Regarding opening up Medieval2.preferences.cfg file properly

**hellas1** · August 10, 2007, 05:37 PM

Hi all,

I've posted this request in the released mods section but no one answered me.

How does one properly open up the preferences.cfg file? With what tool?

That's all!

hellas1 Thanks!

**Dick** · August 10, 2007, 05:45 PM

In order to open the file, change the extension to .txt. So for example, the filename becomes "preferences.cfg.txt". This will let you open the file in a notepad document. In order to edit the file and save changes you may have to right click the file and untick the read only option, I can't rightly remember.

**hellas1** · August 10, 2007, 06:03 PM

Hi King Richard,

Thanks man!

hellas1

**Trajan** · August 10, 2007, 06:08 PM

Originally Posted by hellas1

I've posted this request in the released mods section but no one answered me.

That's because it didn't belong there.

**hellas1** · August 10, 2007, 11:58 PM

Hello all,

I tried to do what King Richard told me to do and it didn't work.

My current preference.cfg file is very small and when I did try to change it to a .txt format, the contents of the file only had 4 lines of code!

Please somebody, HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPP!

I just tried to play the Grand Campaign and only 5 factions showed up on screen! I need to activate all the factions for playability again and I forgot how to do that also.

Been out of the loop in coding sense for a while.

Thank you very much for your kindness,
hellas1

**Dick** · August 11, 2007, 09:53 AM

4 lines of code? That's not right at all, mine has nearer 50. What is the code, can you copy and paste it here please?

Did you get any error messages when trying to open the file? Are you patched to 1.2? Have you played the game before openeing it (this should then put all your graphical settings etc into the file)? Did you make the file read only after you finished your editing (you don't need to do this)? Did you make the file extension .cfg gain after you had finished?

I'm sure the error wasn't in my explanation, as I've just done it and it worked fine.

**hellas1** · August 11, 2007, 11:14 AM

Hi K.R.,

I have Vista dude.

I did reinstall MTW2 and played a few games.

My config file is reading 3 kb now.

I'll play another game and change the file.
BUT one thing, when I went to save the changed file, my system said that that was NOT possible, the path and filename were wrong!

Cool? I'll report back brother. hellas1

**Dick** · August 11, 2007, 02:59 PM

I'm not familiar at all with how Vista works with games. Does it use a filing system different than XP, in the sense that games file go into a designated games folder?

The only other thing I can think of is to create a mod folder and use the mod switch method so you can use another create another config file and see if that works. It isn't exactly ideal and unless you're doing any substantial modding would probably be a waste of your time.

Sorry I can't be much more help, but I'm afraid you're going to have to wait until someone with Vista and modding experience comes along. I'm pretty much clutching at straws here.

**GrnEyedDvl** · August 11, 2007, 04:36 PM

Right click on it and select Properties, make sure Read Only is NOT checked.

Do not converti it to a .txt file first. Right click on it and select Open with... Then click Choose Program.

Scroll through the programs and select Notepad, if you wish you can check the box that says "Always use the selected program to open this type of file" so that you can open it by double clicking next time.

That will get it open then you can just click Save to save your changes.

A note on Vista, if you change the file file type at the bottom you must also change the extension at the top or it will give you that error about the filename being wrong. I can post a screenshot on that later if you wish but not on a Vista machine at the moment.

**Leaky** · September 11, 2007, 12:08 AM

or just right click/open with/ notepad

**canuckxpride** · June 04, 2009, 04:00 PM

You have to click enable "Compatibility files" first, on Vista. And then you can edit your preference.cfg file

**Jesreun** · May 24, 2010, 09:25 AM

I'm having a similar issue here. Been trying to get M2 Gold to run on my native 1440x900 resolution, because my monitor goes black without it. I know I have to manually set the resolution, but I'm using Vista. All I get when I open the medieval2.preference.cfg file is this:

[video]
widescreen=1
[game]
allusers=1

So how do I get it to show the whole thing?

**PlayerOne** · May 24, 2010, 01:54 PM

Try this, may help - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=70942

**True_Orb** · February 05, 2011, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by Dick

4 lines of code? That's not right at all, mine has nearer 50. What is the code, can you copy and paste it here please?

Did you get any error messages when trying to open the file? Are you patched to 1.2? Have you played the game before openeing it (this should then put all your graphical settings etc into the file)? Did you make the file read only after you finished your editing (you don't need to do this)? Did you make the file extension .cfg gain after you had finished?

I'm sure the error wasn't in my explanation, as I've just done it and it worked fine.

The problem with this is that s/he's referring to the preferences file in the main M2 folder. The one with all the code (the correct one to edit) is in a separate folder with the game saves (There's another thread somewhere on how to find it, it's in C:/users/your user name/AppData (hidden-you need to make these viewable)/local/virtualstore/SEGA or something similar.