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Oscar1978's avatar
Oscar1978
3 years ago

Red Alert 2 / YR From Original CD's to Windows 10

Hi,

I've seen alot of Ra2 activity in YT lately so I felt like installing the game again and play the campaigns. But I was deeply dissapointed when I introduced my original Ra2 CD into my CD drive and the setup.exe just won't start.

Autorun.exe works fine, and it displays the tilte and the message 'warning, military  software... etc' but just as I click on install, the autorun windows closes and it does nothing, like I've never launched the setup program.

I've been for like two days doing some test, the whole allied disc is copied to my C:/ unit, I've changed compatibility settings to the .exe files, tried reduced colour modes, and nothing worked.

I've also sent a mail to EA Support and they seem powerless to assist me...

And after looking all over the net and not finding a solution, my question is:

How do I solve this? Is there any way I can get Ra2 installed as I see alot of people playing?

Regards and thanks in advance.

Edit: Forgot to say system specs, I'm on a Intel I7 10th Gen on Asus Mother, 32GB Ram, 2 NVME M.2 Hard Disks 500GB and 1TB, and a GTX1050Ti doing the graphics tasks. I hope this is enought for Ra2/YR 🥳

The OS is Windows 10 Pro.

Cheers

4 Replies

  • Nyerguds's avatar
    Nyerguds
    Hero+
    3 years ago
    @Oscar1978 Unfortunately, the Red Alert 2 CDs use SafeDisc as copy protection system, and in 2015, Microsoft permanently withdrew support for SafeDisc for security reasons.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SafeDisc#Withdrawal_of_support

    This means that sadly, Red Alert 2 can no longer be installed from CDs on newer Windows systems. The only way to still get it without some quite complex workarounds is to buy the Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection on the EA app.
  • Oscar1978's avatar
    Oscar1978
    3 years ago

    Hi @Nyerguds 

    Somehow I was afraid to get a reply like that, I had a feeling lol

    In my honest opinion, it is a shame that the solution for this issue is re-buying the game I have physically right now on my desktop. And I understand this Safedisc issue is not EA's fault and/or neither Microsoft, but the solution to run Safedisc protected games on Windows 10 cannot be re-buying them, and even less when I have legit serial numbers for those games.

    EA should give support for games they haven't released as freeware and customers who own legit serial numbers for those games, not just send back an automated pre-built message asking me if my PC meets the minimum requeriments to play a 22 year old game. That's a sign of how little interested they are on helping customers.

    Otherwise I'm on the way to search on my own, and I'm gonna think twice before buying any EA's product. I'm sorry to say this.

    Thanks for the help @Nyerguds it's so much appreciated.

    Regards

  • Oscar1978's avatar
    Oscar1978
    3 years ago

    Hi, I'm agreed to that.

    Anyway I've found the way to run the CD's thanks to your help, it's all about the file secdrv.sys.

    The problem with this is that compromises in some manner the security of your system, but it's possible, and I'm gonna play right now xD

    Thanks alot again @Nyerguds 

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