BF2S Forums euro force win xp only?

what about windows 3.1?  i still use it...will that work?

dackel wrote:

imo there are a hell of a lot people using 2000 even in bf2.

Thats because they are using machines which suck..

People need to get with the times and get out of 1999

Lots of people that use 2k built there PCs and instead of paying  $100 - $200 buck for an OS we use 2K for free. At least that's why I use it.

I have to agree.  Your OS has exactly zero to do with the quality of your machine.  Personally I try to stay about 1 OS behind whatever MS is currently pushing.  That way you are using an OS with fewer bugs that is typically far more stable.  BF2 plays fine on my W2K system.  I sent a rather heated message to EA regarding this issue with their downloader.  I'll let you know if they respond with anything half way logical.  If they won't make it W2K compatible I want them to tell us that they won't do it because they don't want our money.  I won't buy EF until I can download it onto my w2k machine.  I'm not going to jump thru hoops just because someone at EA is lacking enough brain power to figure out that they are only going to make more money by making the dowloader compatible with more OS's.

well, I just finished the download, canceled the installation and burned the relevant folder on a cd. Now it's off to my Win2000 rig for installation. thx to dackel and everyone who helped out.

EA won't change their downloader.  It would take too much effort for them to change:
if( os != xp ) {
giveLameMessage();
}
to:
/*
if( os != xp ){
giveLameMessage(); 
}
*/

The problem is not with EF or the actual OS as most have already stated.  It's a problem where EA does a check in the beginning to make sure you're running XP.  If you aren't, they simply don't care.  This happened with the BF2 editor as well...I emailed them about it and they told me, roughly, "Tough shit, upgrade your system."  I have no idea if they eventually changed it or not, as I gave up and didn't bother ever checking back on it.

well, whatever EA's motivation was not to allow the downloader to work with Win2000, it sure had nothing to do with customer support.

Doesn't matter much, since there is a way to get EF running on a Win2000 rig. I tried it yesterday and it worked exactly as dackel and others have described.

one remark. it is better to first register you CD-Key on the EA downloader homepage. Together with the key, you will be asked to specify the BF2 account name you want to "brand" EF to. As I have only one account in the game, that was an easy one

The URL where to register your CD-Key is specified on the small Leaflet that's inside the Box ( yes, I did buy it in a store here in germany, lucky me ).

Then, upon downloading the Downloader itself, you will be asked to either log on to EA with your EA account or create a new one. This is just for the downloader/EA homepage and has nothing to do with the account name you use in BF2. I had already registered an account with EA when buying BF2, so I used that ( surprisingly, it was still there, although I had registered months ago and never really used it ).

Install the Downloader and log on. When you registered "your" CD-Key with EA correctly, EF will now appear in the list of "My Downloads".

File size is around 352 mb, and it got it in just under 30 minutes, which is not too bad

The first steps of the installation are done from within the downloader. During those operations, the downloader simply creates a cache file on your HD which contains the Booster. Continue until the installation screen in Windows comes up. Then click "cancel".

You can now go to the cache folder and burn that on a CD. the cache folder is located here: C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Downloader\cache\"Downloaderusername"

In there is a folder called. eagamesbf2-2006...... Burn that folder to a CD. take the cd to your Win2000 rig.

Inside the folder, there is a Setup.exe. Run that on your Win2000 rig.

that's it. worked perfectly for me last night. thx to dackel and staticblue.

PS: a nice side effect of the process is that you actually get a cd to put inside that EF Box. Provided you got the retail version, of course..

_j5689_ wrote:

How the the fuck could you not know that BF2 ONLY works on XP?

Because those of us that actually know what we're talking about know that BF2 _does_ work on non XP operating systems.  If you'd read anything posted above, you'd know that the standard BF2 installs and works on 2000 perfectly, so please don't act like an asshole when you have no idea what you're talking about.  It's the EA Donwloader that has a problem, NOT BF2 / Euro Forces.

_j5689_ wrote:

How the the fuck could you not know that BF2 ONLY works on XP?

I'm guessing he's under the age of 13 and just likes to talk "grown up" and actually thinks he knows something.

K1OVERDOSE wrote:

To all who care, Windows in comming out with there VISTA engine.  Which will be totally different than even XP.  You should be able to change over running all the same software (except some repair packages, i.e. CCleaner, etc...) 

I understand you don't want to be on the bleeding edge of technology bur, let me ask a quick question -->
 
                                       1.05+51,234.253/43560.124 = x  or  x/5.01+1.23=960.56   
                             
                                       ??????? WOULD YOU DO THIS MATH ON AN ABACUS??????

Perhaps once Vista is officially out I will look into upgrading to XP. 

MightyMet wrote:

_j5689_ wrote:

How the the fuck could you not know that BF2 ONLY works on XP?

I'm guessing he's under the age of 13 and just likes to talk "grown up" and actually thinks he knows something.

I'm guessing you should go fuck yourself.

dubbs wrote:

(Correct me if I am wrong, but M$ does not even support any of their operating systems before 2000/XP.)

I will. There seems to be a lot of misinformation here concerning the OS's that MS still supports. Being from a software company I think I have a decent grasp on that issue at least since we are required to support all OS's that MS supports. And currently that includes Win98.

From Microsoft:
Windows 98/ME: July 11, 2006 will bring a close to Extended Support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me as part of the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy. Microsoft will retire public and technical support, including security updates, by this date.

Windows2000: On June 30, 2005, the Windows 2000 product family enters the Extended Support phase, which continues for at least 5 years through June 2010.

_j5689_ wrote:

It didn't work when I first tried to install it on Windows 2003.  Then again, it's just a crappy unsupported server OS.  XP is much better than 2003 anyway so i'm happy.

What is Win2003?  Never heard of it.  I was running Win2K (got it for free) when I first built my computer, but couldn't get Half Life and a bunch of other games to run on it, so I got a WinXP home 'upgrade' and found a use for my old Win98 CD!