# [SOLVED] Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..



## JMM123

I'm trying to Install Age of Empires 3 on my laptop, it's running Windows 7 64 Bit which according to Microsoft's site is compatible. The first time I tried to install it something happened halfway through and it stopped before finishing the install. Now when I insert the disc the menu comes up and says "play" instead of "install". 

So then I tried to hit uninstall but it won't. It will bring up the first part of Uninstall Wizard (gathering information etc) but it won't go anywhere from there. So I looked in Add/Remove programs and cleared it. I remember there being some error but it was gone next I saw. I deleted the game folder, cleaned the registry and ran a full search of my computer for any file with "age of empires" and "aoe" in the title and was game related and deleted those. It still has the same problem of "Play" instead of "Install". Any idea how to fix that? :/


----------



## Floop

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Hi and welcome to TSF.

Try installing Revo Uninstaller from my signature and seeing if there is any left over files to do with Age Of Empires 3.


----------



## JMM123

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

It couldn't find any from what I can tell, it wasn't listed in the programs.


----------



## Floop

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Try unintalling AoE 3 by using Windows Cleanup Utility.


----------



## JMM123

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Apparently there's no longer a link in that article to the utility?


----------



## bwolfje

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Hello JMM123,

you could also try using Ccleaner

with ccleaner you`ll have to clean up the registry

most likely the registry keys are allready made before the installation aborted so the computer thinks its installed properly.

after that start the setup 

but wait with installing look in the setup for the location the game will be installed

before starting the install youll have to delete the folder where the files have been copyed to

after that the game should install just fine and a plus side is that the registry is cleaned up

you can find ccleaner here: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner


----------



## JMM123

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

I tried using CC Cleaner and while it did detect a registry error with AOE3, removing it made no change to my situation 

Anyone else got ideas?


----------



## Amd_Man

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Have you tried a system restore to before you installed Aoe 3?


----------



## Sonti

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Instead of running the autorun/launcher, you should be able to locate the setup exe on the disc through windows explorer and install directly instead of going through launcher.

setup.exe or install.exe is usually the name but it might be something else.


----------



## JMM123

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*



Sonti said:


> Instead of running the autorun/launcher, you should be able to locate the setup exe on the disc through windows explorer and install directly instead of going through launcher.
> 
> setup.exe or install.exe is usually the name but it might be something else.


Just tried that, it brings up the "Preparing Windows Installer" thing for the Install Wizard and then it says Windows Explorer has stopped working and the install stops.


As for the restore point: I originally attempted to install it several months ago so I'd lose almost all my data >_>


----------



## Sonti

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*



JMM123 said:


> Just tried that, it brings up the "Preparing Windows Installer" thing for the Install Wizard and then it says Windows Explorer has stopped working and the install stops.
> 
> 
> As for the restore point: I originally attempted to install it several months ago so I'd lose almost all my data >_>


Might be a compatibility issue. See if you can run the exe again after setting the compatibility to XP by right clicking on the file and selecting XP SP3 under compatibility tab.


----------



## JMM123

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Tried it with both XP SP3 and SP2 but neither worked. Same problem, it closes and I get the windows explorer error. Remember, I tried installing it before and it worked fine until it sort of crashed.


----------



## Sonti

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Let's see if we can remove the aoe3 related entries manually. This is a suggestion and deleting something wrong can cause problems. Please use caution in the registry. 

To locate and remove game files in registry: 
- Click on Start then type regedit 
- In Registry Editor
- Double click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Find and double click on Software
- Find and double click on Microsoft
- Find and double click on Microsoft Games
- Locate and select Age of Empires III 
- While Age of Empires III folder is selected, press delete to delete the entry.


To remove game entries for user account
- Click on Start then type regedit 
- In Registry Editor
- Double click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER
- Find and double click on Software
- Find and double click on Microsoft
- Find and double click on Microsoft Games
- Locate and select Age of Empires III 
- While Age of Empires III folder is selected, press delete to delete the entry.


If there are any aoe3 entries left they should be under these two areas. Once deleted the launcher should give Install as an option instead of Play.

Worth noting, I've done some digging around and the aoe3 installer issue seems to happen to many people, so it might crash during installation again but let's worry about getting the install option on again first.


----------



## JMM123

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

I actually already did that earlier on but I just double checked: neither are present in the registry (No Microsoft Games to click on after I deleted them) and the Play option is still up.  Thats one of the reasons why I'm so perplexed.


----------



## Sonti

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Quite a pickle :/

Let's try installing manually again but this time with minimal startup and services. 

Most people were apparently having problems installing Microsoft Games because of background services interfering with the installer. 

- Start and then type msconfig
- Under General (first tab) click Selective Startup
- Untick the Load Startup Items check box.
- Click the Services tab on top.
- At the bottom Tick the Hide All Microsoft Services check box.
- Once all the microsoft services are hidden from the list, click Disable All, and then click OK.
- Restart when prompted.


Whether it works or not after installing (or failing to install :|) restore your startup and services back to normal

- Start and then type msconfig
- Under General click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services, and then click OK.
- Restart when prompted.


Fingers crossed.


----------



## JMM123

Gave it a shot, no luck with the manual or auto-installer 

I'm just throwing this out there: is there a way to manually install it by copying the files from the disk to my hard drive? Because when I click on "Play" when it comes up like that it says its just missing the file, so my CD Key must already be put in?


----------



## Sonti

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Depends on how the files are built. 

I am assuming the missing file it is stating is the main aoe3.exe which you may be able to locate on CD and just copy over to the destination you manually created C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires III

But then it would give you another error with another file missing. The problem is the compressed files which get extracted during installation, e.g .cab files. Some types can be extracted manually but we need to know what type aoe3 is using for it's packs.


----------



## JMM123

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Yeah there's a cab file on the first disk with a large number of files in it.


----------



## Sonti

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Allright give it a go then. 

7zip supports cab extracting and it's free. 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip/

Extract all the cab files one by one from all CD's onto C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires III. Since you said first disc I am assuming you have the 3 disc version instead of dvd. 

It is worth a try but I'm afraid you'll have issues with location of some files if some files such as .dll files are needed under Windows. Hopefully the game will give an error with the missing file then you can find and move those files to appropiate folders.


----------



## JMM123

*Re: Age of Empires 3 won't install properly..*

Good news- I went onto my other PC and copied the entire Age of Empires III folder and copied it onto my laptop (the one with the installation problems). It worked and after clicking some agreements the game ran


----------

