Vista gaming - argh!

[Deadlight]

This is not a moan about Vista gaming performance (or lack of!) but something else; right, you install a game on your Vista machine and..oh, where has it gone? No desktop shortcut, no start menu entries, not anything in 'games explorer'.

So you have to make shortcuts youself to the right executables. What a lot of arse. I have been told that even World of Conflict does the same thing. How are we meant to use Vista as a games OS if the damn things are installed properly!

Argh!

[Lanky123]

Its not so bad...its only done that for a few of my games i think (the rest did appear in the 'My Games' section or somewhere on the start menu or something) and its not an awful lot of bother to add a shortcut.

On the other hand, I do agree that if it worked in XP theres no reason for it to be taken out in Vista.

[dangel]

I suspect the installer tbh - i've had no problems creating shortcuts for our software

[s_kinton]

I've not had this problem. It always appears in either the start menu or the Games area.

[Andy3536]

Wow!
You really are making somthing out of nothing here!
Those 10% that don't give you the option to create a shortcut, you just go to the program file yourself, not even 30 seconds of your time!

[Nick]

I think Deadlight's point is that perhaps software that earns the Games For Windows label should have a standard set of features, much like everything on the Xbox 360 does.

And you know what, he's right.

Yes, give me the option to have a desktop icon.

Yes, put the game in the games area.

Yes, stick the saved games in the My Documents folder along with any screenshots.

NO, don't bloody sign me up to Gamespy or install Yahoo desktop search.

Oh and while you're on, all third party software not directly related to the game, such as PunkBuster and GameSpy should be an 'opt in' option by default so I can just hit the 'Quick installation' button safe in the knowledge you're not going to install a load of crap on my HDD along with the game.

Ooh, I feel all light headed after that mini-rant...

[Andy3536]

From what i understand all games marked up as 'games for windows' give you the option for an icon on the desktop.
Infact i have only ever had one game that didn't give that option, even if he has to do it on half the games he buys we are still only talking what 1 - 2 times a month, if that to spend 30 seconds of time creating a shortcut.
This is a piontless thread!

[0iD]

I like it, it puts all your games in your games folder

Just ctrl+drag onto the desktop if you so wish. Job done, no fuss, less clutter.
Every game i've installed has landed in there no problem from SiN Episodes to CoD2 to GRAW2 to Halo 2 to Bioshock.

[danroyle]

yeah i must admit i have only had this problem with maybe one game and i suspect that i may not have ticked the create desktop shortcut box on installation

[Deadlight]

Well yeah, Nick is right. I know that making a shortcut is easy, but then should I have to? What about some people (young kids, etc.) who can't see a shortcut for the games, and don't know how?

[Andy3536]

Well yeah, Nick is right. I know that making a shortcut is easy, but then should I have to? What about some people (young kids, etc.) who can't see a shortcut for the games, and don't know how?

Not sure if you've noticed with vista, theres a search above the windows logo when you hit the start menu, wouldn't take long for a kid to figure out once he types in 'ca' call of duty will apear in the list?