Running EB in Windows 10

[MRC_Revenant]

I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and Rome: Total War as well as Europa Barbarorum stopped working for me. I kept getting the Access denied, please login with administrator privileges and try again." message. No matter what I tried to do, the game would not work for me. I read up on this issue and found the root cause: the problem is that Windows 10 no longer allows any games running Safedisc or Securerom DRM. Since RTW has one of these DRM, the game will no longer work if you have a CD version! This means that, no matter what you do, the game will continue giving you the admin error.

However, I did find a solution on how to make this work. Although the CD version of the game does not work, users who had the Steam version did not encounter any problems. This solution should work for both RTW and EB, and possibly other mods. This should allow all of us to upgrade to Windows 10 (if we choose) without losing access to our beloved game.

Step 1
Uninstall RTW and EB from your computer. Before you do this, make sure you back up any files you want to keep. This will allow you to keep using them afterwards.

Step 2
Create a Steam account, if you do not have one. Steampowered.com is the link to Steam. If you have Steam, skip to Step 3.

Step 3
In Steam, at the bottom of the screen select Add Game >> Activate Product on Steam. This will prompt you for the CD Key of your RTW game. Make sure that you enter the CD Key Exactly as shown. If done successfully, Steam will add RTW to your Library. Unfortunately, if you no longer have the CD Key, you will have to purchase a digital copy from Steam. As of 2 days ago, RTW was still being sold for $9.99 USD.

Step 4
Now that Steam recognized your game, you will want to install it. This may take some time, as Steam will be installing by downloading from the Internet. The bad news is that you need to have an internet connection. The good news is that you will no longer require the game disc to play RTW. Feel free to do something else while Steam installs Rome: Total War.

Step 5
I am OCD, so I tested that RTW works in Steam after install. No issues, but you may have to recreate your favorite settings/hotkeys. This is the time to overwrite some of the original files with the ones you saved (i.e. settings, saved games, etc.) To do so, open Steam and select RTW. Right click and select Properties. Go to the Local Files tab and click Browse Local Files. This will allow you to see where RTW was installed. This location is very important, especially if you use mods. All mods need to be installed in the RTW folder to work properly! (although there may be work arounds if you wish to install them elsewhere). If you are playing RTW, you are finished once you overwrite the originals with your files. Enjoy your game! If you wish to play EB, please read further.

Step 6
Download EB 1.1 and 1.2 (as necessary) and begin installation. When prompted for the install location, make sure you install EB in the same folder as RTW! Use the instructions above to determine how to do this. Again, this might take a little bit of time.

Step 7
Once EB is installed, refer to Step 5, but as applied to EB. For me, the game ran without a problem and all of the shortcuts worked. Once you put back your saved files, you should be able to enjoy the game in Windows 10

I hope this helps someone who is struggling with the Windows 10 conversion. Moderators - if this is useful, please Sticky in some way, I am sure I am not the only idiot struggling with Win 10 lol. :)