Hey all, I am running an old laptop with Windows Vista OS and as such haven't been able to play since the whole, unsupported thing. But I have an idea and was wondering if anyone knew whether or not this would work. So I thought I would copy my EQ folder over to my external hard drive, then take the drive to a friend's house who runs Windows 7+ and connect. Launch the game from the external drive and download the patch files I need, then just take the external drive back, plug into my laptop and run the game. Problem solved? Then whenever there is a patch, I just take the external drive to another computer, run the game, get the patch files, rinse and repeat as necessary. Basically wondering if incompatibility with Vista is still just the launch pad kernel problem of getting the relevant patch files, and if the external hard drive plan will circumvent that problem, and then I can still play EQ on my laptop with Vista. Thanks in advance.
Technically it already is incompatible because the launch pad itself won't recognize pre-Win 7. But I can by-pass the launch pad and go straight to the log in, and play from there as long as my files are up to date. The problem is that bypassing launch pad means I can't get patches when they come, which will stop me from logging in by giving a "need to download recent patches" error. So I'm thinking this should allow me to dance around the incompatibility issue which is (or, was) just a problem with the launch pad itself. But if they plan on doing something to make the game engine itself incompatible, then I guess I'm back at square one.
Someone does post patch files for older clients: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/patch-files-for-xp-and-vista-player.247906/
From https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...-04-10-18-patch-notes-and-discussions.248542/ Seems like the client itself will stop working with pre-win7 systems from the next patch. The launchpad workaround will work for the next few days only.
You can either wait till next weeks patch to see, or do a /testcopy to test server to go test it now. My guess is that it wont work anymore though.
If you fully patch the game elsewhere then run the patchme shortcut, it will currently work today for Live but not for Test Server. Just made an attempt for the Test server, updating the game elsewhere (duo boot machine w/Windows 10/XP) trying to bypass the launchpad w/patchme no longer works, you will receive an error "not a valid Win32 Application"
Now, as for your laptop running Vista, how much space do you have on it? Have you attempted to install Windows 7. There are several places you can download ISO of Windows 7 and install it on a separate partition to create a duo boot system, to see if Windows 7 will run on your laptop. I believe you will be able to run it for a week without entering a product key. The above is one way to trying without needing to purchase an entire newer system. It does not take a new system to run the game, only one that will run at least Windows 7.
My laptop has a C and D drive, neither with enough space to run 7+ (both with 15gb of space). I'm actually running Vista without any updates or it would be too large as well. I was thinking about installing Win 7 on my external drive as well, but one I'm not sure if it has an adequate read-write speed to do that, and, two, my laptop monitor doesn't work so I have another monitor plugged in but when my computer starts with two OS on it, the monitor won't start working until I choose which OS to use - but I can't choose an OS because the monitor isn't working so I can't see the prompts. The universe is really putting up a fight to keep me from playing EQ. But the good news is that I did the external hard drive and it worked, so at least I was able to play a little before the next patch. Thanks for the replies everyone. If you're ever in Firiona Vie, run by the old elf outpost, fry Dragoon M'Nyl at the gate and say "Runecrow sends his regards!"
