[Possible Solution] EA not detecting install games

I ran into this problem of EA not detecting I had BF 2042 installed. I wasn't surprised because I the install files were from 2 years ago when I played during a free promo weekend or something, but then did not keep it updated after the promo period lapsed.

I thought I was outta luck when I bought it during the Spring sale, as it kept downloading all the install files again instead of seeing the existing files. Oddly never had this problem with BFV, btw. Anyway, here's what worked for me:

1. Go to the games install folder
2. Double click "BF2042.exe"

And that's it. From that point it switched to the EA app which then proceeded to download necessary updates. 20gb vs 83, I'll take that!