STEAM Installation

[InternalStorm]

Hey,

When I try to install STEAM from STEAMpowered.com, it says that the directory "Program Files (x86)" is invalid due to invalid character of the (). I have no way of knowing how to get around this, and am wondering how anybody else has coped with this?

Thanks ;)

[GTCaboose]

If that's what's your Program Files folder is named, remove the brackets from the name then try to install it.

[InternalStorm]

Dude... it's Windows XP x64, so there has to be two Program Files for the x86 and x64 programs, that's the point of me posting in the 64-bit section ;)

[Martog]

I just install all of my games to c:\games\game_name and go from there, even steam is plopped in there, makes it easier to manage my games :)

[InternalStorm]

  Martog said:

I just install all of my games to c:\games\game_name and go from there, even steam is plopped in there, makes it easier to manage my games :)

585794725[/snapback]

Thanks dude ;) Works great.

[Martog]

I would imagine that (X86) is going to screw up some programs unfortunately.

[HellBender]

  Martog said:

I would imagine that (X86) is going to screw up some programs unfortunately.

585794747[/snapback]

Thats bad coding :no: If Windows supports it, why not the program?

One more reason why steam sucks.

[Budious]

Changing the install directory to root "C:\" steam automatically creates a "C:\Valve\Steam" directory and will install the program there, works great under x64.

[Terminus]

Anytime you run into an issue installing to "Program Files(x86)" just replace that part of the path with "progra~2" and it will work.

[cpt.whistlepants]

I was wondering how many posts it would take before someone says steam sucks. I was off by one. :no:

[Coffeee]

  cpt.whistlepants said:

I was wondering how many posts it would take before someone says steam sucks. I was off by one. :no:

585882542[/snapback]

Cool game... I gotta try that sometime!

[Larney]

  Martog said:

I would imagine that (X86) is going to screw up some programs unfortunately.

585794747[/snapback]

You mean x64 right :wacko:?!?

[Martog]

  Larney said:

You mean x64 right :wacko:?!?

585882644[/snapback]

No, he means (X86) as in c:\Programs Files (X86)

[Fighter-X]

  cpt.whistlepants said:

I was wondering how many posts it would take before someone says steam sucks. I was off by one. :no:

585882542[/snapback]

Well I have to agree, steam really does suck. They should like do what EA does, put in something like punkbuster.

[Martog]

Alright, here we go again, Adobe Creative Suite 2 does NOT like (X86) either, damn it microsoft, that was a poor choice of characters. i would have been fine with "Program Files x86" or something like that, the characters kill other programs. Microsoft shouldn't known that not all programs like () in the path name. A lot do not mind, but some do, IE Steam, CS2 (I don't know if older products are affected)

[Nexus-]

  Martog said:

Alright, here we go again, Adobe Creative Suite 2 does NOT like (X86) either, damn it microsoft, that was a poor choice of characters. i would have been fine with "Program Files x86" or something like that, the characters kill other programs. Microsoft shouldn't known that not all programs like () in the path name. A lot do not mind, but some do, IE Steam, CS2 (I don't know if older products are affected)

585931483[/snapback]

  Terminus said:

Anytime you run into an issue installing to "Program Files(x86)" just replace that part of the path with "progra~2" and it will work.

585854047[/snapback]

[Martog]

That's a fix that should not be needed at all, it should have been designed by MS so that any program would accept it, IE no characters, just letters, numbers, and spaces, it is that simple MS, yet they overlooked it. Hopefully Longhorn x64 won't have this oversight.

[bryonhowley]

Short of poor coding there should be no reason that any app would have a problem installing into a dir even with (x86) in the name. There are all valide characters for folders and files.

[casao]

  Martog said:

Alright, here we go again, Adobe Creative Suite 2 does NOT like (X86) either, damn it microsoft, that was a poor choice of characters. i would have been fine with "Program Files x86" or something like that, the characters kill other programs. Microsoft shouldn't known that not all programs like () in the path name. A lot do not mind, but some do, IE Steam, CS2 (I don't know if older products are affected)

585931483[/snapback]

Adobe is notorious for crappy installers. Infact, when installing the entirety of CS2, there's no way to select individual options for programs, you either install the whole program or not at all. You have to go to the specific program installer to select things like integration and such.

[Gobelet]

Since 64-bit programs are newer, I don't understand why they didn't put "Program Files (x64)" for them. I mean, knowing the new restrictions, people who make 64-bit software should know about it, and fix the problem if there was one. But Microsoft did the contrary, and therefore added a big problem for a lot a programs, it seems.

[Vykranth]

  Gobelet said:

Since 64-bit programs are newer, I don't understand why they didn't put "Program Files (x64)" for them. I mean, knowing the new restrictions, people who make 64-bit software should know about it, and fix the problem if there was one. But Microsoft did the contrary, and therefore added a big problem for a lot a programs, it seems.

585969337[/snapback]

Because Windows x64 is designed to FIRST run x64 applications, x86 applications can be

used because the OS can handle them but it is a convenience.

The Program Files (x86) is provided for another reason: it is a extremely bad idea to mix x64 and x86 dlls, especially in C:\Program Files\Common Files: you don't want to mix x86 and x64 InstallShield runtimes or MS services

Same reasons why the System32 and SysWOW64 DLLs directories are separated.

Finally, I am terribly sorry but I have to say that Microsoft must not be blamed if some bad developers cannot write installers properly. The brackets are valid directories and files names characters since at least Windows NT 4.0 and that's 1996 .....

[Aryaniae]

  bryonhowley said:

Short of poor coding there should be no reason that any app would have a problem installing into a dir even with (x86) in the name. There are all valide characters for folders and files.

They are valid characters for FS node names on Windows. It is a great deal simpler for those of us who write apps for more than one OS to not support them at all, rather than add checks all over our code to see if they're supported by whatever OS it's running on.

It is generally considered good coding practice to have your program follow the most restrictive set of rules, not the least. In this case, that means that FS node names may only have alphanumerics, underbars, hyphens, and periods.