVD and cancel the autorun popup.

3) Browse to the folder you extracted the zip file to and Double Click CopyEiB_DVD.bat

4) When prompted, enter the drive letter of the DVD Rom with the EiB DVD in it.

5) Type y to confirm that you entered the correct drive letter.

6) Loads of files will start copying from your EiB DVD. Once they are all copied you will be asked to insert the Road to Hill 30 DVD

7) Insert the RtH30 DVD and cancel the autorun popup

8) Click on the command window that was copying all your files and press any key

9) Browse to the directory you extracted the zip file to and go into the System directory.

10) Double Click the bia.exe to play EiB
(Note : Don't swap the DVDs back over, you will need to keep the RtH30 DVD in the drive in order to play)

the above fix works. if you have the cd version of the game, you might need to put it on dvd first, though. that's what i did, anyway. now the game plays just fine for me on vista 32. good luck!!

An alternative and much neater way imo (allows you to play online, whereas the OP's method may not)

Get Vista Service Pack 1 RC from Microsoft's site, just do a search for "Vista Service Pack" and install it.

Then the normal installer for EiB should work fine.

After it is installed, and when running the game for the first time, something will come up stating "Game protection" and asking you to restart the computer. DO NOT RESTART IT, this is important, otherwise your vista installation will stuff up. First update your star-force driver from http://www.star-force.com/support/drivers/. Then you may restart it.

Try running EiB after the reboot, for me it did not run and I only got a blank screen. I had to run it in window mode, to do this: Open the EiB.ini file with notepad in your EiB installation folder/System and find the line StartupFullscreen=True under [WinDrv.WindowsClient] and change it to StartupFullscreen=False
Then save the file and quit notepad.

Now try running BiA again, it should run (but in windowed mode). Create a profile etc. and go to options, video, and set your resolution to your monitors native one (for me it was 1280x1024). Click apply, then quit out of the game.

Open eib.ini again and find [WinDrv.WindowsClient] Directly under it are the lines:
WindowedViewportX=1280
WindowedViewportY=1024
and below those lines are:
FullscreenViewportX=800
FullscreenViewportY=600
Although the values may differ, change the values to match those of WindowedViewportX and WindowedViewportY.
Example: If the lines were
WindowedViewportX=1600
WindowedViewportY=1200
change the next two lines to
FullscreenViewportX=1600
FullscreenViewportY=1200
Basically, they should equal your native resolution.

Then change StartupFullscreen=False to StartupFullscreen=True
Now you should be able to run EiB in fullscreen.

I know this might seem pretty complicated, but trust me it's easy (I'm just not great at explaining stuff) and we need more people online! So spread the word!

quote:

canadaexile2007

Many thanks game is working perfect and the afore mentitioned file can be found here (http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7961032962/m/6141012306) thanks to this person too, as the famous A team quote goes I love it when a plan comes together.

Well I have EiB loading from my hard drive as I had copied the file there, Vista automaticaly unpacked the files. First though I installed the service pack1 sc or cs for vista and now it has finished loading I will try to play. I will let you know if it does play.

Well it tries to start but it has Starforce protection which is blocked due to being incompatible, the search for an answer goes on.

so I followed one of the suggestions at the front of this discussion of puting the bia.exe into the eib system folder and it works. So if you get the SP1sc or cs forget which one it is but there is juat the one with that name. There are instructions to follow on the MS Vista update page.

Hejj guys! I don't really know now which "solutions" are working. I have Windows Vista, but no XP on the same PC. I also haven't got RtH30. Can you tell me a way to install this game on vista, or is there just the reason on the top of this discussion? Because I even can't install EiB! Please help me and tell me a way how I could install it! Sry for my bad english ! Thanks to all!

If you are considering upgrading Vista to SP1, just be aware that what is currently available is a Release Candidate.

The official release of Vista SP1 is around 15 Feb. If you have the RC installed then you will have to remove it before installing the 'real' release version of SP1.

It may not make much difference, but Beta's(even RC's) often are slowed down by debug code, so you are probably better waiting for RTM..

BIA Earned In Blood will work on Vista Service Pack 1 out of the box. I've tested this on SP1 RTM build 6001, it works as it should without the need for any workarounds.

Be patient, by the time you all get SP1 installed you will find it works fine.