Drama Professor & Met Self Fix

[syberspunk]

Uh. I don't think it will look into Shared Documents at all, unless you purposefully told the game to look there somehow, and I don't even know how that would be possible. Maybe it is possible to change this during the install setup? But I just assumed that the install setup only let's you choose where you install the game files...

I use WindowsXP and so does my sister. If you use the default settings for installing your game, then keeping separate accounts should work. I have a separate account from my sister on her computer where I use the no20khandout and expensive type hacks, which she doesn't want. So I am 100% sure it keeps them separate. I also was keeping a Legacy Challenge account, where I only keep critical fixes, and then a few odds and ends that "fix" annoying crap that I just can't bare to deal with. But I removed things that make the game alot easier, like macrotastics and all it's plugins. Again, this works perfectly on my own computer. I also keep a separate account for Hack Testing, which is pratically empty of hacks, except the specific ones that I am testing.

So... having separate accounts on WindowsXP should allow you to maintain different types of hacks on each account. If you are having problems with this, then I would make sure you are in fact logged in as a different user. That your two separate sets of hacks are in their respective Downloads folder under each separate user name account. I think I read once that someone noticed you can actually stick hacks in other folders, not just Downloads, and the game will manage to still read it in. So make sure all of your hacks are under:

C:\Documents and Settings\USER NAME\My Documents\EA Games\Downloads

AND it is NOT under any folder within the

C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 <whatever is your latest expansion>\

directory tree. If you have any hacks under any of those folders, maybe the game is reading them and making them "globally" active for all users on your computer.

I doubt that the game would actually be "smart" enough to check the Shared Documents folder. Reason being... whenever you create a new user... and  then launch the game, it creates a new EA Games folder under the current logged in user's My Documents directory tree. But it never creates an EA Games folder under Shared Documents. So I just don't think Maxis EA would have been that clever. Otherwise it definitely would be more convenient and cut down on maintenace of custom content across several accounts if the game actually did do that. That just seems far to functional and logical.

Of course I'll be eatin crow when it turns out to be true. But anyhew, I find it hard to believe that having separate accounts doesn't work when it seems to for just about everyone else. The only type of hacks that I know work "globally" on a single computer affecting all accounts are ones that change the core files. Which makes sense, because those are typically under the Program Files directory tree, which is accessed by all accounts.

Also... I think for most general users, who buy their computers retail and get WinXP preloaded, it is mostly likely I think the Home version, which does not seem to provide any form of group or specific user type permissions. Although the article dizzy linked to shows how to set them, on my machine (unless it is just disabled and maybe you have to do something else to enable the Security tab stuff? ) when I check the properties of a folder, there is no Security tab. There is a Sharing tab, which just lets you share folders completely or read only. But I see no way to specify a user or password for protection.

Ste

[Sleepycat]

make sure you didn't put anything in the "Shared Documents" ea games/sims 2 folder and as JM said log out and switch users

Wait, TS2 will look in "shared documents" EAGAME~1/THESIM~1/ also? So you can have something in multiple profiles without duplicating it? Sounds like you can put all the critical fixes there, then.

well I've never actually tried it, figured sharing usually means just that but of course this is windows and EA so... 

[jrd]

Silly Ste. Close your tags.

[Venusy]

Just tried placing some non-Awesome objects in All Users\Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads, and they didn't show up in the Buy Mode catalogue. So no, TS2 does not appear to read the shared documents folder.

EDIT: The "EA GAMES\The Sims 2" folder was already created, but the Downloads folder wasn't.

[RainbowTigress]

Ste, your tag is open. 

[syberspunk]

Whoops! How embarassing! I got caught with me knickers down and me tag out. Heh. That's what I get for posting like 5 in the morning when I really should have been sleeping 5 hours before then.

Venusy, that is odd, because I am fairly certain that my Shared Documents folder did not have an EA Games folder by default. Nor did my sister's computer. I could be wrong... but I thought the EA Games folder was created only when you actually run the game on the account you are logged in as. For example, if you create a new user, and just log on, they would have all the default folders that WindowsXP creates (My Music, My Pictures, etc.) but the EA Games folder shouldn't be there yet, no? Only after you start the game while logged into the new account, that the game creates that folder, the subfolders, and directories. Since all user accounts have access to the Shared Documents folder, I would imagine that it would try to create a folder, if it already didn't exist, in there each time you start the game on a new account. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't. I could be wrong. And even if it did... since it can't read cc from there, why would it create those folders?

If I'm not too lazy, maybe I'll attempt this sometime later. I am really curious if it does create those folders in the shared area, and whether or not it would actually have a purpose.

Ste

[RainbowTigress]

I just checked my Shared Documents folder on both PCs, and there is an EA Games/The Sims 2 folder.  I think I noticed that before, but I couldn't figure out why it was there and never really thought about it again.  I don't really use the Shared Documents folder much.

[jrd]

For some inane reason TS2 will create EA Games/The Sims 2 in Shared Docs when it runs. Probably just some bad coding by EAMaxis.

[syberspunk]

Hrm... that is really weird. I was pretty sure that I had to create the EA Games folder in my Shared Documents area myself. I was using it to store downloaded hacks and random stuff. I also use it as the area for my SimPE Includes, so that I can easily get to that area in one click (rather than drilling down thru Program Files). Hrm... maybe I just imagined it. Or maybe I deleted the folder a long time ago and then recreated it? I wonder if you delete the folder, does the game try to recreate it?

Ste

[V]

After reading your replies about this I went back and checked. She does have a Downloads folder in her game and it has all my downloads up to but not including the Pets updates.

But she does not have the InSIM in her Downloads folder anywhere. It is also nowhere to be found on the "Kids' Side" of my computer. The only place the computer can find anything with "InSIM*.*" in the file name is on my side in its proper subfolder.


Now, I can admit to the possibility that I may have forgotten about giving her a copy of my downloads folder at some point earlier this month … but I do know that her dogs have been peeing reproduction adjusters and she has recently asked me about some of the InSIM commands that show up in some of her pie menus.

So does anyone have any idea how her side is finding it on my side in a subfolder of my Downloads folder?

Are you sure you remembered to logout and switch users properly?

She usually starts playing her game after a full system reboot since her turn is right after my autistic son's turn and he uses a lot of background programs and plays recorded videos on several different video playing programs at the same time. Sims 2 doesn't run very well after all that without a reboot. So I am usually not logged in at all. If I give her a chance to play while I am logged in... well, there is only one way to get to the Kids side and that is to log off... switch users. At least that is the only way that I know of. But, as I mentioned, I am usually logged off completely and not even running in the background.

[eamethyst]

I also share a computer with a sister who plays Sims (I often regret showing her how to get started).  We have seperate logins and seperate games.  I couldn't play this game if I was constantly worried that she would get into my neighborhoods and mess up all my hard work.  Our computer runs Windows XP.

And I'd like to know more about the Shared Documents folders.  It would save me time if I could put the mods we both use into 1 location instead of 2 different folders. I got excited about the possibility of streamlining my updating and didn't even realize there was a second page to this post.  Please ignore.

[Sleepycat]

After reading your replies about this I went back and checked. She does have a Downloads folder in her game and it has all my downloads up to but not including the Pets updates.

But she does not have the InSIM in her Downloads folder anywhere. It is also nowhere to be found on the "Kids' Side" of my computer. The only place the computer can find anything with "InSIM*.*" in the file name is on my side in its proper subfolder.

I don't know how organized your Downloads folders are but is it possible that there is a copy of InSIM in her downloads that is named with a string of numbers - recently many people are finding out they do have copys they didn't know they had so I thought I would mention it.

Also, under properties when you right click on my docs/ea games/sims 2 folder, there is a sharing tab, under that there is an option to make that folder private, might be worth a try.

[syberspunk]

Hrm that is odd. What you could do then, if it is a renamed dupe with a hexstring, you could stick a copy of the insimenator in the kids folder. Then scan the folder with the pheverstool and then sort by MD5. If you have a dupe of the InSim, you will see one line that is pink. Then just delete both copies (that have the same MD5) from your kids folder. I hope that helps.

Ste

[V]

I will have to check out these possibilities when I get "my turn" again in a few hours. Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into it. I would like to have some hacks available to me and NOT her! So if I can be sure they won't "bleed over" or whatever then I will feel much better about having a more "grown-up" version on my side.

[Sleepycat]

I will have to check out these possibilities when I get "my turn" again in a few hours. Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into it. I would like to have some hacks available to me and NOT her! So if I can be sure they won't "bleed over" or whatever then I will feel much better about having a more "grown-up" version on my side.

1 way to test would be to move your downloads folder to your desktop, log off and switch to her desktop, fire up her game and see if InSIM is there. If it is then you know for sure that it is somewhere in her my doc/ea games/sims 2 folder.


If for some reason it is reading your downloads folder then - You could always make subfolders for those items you wish to use (but don't want in her game) and pull those folders out when your done playing and move them back in before you play, bit of a pain but atleast then you wouldn't have to worry about it.

[kuronue]

Did you install the multiple user accounts after installing the game? I remember last time I had a shared computer, granted it was windows 98, we had multiple accounts that we added in later. Everything created and downloaded prior to creating the user accounts showed up for all three. Maybe when you made her account it copied your My Documents folders for her for some reason?

[V]

Did you install the multiple user accounts after installing the game? I remember last time I had a shared computer, granted it was windows 98, we had multiple accounts that we added in later. Everything created and downloaded prior to creating the user accounts showed up for all three. Maybe when you made her account it copied your My Documents folders for her for some reason?

No, I already had the system set up before I started installing programs. I am using XP and it has been at least three months since my last reformatting of my hard drive.

I notice that "All Users" and "Default User" folder groups each have an EA games folder, but those folders are all empty. I wonder if the computer auto sets up any subsequent users based on the original user's game... I mean,

1. I install the game, move my neighborhoods and not yet updated download folders into position
2. I launch the game for the first time and play
3. I exit and log off of my side.
4. My daughter logs into her side and launches the game
5. The game goes looking for the setup files and pulls everything in my EA folder for use on her side... except for neighborhoods and saved sims...?

That doesn't seem very sensible. She definitely does not have access to my neighborhoods. She has all new basic three neighborhoods, tutorial and the neighborhood that she created. But she also has the downloads folder that was last updated on 9/26/06.

My downloads folder was not terribly organized prior to the Pets update. I had everything in "downloads" because I did not know that I could use subfolders. In fact I thought that subfolders did not work. So before the update I had Insim in my downloads folder. Since the update I moved it to its own special folder so I could find it to remove it when they get their update done.

She did not have access to insim prior to the update, I am pretty sure. And I still have not found it, though I have not done the comprehensive search for the program that will help me identify which of those number strings equal Insim. I did use Sims2Pack Clean Installer to look for it on the Kids side and it claims that InSim is right there for anyone to see. It did not tell me which one of the files is actually the one I am looking for. (I have no idea if that makes any sense or not. Suffice it to say that I still don't see it written out plainly and I haven't given up looking for it.)

1 way to test would be to move your downloads folder to your desktop, log off and switch to her desktop, fire up her game and see if InSIM is there. If it is then you know for sure that it is somewhere in her my doc/ea games/sims 2 folder.


If for some reason it is reading your downloads folder then - You could always make subfolders for those items you wish to use (but don't want in her game) and pull those folders out when your done playing and move them back in before you play, bit of a pain but atleast then you wouldn't have to worry about it.

That is actually a very good idea and, yes a bit of a pain, but not so much a pain it wouldn't be feasible.

I still would like to solve the mystery, just for curiosity's sake, but there are certainly quite a few good workable ideas. Thanks!

[SimMoon]

Thanks for the drama fix JM. Don't know what I'd do without you.
SimMoon

[syberspunk]

She did not have access to insim prior to the update, I am pretty sure. And I still have not found it, though I have not done the comprehensive search for the program that will help me identify which of those number strings equal Insim. I did use Sims2Pack Clean Installer to look for it on the Kids side and it claims that InSim is right there for anyone to see. It did not tell me which one of the files is actually the one I am looking for. (I have no idea if that makes any sense or not. Suffice it to say that I still don't see it written out plainly and I haven't given up looking for it.)

Just in case you weren't aware, by default, S2PCI scans the downloads folder of the account you re logged into. I only mention this, not because I think you don't know any better, but only because I myself have done stupid things like scanning a directory that I thought was another account only to find out later it wasn't. Heh.

Anyhew, while you are logged into the Kids account and you run S2PCI, and InSim actually shows up in the list. You won't have to know the actual hexstring filename, you can just right click on it and delete/remove it. Then, just to be sure, quit from S2PCI and then launch it and scan again. InSim shouldn't show up on the list anymore.

Ste

[V]

Just in case you weren't aware, by default, S2PCI scans the downloads folder of the account you re logged into. I only mention this, not because I think you don't know any better, but only because I myself have done stupid things like scanning a directory that I thought was another account only to find out later it wasn't. Heh.

   I didn't know that for sure, but I suspected it, so I did use it from the kids side. Thanks for confirming.

Anyhew, while you are logged into the Kids account and you run S2PCI, and InSim actually shows up in the list. You won't have to know the actual hexstring filename, you can just right click on it and delete/remove it. Then, just to be sure, quit from S2PCI and then launch it and scan again. InSim shouldn't show up on the list anymore.
Ste

This is good to know. I ended up putting all the files that were weirdly named into a new sub-folder of Downloads called "Unknown" and then put InSim in that folder also, on purpose (don't ask me why, it seemed like a good idea at midnight). When it showed up twice as "Insim" in S2PCI then I put my real Insim back where it belonged and deleted all those nonsense files since they were clearly things I did not want. I did not know that I could delete them from S2PCI so that will save me a step next time.

Thanks to everyone for your input regarding this issue. I still don't know why or how it happened, but it is fixed now and my 6 year old now believes that microwaves make you pregnant.... this should be a fun year for her, hee hee hee.

[RainbowTigress]

LOL, that's a new one...babies come from microwaves!  You just cook them for 30 seconds, and presto, a baby!  LOL