Greetings! I just tried to install EQ2 on my work machine (I know, I know, BAD EMPLOYEE! But since I wind up working some weekends and there's a lot of downtime between calls, I figure I could do some Tradeskilling) ... In any case, I downloaded the installer and ran it. First off, I was pleased to see that after all these months since the SOE => DBG move we FINALLY have "Daybreak Game Company" instead of SOE in the installer. HOWEVER... when I try to install it, I get the error message "You cannot install to your documents directory. Please select another location." I figured "Oh. Ok. They finally decided to go back to C:\Program Files... Tried that (well, C:\Program Files(x86) since it's a 32bit application) ... Error message was basically the same, saying I couldn't install this on the root of my program files directory. I am running Windows 10 if that means anything. A year ago I installed EQ2 on this same machine when it was running Windows 7. That machine has since been reformatted so it's not an issue with any leftover files... Please advise! I'm facing a 12 hour shift tomorrow and could make some serious plat on my Provisioner!
It will not allow you to install anywhere other than its default location, which appears to be C:\Users\Public\Sony Online Entertainment\Installed Games\EverQuest II\
The installer default is C:\Users\Public\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\EverQuest II ... I tried changing it to Sony Online Entertainment (like the old ones used to say) but got the same error message... Now, the odd part is no matter WHAT I try (even tried right off the root of drive C, no luck) it CREATES the folder (ie: C:\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\EverQuest II) but still tells me it cannot install to the Documents directory.
Nonsense. The EQ2 installer presents a box for you to type or choose your install directory. That said, SOE had a lot of problems with people trying to install in Documents and getting all kinds of permissions errors, so they've disallowed that install directory. I would install it right on C:\EverQuest II\. I personally have my EQ2 installed on G:\EverQuest II\.
Sadly Feldon, that doesn't work either... But it DID create a Read Only folder C:\EverQuest II as I'd requested. I tried unchecking the Read Only flag, and it looks like it did so, but when I tried to run the Installer again, I get the same error message, the install location returns to C:\Users\Public\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\EverQuest II AND the folder returns to Read Only status... Not really sure what's going on here. Is there a place where I can download the Launchpad and maybe that can get me started? I'm inclined to think it's something on the DBG side of things since the launcher now has Daybreak Game Company instead of Sony Online Entertainment in the path listing (the older SOE one launched without issue on my home PC) UPDATE: just tried downloading the patcher again (I figured maybe it was something wrong with the download itself) ... the default install directory has now changed to: C:\Program Files(x86)\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\EverQuest II Sadly, I get the same error as before, "You cannot install to your documents" ...
Sounds like it's a Work computer and they've got it locked down so you cannot install software but to specific locations.
LOL I should have been a bit more detailed... I'm the IT Director here, so I know there's no such policy in place. BUT I downloaded through Steam and it installed without issue... I think it has something to do with the installer, I'm guessing it was revised since the default location for installation changed. In any case, it's installed and I'm ready to play!
UPDATE: I copied the installed game out of the Steam directory into C:\Program Files(x86)\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\EverQuest II and it seems to run without issue... Granted, it's the old VPK stuff instead of the VDB files, but I'm okay with that.
Thanks for mentioning Steam. This ignorant misconfiguration baffles me. Did the installer devs learn packaging on a completely different operating system? "Program Files" has been the (highly) suggested location for installing software on Windows since, well, at least Windows 95 if not all the way back to Windows 3 and before. This article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_Files, explains the defaults and even hints at how to change them.
I install into C:\DBG\ as Program Files is protected from changes by Microsoft. You typically install software there, but since EQ/EQ2 make changes while you play, the security settings in Windows will block/allow, etc. lots of things.
This issue still exists in 2020. The way I worked around it - Create a folder where you'd like the game to install, example C:\Everquest2 . Copy/move the downloaded installer file EQ2_setup.exe into that folder. Right click the installer and use 7zip winzip etc to extract the contents here. You'll end up with launchpad.exe and some other files now in the directory. Start the launchpad, log in with your account. The game will start the initial download. If you want to download the full client all at once, click the advanced tools gear icon in the launchpad and then click select game version. Check the full download box and hit apply.
This is an old topic, but since I encountered it yesterday while attempting to install EverQuest, I wanted to share my findings here. I discovered, that my \documents folder properties was pointing to a location that did not exist. I my case, it was pointing to D:\Documents, and I do not have a D: drive in the system. I updated the properties to point to C:\users\*****\documents, and the issue was resolved. I was not able to install to any other location on the c: drive using the other suggestions here. My guess is, the installer is looking for the \documents location to write to during the install, and when it cannot find it, it fails no matter if you're installing to the default location or to C:\EverQuest or any other location. Should someone else encounter this, I hope this information is helpful!
I haven't had this issue but I had a few that were true pickles and there was no good information on them. I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to come here and contribute to this thread and sharing your findings.
I am trying to install the game after the launchpad snafu with this patch and its still happening and i have tried the separate folder and my documents are directed to a c:\users\public filename. hopefully steam will work.
I use c:\DBG\Installed Games\Everquest II\ for my path. Since a few versions of Windows ago, MS set things so most programs wont install in certain folders.
