Curse

jordanb1992y · Mar 28, 2012, 10:22 PM // 22:22

I purchased Guild Wars off of Steam this morning and downloaded it in Steam Library and now have to download it to computer im guessing. So when i hit the GW icon on desktop, it asks for me to pick a place to install it in my comp, and when i do it pops up with "UNABLE TO INSTALL; THE INSTALLER COULD NOT WRITE GW TO THE SPECIFIED DIRECTORY...." What can i do? i've already done everything it suggests to do.

enter_the_zone · Mar 28, 2012, 10:23 PM // 22:23

Run Steam and the installer as an administrator

jordanb1992y · Mar 28, 2012, 10:42 PM // 22:42

Yeah the account i use is the administrative account, i have enough space, and i have the required authorization to install.

shoesbags · Mar 28, 2012, 10:51 PM // 22:51

You still need an NCsoft account to play, right? Download the client from the Guild Wars website here and see if you can install it. Right click -> Run as Administrator just in case

Haggis of Doom · Mar 28, 2012, 10:55 PM // 22:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by shoesbags

You still need an NCsoft account to play, right?

Pretty sure you don't need that.

@OP

Doing the operations on an Administrator account does not qualify as "Run as Administrator" (crazy huh). You have to go to the properties of the exe files involved and enable the option. It's at the bottom of the Compatibility tab.

jordanb1992y · Mar 28, 2012, 11:15 PM // 23:15

I went to the GW exe files and compatibility tab, but all that is listed is "run this program in capatibility for..", "run in 256 colors", "Disable visual themes", and :turn off advanced text services"

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By the way, im running Windows XP

Haggis of Doom · Mar 29, 2012, 12:06 AM // 00:06

Hmm it's been a while since I've run XP... try this and see if it helps.

Also, do you have any similar issues with other Steam games?

jordanb1992y · Mar 29, 2012, 12:20 AM // 00:20

No actually, I have no problems with any other games, Steam run or not. And yeah i was looking into that earlier, the only problem is that when i click to run as admin, it comes up with an error saying "The service can not be started, either because it is disabled, or has no enabled devices associated with it". So i looked into this and it led me to Control Panel/ Administrative Tools/ Services, and there a lot of people resolved the problem by simply enabling the program, problem is, Guild Wars nor anything with Steam is there.

Bristlebane · Mar 29, 2012, 01:22 AM // 01:22

Try run setup as administrator, it will probably solve the problem.

Haggis of Doom · Mar 29, 2012, 02:28 AM // 02:28

You can try and see whether the access to the installation folder is restricted (though I've only ever experienced this with Vista/Win7; doubt this is the problem since your Steam runs fine). Follow these steps upon your GW installation folder, likely somewhere in Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common.

If all else fails you may try downloading the GW client directly from GW.com, if bandwidth permits. The access key(s) Steam gave you do not need to be used with Steam.

You may want to create an NCSoft master account (not to be confused with the NCSoft Launcher, which is a downloadable application) and link your GW account to it for easier access to Support.

jordanb1992y · Mar 29, 2012, 07:51 PM // 19:51

I followed the steps and that didnt work. But i went to the second link you sent me and i just tried to download the free trial to see what would happen, and it did the same exact thing as installing the real game. I dont know what else to do now, i think its just something with my computer and guild wars, not like all the steam files or anything, but im really not sure.

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i sent an email to the Guild Wars Support Team. Hopefully they can help too!

Frangeo Munda · Mar 29, 2012, 09:58 PM // 21:58

I've had the same problem as OP, installing on windows 7. Occasionally, when GW updates, it'll not be able to edit the .dat file of GW (i.e., GW.dat), saying that I don't have permission to edit it! I'm not sure how to do it for xp (my only computer with xp is over 9000 years old, so I can't really run GW on there).
On Win7, I "fixed" the problem by allowing "Everyone" and "Administrators" full control in the Security tab.
To do this, I right click on the Guild Wars install folder, click Properties, and click the Security tab.
Then I click "Advanced", and look for "Everyone" and "Administrators" in that list.
If they're not there, I click Add, type in those names, and click Ok.
Next, I click Edit with Everyone selected. I click "Full Control", and click OK.
Then I do the same for "Administrators".
Finally, I click enough "OK"s to get out of the settings windows.
Be aware this is for Windows 7, but you may be able to do something similar for WinXP. For some reason, it seems Winderp blocks permission for you to edit these files. Great, except when you actually NEED to edit them.

If you still can't solve it soon, post back here and I'll see what I can do. I've had the exact same issue in win7, so I know it's annoying!
PM me on here (I was gonna say PM me in game... derp) if you need.

Quaker · Mar 30, 2012, 02:55 PM // 14:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by jordanb1992y

"UNABLE TO INSTALL; THE INSTALLER COULD NOT WRITE GW TO THE SPECIFIED DIRECTORY...."

Most likely it's some sort of weird permissions issue to do with Steam. Have you tried installing GW to a different directory?
I assume that GW tries to install into C:\Program Files\Guild Wars (but steam could be different). When that comes up during the install, change it to something else like C:\Games\Guild Wars. (You may need to download the client from ANet, instead of Steam, to do this, but as long as you have the access key, it doesn't matter.)

Frangeo Munda · Mar 30, 2012, 07:07 PM // 19:07

Just updating everyone, since me and OP have communicated in PM:
I've told him (actually never clarified it's a Him, but... oh well) to try to use CACLS to change the permissions on the GW folder. I've also suggested installing GW "without" Steam. I'll wait until he's had a chance to try those and see where we go from there.