Tes4Gecko wont load

[Guest nameless762]

Aloha.

 

I downloaded TES4Gecko earlier today, but it doesn't seem to work for me.

I have the shortcut set up correctly, and the application does run. However, I always get an error message saying:

 

Exception during program initialization

 

java.io.IOException: Unable to locate Oblivion installation directory

TES4Gecko.Main.main(Main.java:145)

 

Using the magical powers of google it seems the problem is because I use a 64-bit computer.

Can somebody give me instructions on what to do to fix it?

 

Help will be greatly appreciated

[Striker879]

I can't be any help on the 64bit issue but is Oblivion installed in the default C:\Program Files (x86) directory? If so the Microsoft security feature UAC may be causing problems. It's recommended to install Oblivion outside Program Files (e.g. C:\Games\Oblivion\...).

[Guest nameless762]

I can't be any help on the 64bit issue but is Oblivion installed in the default C:\Program Files (x86) directory? If so the Microsoft security feature UAC may be causing problems. It's recommended to install Oblivion outside Program Files (e.g. C:\Games\Oblivion\...).

I don't think that's the problem, cuz TES4LODGen doesn't have any problems

[theuseless]

Please list your OS, service pack version and the install directory for Oblivion. This will help to find a solution, if not diagnose the problem.

[chaospearl]

It has to do with the fact that the program is looking for an entry in your registry that isn't in there. To quote myself (from last time this came up):

 

It's because Gecko is looking for a specific registry entry and Windows x64 systems have the entry tucked behind another key instead of where it ought to be. You have to manually add another entry where Gecko expects it to be.

 

Open your registry with RegEdit. Just do it, it isn't that scary.

 

Find this folder up at the top: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE] and click on it to open it up. More folders will be inside. Find the one that says SOFTWARE and open that. Now inside that find Bethesda Softworks, then Oblivion.

 

If you don't have those entries, you'll have to create them. Do that by right clicking whichever folder is supposed to contain the entry but doesn't, and pick New > Key. (A key is a folder, essentially.) Type in the name of the key you need to create.

 

For instance, inside the SOFTWARE folder there should be a Bethesda Softworks folder - if it isn't in there, right-click SOFTWARE and create a new key called Bethesda Softworks. Then right-click the key you just created, Bethesda Softworks, and create another key inside it called Oblivion.

 

When you get down to the Oblivion key, you need to right-click and choose to create a new String Value. Call it "Installed Path" without the quotes. Now right-click the thing you just created and modify the value, which should be this:

 

"C:\Folder\Folder" where Folder is the name of wherever you installed the game. For instance, mine says C:\Games\Oblivion.

 

Here's a screen of what it should look like when you've done it right:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[theuseless]

could a moderator please stick this post somewhere it can easily be found? This is great info that needs to be accessable easily. Kudos to chaospearl for the solution

[RMWChaos]

Aloha.

 

I downloaded TES4Gecko earlier today, but it doesn't seem to work for me.

I have the shortcut set up correctly, and the application does run. However, I always get an error message saying:

 

Exception during program initialization

 

java.io.IOException: Unable to locate Oblivion installation directory

TES4Gecko.Main.main(Main.java:145)

 

Using the magical powers of google it seems the problem is because I use a 64-bit computer.

Can somebody give me instructions on what to do to fix it?

 

Help will be greatly appreciated

 

While this has been answered below in chaospearl's post, and while the thread itself is aging a bit, I thought I'd add a little tip to make this simple for those folks running into similar problems.

 

The issue here is that some tools were designed to run on Winx86 (32-bit) OS platforms, and are therefore not familiar with the Winx64 registry structure. On Winx64, when you install Oblivion or Morrowind, the Bethesda Softworks registry entry goes into the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node] path rather than the expected [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE] path.

 

The easiest way to fix this without breaking anything is to do the following...

 

1. Open Regedit (it's scary, but as long as you make only these changes, you'll be ok).
2. Go to the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Wow6432Node \ Bethesda Softworks] path and click on it to highlight it.
3. Right click on the Bethesda Softworks path on the left and select EXPORT.
4. Choose any location to save the file that you will remember and name it something like "bethsoft.reg".
5. Open the folder where you saved the file, right click on the file (in this case "bethsoft.reg"), and open it with your preferred
   editor (I like Notepad++).
6. From the drop-down list of the editor, select the "Replace" option (in Notepad++ it's SEARCH-->REPLACE).
7. In the FIND WHAT: box, type "Wow6432node\" with the backslash but without the quotes
8. In the REPALCE WITH: box, leave it blank.
9. Hit REPLACE ALL. It should tell you something like 39 items replaced (if you have both Oblivion and Morrowind installed).
10. Save the file, and exit the editor.
11. Now double-click the "bethsoft.reg" file, and it will ask you to confirm that you want to import it into the Registry. Say yes,
    obviously.

 

When done, you should now have an exact duplicate of the Bethesda Softworks path from the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node] path in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE] path.

 

This won't hurt anything to have duplicate entries in the different locations, but I'm not at all certain that various registry cleaner programs won't flag one or the other and "clean" it out. If this happens, if you saved your "bethsoft.reg" file, just double-click it again to reapply the changes to the Registry.

 

After I did these steps, TES4Gecko worked fine for me.

 

I've attached "Bethsoft.reg.txt" as an example of an edited version of the registry path ready to be applied, but your install paths may be different. If you installed Oblivion to "C:\Games\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion", then you can just remove the ".txt" extention at the end of this file and use it. However, many folks are paranoid about applying reg hacks from unvetted sources (with good reason); so I won't be offended if you choose not to use it. :wink:

 

 

Regards,

 

 

-RMWChaos

[Borisman1]

I ran into this problem, and after a long search and useless forum posts, I found this topic which solved everything at once! kudos to the people who are being so helpful ;) Edited September 19, 2011 by Borisman1

[djduncan63]

I ran into this problem, and after a long search and useless forum posts, I found this topic which solved everything at once! kudos to the people who are being so helpful ;)

 

 

This error mentioned at the top - quoted below" - is exactly what I experienced as well:

 

"I downloaded TES4Gecko earlier today, but it doesn't seem to work for me.

I have the shortcut set up correctly, and the application does run. However, I always get an error message saying:

 

Exception during program initialization

 

java.io.IOException: Unable to locate Oblivion installation directory

TES4Gecko.Main.main(Main.java:145)

 

Using the magical powers of google it seems the problem is because I use a 64-bit computer.

Can somebody give me instructions on what to do to fix it?

 

Help will be greatly appreciated"

 

Thanks to chaospearl and RMWChaos for their great info. It is greatly appreciated!

 

I have a 64-bit computer with Windows 7 Professional and this helped perfectly. Kudos Guys!

Edited June 14, 2012 by djduncan63

[Pellape]

Thanks a lot. I needed to run TES4Gecko yesterday and ran into this problem. Made the new regfile without Wow6432Node and imported it.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Pellape