Why do some games ask you to restart your computer after installing?

Lord Oz

This is just plain stupid, some pc games ask the user to restart the computer after installing/uninstalling. Now I can understand this in the case of say sc: chaos theory where they've to install that starforce rubbish, but in the case of uninstalling the F.E.A.R. demo, WTF? Ok, I know you just say no and ignore it but it's still annoying and silly. Right, rant finished.

Ri_Nollaig

just away to ensure that the game runs from a fresh boot rather then a computer that hasnt been turned off in a week

/edit spelling

TerrorFirmer

I always click restart later or no, and play straight away.

grimloch

I have no idea whats it's for and I'm not a man to live on the edge so I'll always choose to restart.

Pugsley

Some games install copyright protection software (see: starf*ck) which require a restart to work, the problem with Starforce, is not only will it stop you using copied CDs to play the game, or fixed .exe files. It wont even work with the original CD a lot of the time, so you end up being stuck with a game you cant play, which is a bit sh*tty

Other times would be for things like a newer DirectX and such lark.

BizzyC

Plus, if you're going to be playing a new game that has high memory requirments, it's good to restart and clear out the ram, so it can run smoother.

Zombrex

Lord Oz wrote:

This is just plain stupid, some pc games ask the user to restart the computer after installing/uninstalling. Now I can understand this in the case of say sc: chaos theory where they've to install that starforce rubbish, but in the case of uninstalling the F.E.A.R. demo, WTF? Ok, I know you just say no and ignore it but it's still annoying and silly. Right, rant finished.

It because a lot of games install things like DirectX and other graphics and sound dlls that have to be re-registered with the Operating System at start up, otherwise you could be using an older (previously installed) version which may not work that well with the new game. It is pretty standard for any software that installs libraries and such that the OS handles to ask for the machine to be restarted.

As someone else said it isn't a bad idea to restart your machine anyway, even if you sure the game hasn't added anything new to the OS, just so you start off with in a semi-clean state memory wise.

Blub2k4

Pugsley wrote:

Some games install copyright protection software (see: starf*ck) which require a restart to work, the problem with Starforce, is not only will it stop you using copied CDs to play the game, or fixed .exe files. It wont even work with the original CD a lot of the time, so you end up being stuck with a game you cant play, which is a bit sh*tty

Other times would be for things like a newer DirectX and such lark.

Mostly for this reason, a lot of copy protection systems load lo-level drivers that need a restart to load up correctly.

Syth

Blub2k4 wrote:

Mostly for this reason, a lot of copy protection systems load lo-level drivers that need a restart to load up correctly.

So you mean by not-restarting the PC one can completly get around the copy protection! Lets just hope those horrible software pirates that are destroying the computer game industry don't hire an expensive computer security consulating firm to help them break our clever new copyright protection system.

Blub2k4

Syth wrote:

So you mean by not-restarting the PC one can completly get around the copy protection! Lets just hope those horrible software pirates that are destroying the computer game industry don't hire an expensive computer security consulating firm to help them break our clever new copyright protection system.

Nope I dont mean that, If you dont restart it will still be loaded, just windows likes to restart :rolleyes: for things to load properly.
I think a lot of the good pirates are in the industry already :cool: