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Running IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 With Steam in Windows 7
If you haven't already downloaded IL2 for Steam then do yourself a favour - go buy the CD version! (i wish I had). If it's too late for that then never fear, there is a solution. Getting this setup will take a few minutes but it's a once off and when it's done, your IL2 on Steam will run as smooth as can be.
First, we need to get our Steam properties set up correctly to run as an Administrator. To do this, find your Steam program in the main Windows menu, right click and select Properties. Note, do not simply "Run as administrator" as this is a one time thing. We want to set it up so that Steam ALWAYS runs as Administrator.
From the Properties dialog box that appears, select the Compatibility tab. As you can see from the screen shot, the privilege level will be greyed out. You need to click the "Change settings for all users tab".....
...and you will then be able to select the "Run this program as an administrator". Click Apply and OK to keep the settings.
Note that from now on, whenever you run Steam you will get a warning dialog box pop up asking if it is OK for Steam to make changes to your computer. Just select Yes (nothing evil will happen
). You can get rid of this warning by changing your User Account Control settings in the Windows Control Panel but this will change the security for ALL programs and I don't recommend doing this.
Next, we need to disable the Steam overlay in IL2. This will mean that you can't do the "Shift-Tab" thing and see your Steam friends but as IL2 isn't actually played on Steam servers, this shouldn't really matter. You'll be too busy watching your six to talk to your Steam friends Anyway!
Launch Steam, then in your library, right click the IL2 game and select Properties
In the dialog box that appears, uncheck "Enable Steam Community In-Game". All done.
Note that you only need to do this next step if you are having problems with IL2 crashing every 20 minutes or so. This is normally caused if you have an ATI video card and catalyst 10.6+ drivers. Otherwise you can skip this step.
We need to find the IL2 executable file called IL2FB.exe If you followed a default Steam install, this will be in:
c:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/stemapps/common/il 2 sturmovik 1946/122fb.exe
Right click on the exe file and select Properties
As before, go to the Compatibility tab. Please note that you DO NOT want to run this program as an Administrator. If you try, you will constantly get a warning dialog box and no matter how many times you click Yes, IL2 will not launch.
Instead, you want to click Disable visual themes, Disable desktop composition and Disable display scaling on high DPI settings. Again, these settings will be greyed out and you will need to click the "Change settings for all users" button to change the settings.
Now, we need Hyperlobby to know where our IL2 executable is. Make sure you are logged out of Hyperlobby, then right click the "Connect" button. The above dialog box will appear. Either type in the game path to il2fb.exe (go back one step to find out where it is), or simply click search and Hyperlobby should find it for you.
One final note. Before you launch a new game of IL2, you have to make sure that Steam is not running. If it is, you won't be able to launch a game. That also means that every time you leave a server game, make sure you exit Steam also before joining another game.
Now it may look like Steam has closed down as it doesn't appear in your task bar. But it's sneaky. It hides. On the right hand of your task bar you will see a little up arrow. Hover over it and it says "Show hidden icons"
If you click on this arrow, a small dialog box will appear with all of those sneaky hidden programs. If you see the Steam icon in there, it's still running. Right click on the icon and select Exit. I say again, you will need to do this after every server game you finish playing before you can join another.
There you have it! Happy flying and if you see me in your game one day, say thanks by not blowing me out of the sky!
DonKey_Doo
If you haven't already downloaded IL2 for Steam then do yourself a favour - go buy the CD version! (i wish I had). If it's too late for that then never fear, there is a solution. Getting this setup will take a few minutes but it's a once off and when it's done, your IL2 on Steam will run as smooth as can be.
First, we need to get our Steam properties set up correctly to run as an Administrator. To do this, find your Steam program in the main Windows menu, right click and select Properties. Note, do not simply "Run as administrator" as this is a one time thing. We want to set it up so that Steam ALWAYS runs as Administrator.
From the Properties dialog box that appears, select the Compatibility tab. As you can see from the screen shot, the privilege level will be greyed out. You need to click the "Change settings for all users tab".....
...and you will then be able to select the "Run this program as an administrator". Click Apply and OK to keep the settings.
Note that from now on, whenever you run Steam you will get a warning dialog box pop up asking if it is OK for Steam to make changes to your computer. Just select Yes (nothing evil will happen
). You can get rid of this warning by changing your User Account Control settings in the Windows Control Panel but this will change the security for ALL programs and I don't recommend doing this.Next, we need to disable the Steam overlay in IL2. This will mean that you can't do the "Shift-Tab" thing and see your Steam friends but as IL2 isn't actually played on Steam servers, this shouldn't really matter. You'll be too busy watching your six to talk to your Steam friends Anyway!
Launch Steam, then in your library, right click the IL2 game and select Properties
In the dialog box that appears, uncheck "Enable Steam Community In-Game". All done.
Note that you only need to do this next step if you are having problems with IL2 crashing every 20 minutes or so. This is normally caused if you have an ATI video card and catalyst 10.6+ drivers. Otherwise you can skip this step.
We need to find the IL2 executable file called IL2FB.exe If you followed a default Steam install, this will be in:
c:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/stemapps/common/il 2 sturmovik 1946/122fb.exe
Right click on the exe file and select Properties
As before, go to the Compatibility tab. Please note that you DO NOT want to run this program as an Administrator. If you try, you will constantly get a warning dialog box and no matter how many times you click Yes, IL2 will not launch.
Instead, you want to click Disable visual themes, Disable desktop composition and Disable display scaling on high DPI settings. Again, these settings will be greyed out and you will need to click the "Change settings for all users" button to change the settings.
Now, we need Hyperlobby to know where our IL2 executable is. Make sure you are logged out of Hyperlobby, then right click the "Connect" button. The above dialog box will appear. Either type in the game path to il2fb.exe (go back one step to find out where it is), or simply click search and Hyperlobby should find it for you.
One final note. Before you launch a new game of IL2, you have to make sure that Steam is not running. If it is, you won't be able to launch a game. That also means that every time you leave a server game, make sure you exit Steam also before joining another game.
Now it may look like Steam has closed down as it doesn't appear in your task bar. But it's sneaky. It hides. On the right hand of your task bar you will see a little up arrow. Hover over it and it says "Show hidden icons"
If you click on this arrow, a small dialog box will appear with all of those sneaky hidden programs. If you see the Steam icon in there, it's still running. Right click on the icon and select Exit. I say again, you will need to do this after every server game you finish playing before you can join another.
There you have it! Happy flying and if you see me in your game one day, say thanks by not blowing me out of the sky!
DonKey_Doo
