Run TTD without registry access

[Patchman]

If you want to run TTD on a computer where you aren't allowed to write to the registry, use this.

Instructions:

• download and unzip into your TTD folder
• edit registry.ini to the right values; especially the HDPath which should be the letter "S" followed by the folder where TTD is installed; other entries are the letter "D" followed by the setting value
• download and install upx
• run "upx -d ttdpatchw.exe"
• run ptnoreg.exe (the no-registry patch)

You have to repeat the last two steps every time you download a new ttdpatchw.exe. Then simply run the patch as usual, and both it and TTD will read their settings from registry.ini instead of the actual registry.

[SHADOW-XIII]

would it be possible to include that into TTDP ?
automatically changes not to use registry and stores itself the ini

[DanMacK]

Josef, you rock man! Thanks Will definitely be a tryin' this tomorrow

[Darkvater]

That is nice!

I tried doing something as well some time ago, but just couldn't wrap these functions. At least on WinXP I think it had some security that didn't allow you to do this. Could be just my cludging though

[The Person]

This combined with my idea about putting TTDP on a USB flash drive is great! You see, I have a flash drive with an install of TTDP that I use to play TTD at school so I don't have to install it on every computer I sit on. Until now I've used Shadow-XIII's registry editor to make it work, but now that's no longer needed! Thanks so much! You rock, Patchman!

[Patchman]

I tried doing something as well some time ago, but just couldn't wrap these functions. At least on WinXP I think it had some security that didn't allow you to do this. Could be just my cludging though

Well, I just replace the advapi32.dll reference to noregist.dll in the .exe files, so instead of importing the registry functions from advapi32.dll, it uses the noregist.dll ones. The only permission you need then is write access to gamegfx.exe and ttdpatchw.exe.

[Darkvater]

I tried doing something as well some time ago, but just couldn't wrap these functions. At least on WinXP I think it had some security that didn't allow you to do this. Could be just my cludging though

Well, I just replace the advapi32.dll reference to noregist.dll in the .exe files, so instead of importing the registry functions from advapi32.dll, it uses the noregist.dll ones. The only permission you need then is write access to gamegfx.exe and ttdpatchw.exe.

Aaah; that's a much smarter move than I had in mind. I was attaching my process to TTD to capture all registry access; but obviously it didn't allow me to do that. Great job .

I think once it's stable it should be default for TTDPatch, cause using the registry is a b****, especially HKLM, which only admins can modify.

[orudge]

Ah, yes, I wrote a DLL like this once, never actually released it. Indeed, I have a few random projects here from years ago I should probably look at again...

[JDK2005]

Does this work with the latest alpha? I made it work with an earlier one, but now upx says:

Code: Select all

      File size         Ratio      Format      Name
   --------------------   ------   -----------   -----------
upx: F:\ttwin95\ttdpatchw.exe: NotPackedException: not packed by UPX

[Patchman]

A69 is indeed not packed by upx, so you can just skip that step.

[Mizipzor]

I want to be able to play this at school, we have a "my documents" (big enough to hold a TTD installation) which we are allowed to do whatever we want with. I want to install TTD in there to play during lesson breakes.

However, when I try to install TTD there it complains about not being able to copy "uniFISH", it says the file is in use or there isnt enough diskspace. I think its neither in use or Im out of diskspace, any ideas of what could be wrong?

Is there any other way of being able to play TTD whitout admin permission/regsitry write access? Or some way of getting around this problem.

Maybe if I compress it and mail it to mailself, open the mail here and copy over the contents to my documents folder. Ill try that later...

Comments?

[Killer 11]

well if you realy can't play the patch you can try installing openttd becouse it doesn't need registry entries to run.
NOTE: i have tested this only with rar version of the installer.

[SpComb]

Hah! I was bored yesterday, so I decided to make something interesting out of this.
After wadeing through the GPL liscence and figuring out the windows BAT files, I've ended up with the ttd-nr (or nr-ttd, same thing) package. It's a bunch of bat files that use wget and info-zip to download and extract various zipfiles, and in short, to painlessly install a no-registry version of ttd onto your computer \o/
It even stores the ttd and ptnoreg files so you don't have to download them again. It also detects (weakly) existing ttd (by looking for gamegfx.exe), ttdpatch (ttdpatchw.exe) and ptnoreg (ptnoreg.exe) installations, and asks you about it!
So if you can trust me that i'm not going to infect your computer with a virus, you can find the README (yes, please read it), and the zip here.

Enjoy, and smack me if it doesn't work.
I'll take a look at adding stuff like configs or grf files to it tomorrow.

(And yes, it is XP/win2k only)

[Mizipzor]

I tried your install bat files, all I got was "connection reset by peer". Both from zapotek.paivola.fi and ttd-patch sites... apparently I cant connect to them. But it was from that first site I downloaded the bat files in the first place so I shouldnt really be having any problems connecting to it. Although I downloaded the bat files through the browser. Could there be any firewall in my way? Im in school now so I dont know much the security setup here but Ill try the the files again once I get home to see if they work there. Any ideas for solving it here?

[SpComb]

If you are at school, you probably have a proxy. Adding a setting for connecting through a proxy is perfectly possible, and since someone needs it I'll go take a look at it now. It should work better at home.