How to make the DCS stand alone find my STEAM installation to transfer updates?

[MK_05]

Hello, 

as said in the title, the problem is, that after migrating my STEAM install of DCS from 

D:\Steam\steamapps\common\DCSWorld  to

E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\DCSWorld

the DCS stand alone on C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World

downloads the updates again, instead of transferring the already installed update files from the steam installation folders as it did before the transfer.

How can I "tell" the DCS stand alone to transfer the files or point it to the STEAM installation in order to profit from this conveniant feature?

 

[Actium]

The DCS_updater.exe checks for other install locations within your registry. AFAICT it checks the following registry keys to find other local DCS installations:

HKCU\Software\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Path
HKCU\Software\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Path
HKCU\Software\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta Server\Path
HKCU\Software\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World Server\Path

A crude way of getting the updater to find your Steam installation would be to create one of the above registry keys, preferably one that does not yet exist on your system, and to set it to your Steam DCS directory. Haven't tried that, but should theoretically work. Obviously, try at your own risk.

Update: Quickest way to do that would be through Windows PowerShell. This will not overwrite any existing registry keys, so should be relatively safe:

New-Item -Path "HKCU:\Software\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta Server\"
New-Item -Path "HKCU:\Software\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta Server\Path" -Value "E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\DCSWorld"

Edited 7 hours ago by Actium
Added PowerShell example code.

[MK_05]

Thank you for reply. The problem is, i even do not know what to change in the registry.

Because I do not know where to begin when trying to follow your advice I searcherd for the registry keys but did not find under  

HKCU\Software\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Path and HKCU\Software\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\

Before I did transfer the STEAM installlation it was under "Steam" on  D and now it is named " SteamLibrary" on E

I assumed, it might have something to do with this?  However, before migrating to Drive E it did copy the files from the STEAM installation to the stand alone.

Or maybe this feature does not work anymore an it was only by incident I migrated at the same time?

 

[Actium]

You have two options. For both, you have to open PowerShell. These are just educated guesses, as I don't have DCS installed via Steam, so, unfortunately, I can't check if it works.

The first option is to run the two commands I've posted above. They will generate a new registry key that pretends the DCS World OpenBeta Server is installed where you installed DCS World via Steam. That should theoretically get the DCS Updater to search files there before downloading them instead.

Alternatively, if it used to work from the old Steam directory on your D: drive, you could create a symlink from the D: drive to the E: drive. That way, if the DCS updater searches in the old location on D: it will be implicitly "forwarded" to the E: drive. Generate the Symlink as follows (note that the parent directories on D: must exist; create them if necessary):

mklink /d D:\Steam\steamapps\common\DCSWorld E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\DCSWorld