My Reliable Windows Vista HZ Fix

[Duergos]

Works everytime, consistently.

If you have not installed SP1 for Vista, delete HZ from your system, install Vista SP1 and make sure your system is fully patched, including the latest driver updates.

Re-Install Horizons.

Go to control panel, system and maintenance, then system. On the left, click on advanced system settings.
Under the performance area, click on settings. Click on the data execution protection tab. Select the radio button that says enable DEP only for essential windows programs and services

After this is complete, reboot computer.

Now, with this method you cannot use the launcher..it does not work. The game must be started from the browser at play.istaria.com. As such this site must be added to trusted sites.

In explorer, on the bottom of the screen is a little globe. Next to it, it says Internet protected mode and it will be on or off. For the game to launch from the browser it must be set to off. Take whatever action you must to turn off this protection.

Now start the game as you would normally from the browser. Under the launch option make sure that all the option are UNCHECKED. Full scan etc, .net patcher, etc...ALL must be unchecked

Then click on play.

This is tested and works repeatably for me.

[Steele]

Woot! Does that mean we'll be seeing ya online more often now?

[CallakDW]

Well I'm glad, but I tried these sams steps on my Vista 64 system, and it didn't work.

[Duergos]

To Steele,

I have been online...where have YOU been

To Calla,

After performing these steps...what happens when you attempt to start the game from the browser?

I too use 64 Bit Vista, SP1 patched to the max

[LexDivinia]

I bought my laptop with Vista SP1 installed. (32 bit)

I already had the DEP set for essential only, as per another post I read on these forums.

I turned the Internet Protected Mode off.

And I still error out when trying to connect.
(horizons.exe has stopped working
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close..... blah.)





I am glad it is working for you!!!!!


(I appreciate the work all the players are putting into getting a Vista fix...)

[CallakDW]

To Steele,

I have been online...where have YOU been

To Calla,

After performing these steps...what happens when you attempt to start the game from the browser?

I too use 64 Bit Vista, SP1 patched to the max

"Program has stopped working." The usual message I get.

[Bateluer]

Didn't work for me either.

[Thangorodrim Atanatari]

Under the launch option make sure that all the option are UNCHECKED. Full scan etc, .net patcher, etc...ALL must be unchecked

not all need to be checked, high performance scan and system check are ok to leave on. just make sure .net patcher is unchecked.

also i miss the part with the c++ 2005 redistributable.
did you get it to work without it?
(or did it autoupdate?)

[Mahja]

Thanks, this worked for me (for now, still have to do the reboot test and see if it continues to work). Figured out the problem for me was it said it had all the windows updates, but it really didn't and was not showing SP1 as an update. So I had to manually install it. After I finished the updates after SP1, I was able to launch the game successfully.

[H2Os]

Doesn't work for me Want to play so bad. I tried a lot of things. nothing.

[Spirit]

Go to control panel, system and maintenance, then system. On the left, click on advanced system settings.
Under the performance area, click on settings. Click on the data execution protection tab. Select the radio button that says enable DEP only for essential windows programs and services

I'm interested in giving this a try, but unfortunately these options are all greyed out for me. It says I must used bcdedit to edit these options, and I can't find a good guide on google for how to do this. If I recall, these options are greyed out because I've turned off user access control or whatever its called. I know the command to turn *all* dep off or on, but not this middle option for essential programs and services.

Glad you got it working.

Rakku

[rizo/nawkia]

Doesnt work for me:/

[AmonGwareth]

Hey Duergos, what version of Vista are you running? Me, I'm running Vista Home Pro 32-bit and HZ runs for me perfectly every time.

[Duergos]

I am running Windows Vista Ultimate, 64 bit. I wont say that its seemless but with a little massaging here and there the game runs fine. THe biggest issues arise from the fact that Vista basically hijacks trhe computer and assumes that the users are stupid and must be protected from everything.....its ridiculous really.......

From what I can tell any issue that I have had has always been a vista issue and certainly not an HZ issue. All you folks messing with C++ libraries etc.....youse guys are barking up the wrong tree.....

Its mainly a DEP issue and a security/trusted site issue within explorer.....

I will say that the HZ Launcher is not compatible which forces me to launch from the website. How about you Amon? Do you use the launcher?

Duergos

[H2Os]

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: horizons.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 44a31023
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a783
Exception Code: c00000fd
Exception Offset: 00036aab
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: e51a
Additional Information 2: 4c0d4d78887f76d971d5d00f1f20a433
Additional Information 3: e51a
Additional Information 4: 4c0d4d78887f76d971d5d00f1f20a433

[AmonGwareth]

I will say that the HZ Launcher is not compatible which forces me to launch from the website. How about you Amon? Do you use the launcher?

For internal development we use a batch file. And it works.

But I can launch using the website or the launcher, without any difficulties.

[H2Os]

Hey Duergos, what version of Vista are you running? Me, I'm running Vista Home Pro 32-bit and HZ runs for me perfectly every time.

did you do anything? just downloaded the game and it work right out of the box
?

[Mahja]

I can use the launcher too. Didn't do anything special for it.

[Spirit]

If Vista decides it wants the game to run, I can use the launcher and the website. Both work exactly as they should. If Vista is in a bad mood - neither works. It's most often in a bad mood.

Rakku

[Bateluer]

I don't think this deserves its own thread really, but it may help others with getting Horizons to work in Vista.

Its similar to MS Virtual PC, but open source, plus its more frequently updated and supports more than MS's product does.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Edit - I'd test it myself, but I'm not reactivating my account just for testing this, and my trial expired last week.