Is there a way to force a game to re-run "First-Time Startup" action?

[Murphy's Lawyer]

After you install a new game and launch it for the first time, Steam does a "First Time Startup" action and downloads things like C++ (again) and other goodies the game needs to run.

During one such event recently, one of these programs opened its own wizard installer and asked me to click "next" a few times, but i accidently messed up the installation by clicking the wrong thing. I accidently chose to remove a program i needed and then the wizard closed and steam tried to launch the game... unsuccessfully.

Game in question is: Dwarfs!? (retail version). It won't launch, I get a windows error message saying "Dwarfs has stopped working, windows is pretending to check on the problem"

I tried verifying the game cache, it says "1 file is missing; will reacquire" and then the game says its ready to "play" in my library, but it doesn't work, same error.

Now I uninstalled the game, restarted steam, then reinstalled the game. It didn't launch that first time setup check. and the game failed to launch.

I'm pretty sure I need that program, is there a way to get that wizard to run again? Like by getting the First Time Startup to run again?

[raicuu]

Game properties -> Local files -> verify integrity of game cache

Could help, or delete local data, with ccleaner delete registry files and clean install

[Satoru]

You can jus tgo into the game directory under

c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\<game>

Usually under there there is either a folder or such where the first time installers are run from. It's easier to ismply re-run them from there. You can 'force' the rerun via registry hacking but that's potentially dangerous.

I'ts also better to re-run them manually because the 'auto' installers uusally run in silent mode, where errors are basically supressed. By running it manually you can actually see what the problem the installer is having and address it.

[goblin]

привет

[Murphy's Lawyer]

Thanks, this seems the be the way to fix this problem when it happens.

Originally posted by Satoru:

You can jus tgo into the game directory under

c:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\<game>

Usually under there there is either a folder or such where the first time installers are run from. It's easier to ismply re-run them from there. You can 'force' the rerun via registry hacking but that's potentially dangerous.

I'ts also better to re-run them manually because the 'auto' installers uusally run in silent mode, where errors are basically supressed. By running it manually you can actually see what the problem the installer is having and address it.

[Kartofffrae]

What does the file for the First-Time-Setup look like?

[Murphy's Lawyer]

its usually called 'common redist'

think ive seen it called things like: 'redistrubtion', 'common', 'common redist', or even something like 'dependents',

[Kartofffrae]

Originally posted by Murphy's Lawyer:

its usually called 'common redist'

think ive seen it called things like: 'redistrubtion', 'common', 'common redist', or even something like 'dependents',

What's the name of the XNA file? Maybe I can copy the file in one of my other games and put it in Campaign Clicker.

[gardenapple]

For anyone else who's wondering, I found a more robust way to do this:

1. Go to the game's installation folder,
   
2. Look for a file named installscript.vdf, open it using a text editor (like Notepad)
   
3. Look for a line that says "HasRunKey". To the right of it, there should be a path string which looks something like: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Valve\\Steam\\Apps\\1174180"
   
4. Open RegEdit.
   
5. Go to that path.
   
6. (if you can't find it, you might want to look at Wow6432Node instead)
   
7. Once you find the registry key that you need, delete it.
   
8. Click "Play" and the install script should run again.

Note that this only works for some game-specific scripts, but not all of them. I used this method to re-install Rockstar Games Launcher for GTA IV, but it doesn't work for things like C++ Redistributables. I guess those are handled separately.

Alternatively, you could just look at the actual script to see what it does, and just do it manually. Using GTA IV as an example again:

"Process 1"             "%INSTALLDIR%\\GTAIV\\Redistributables\\Social-Club-Setup.exe"

Just means that you need to go to the game folder and run GTAIV\Redsitributables\Social-Club-Setup.exe.

[AChristianGamer]

Go to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist\vcredist

Just found this from opening "runasadmin.vdf" with Notepad+ in my Payday 2 Folder. It contains every single redistrubutable you have ever downloaded by installing a game.

Why doesn't Valve doesn't tell anyone about this.