Best Way to Install Celestia under Windows Vista Home Basic

[Janet]

I am new to the Celestia forum and have been reading about some of the problems that various users have encountered trying to use Celestia with Windows Vista. My 7 year old son loves Celestia and I would like to install it on our new computer which came with Vista Home Basic. I would like to know if others have been able to get Celestia to work well under Windows Vista and if I need to install Celestia in a directory other than the default to avoid some of the problems that users have had with Vista moving modified texture and SSC files to a compatability directory. Also if there are other known problems that others have encountered running Celestia under Windows Vista, I would appreciate any information that you could provide.

AMD 4000 X2 CPU BOX AM2 socket dual core
Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS (with latest drivers)
1 GB Ram
Windows Vista Home Basic

[BobHegwood]

Generally, the compatibility directories are created when you try to
install Celestia as an application defined as being associated with a
previous version of Windows. i.e. - XP, 95, etc.

Most of the compatibility directories will not be created if you install
Celestia as a native Windows Vista application. Now, this is not
always true, as Vista seems to make its own rules up as it goes along,
but - as a general rule of thumb - this is the way to install the
Celestia application.

If you also use other programs to perform functions like editing plain
text SSC files using a previous version compatible programs, these
will also cause compatibility directories. So, the best advice I can
offer is to use Vista-ready programs for all of the Celestia-related
functions.

I know this is confusing, but that's the best explanation I can give
you at this point. Vista also likes to function differently on different
machines, so you may run into problems which have NOT been
encountered by other users.

This has been my experience thus far, but I now have Vista
running Celestia in the native Vista mode, and it seems to work
pretty well. You may find also that you can simply move a
compatibility file from its current location (once it has been
created) into the standard Vista C:\Program Files\Celestia
directory where you wish it to be. Once done, it will usually stay
where you put it unless it is again acted upon by a non-Vista
program.

Hope that helps somewhat...

Take care, Brain-Dead Bob

[Janet]

Thank you so much for your timely and helpful response. I was able to install it on my computer with no problems, and my son is very excited. We are still trying to install some of the add-ons with no success but hopefully we will get it figured out soon. Thanks again for your help.

[selden]

Some people have reported having fewer problems if they install Celestia somewhere other than in Program Files. Apparently Vista is very protective of that directory. I don't have Vista, so I can't verify that.

[BobHegwood]

Some people have reported having fewer problems if they install Celestia somewhere other than in Program Files. Apparently Vista is very protective of that directory. I don't have Vista, so I can't verify that.

Didn't know that Selden... As always, thanks for the information.

[LordFerret]

I don't use Vista, but I had contemplated installing Celestia into a folder within My Documents - a consideration for ease of dragging addons in and out.

[Goonster]

I use Home Basic but I never had any problems installing it .Never made any special files or anything ,just downloaded and installed it like any other program and its worked fine since I got it.

Goonster

[rra]

actually, there is no problem installing Celestia
in Vista.
It will create sub-dirs and files in the "program files",
if you then decide to change some of the file e.g.
editing the solorsys.ssc you get this annoying warning of
the Vista build-in UAC , asking for confirmation.
No big deal if you edit these files now and then I think.
If you want to add or edit files file frequently,
you can simply move the whole Celestia folder and its subs
to a different dir, away from the "program files" dir.

Ren?©

[CAP-Team]

I'm running Vista Ultimate on my PC, and I've found no problem running Celestia 1.5.0 under Vista whatsoever.