Dragon Age Origins Toolset Setup: SQL Server

Hi everyone,
for those who may have seen the previous version of the post - I had to do some editing and rethinking. You will see it below, I went deeper into the core of the hell......
Last week I decided to use the tool to make a tinnie tinny mod that would make an insignificant change in Leliana's song, and it escalated a bit. First I downloaded the Toolset and guess what I was greeted by? The whole error mess that everyone is faced with when trying to install SQL 2005, that is needed for the Toolset to work. I'm sitting in front of my PC for 6 days in a row now and finally I managed to get everything to run. I had some big progress a couple of days ago, but there were... things.

"So the thing I decided to do is to install a virtual machine. Those who don't get it - I simulate Windows 7 on my Windows 10. And boy, should I have done that so long ago. KOTOR, Fallout 1 & 2, Dragon Age Tool - I could have saved myself so much headache. Now, just to be clear - I am not suggesting to play on that thing. You should just use the tool to make and tinker with your mods, and than you drop the finished work on your physical desktop and play there (the nice thing about VBOX is, that you actually can copy/paste and drag and drop FROM WINDOWS 7 TO WINDOWS 10 this way, no USBs, clouds, sending, or other stuff). The process does require a bit of pc performance, but 16 GB Ram, a couple of Cores and a decent GPU are more then enough. The system works pretty good on my machine, even in 4K (holala), but still - it's a simulator. BUT WE DON'T NEED MORE REALLY. All we want is to make SQL to believe, that it's on something proper for it and starts installing, instead of ISSUES WITH DATABANK or REGISTERS or WHATEVER."

This was the previous solution, that will work for some, but here is the thing: I did overestimate the capabilities of a VM a bit to much. While the Toolset did install without any failure, and by just using the Toolset setup with no extra downloads and installs, that's where it actually ended. The VM uses not enough resources for the Toolset to work good and I didn't like it in the end. You can still try it at least, if the final solution doesn't suit your needs.

Then I was sitting in front of the virtual OS and I thought to myself "you are using the same amount of space for your Windows 7 installed on an VM as you would use by just installing it on the physical machine directly.... And while you don't need any drivers on the VM, you still use space for the VM itself. But in the end your OS can't use your Hardware with their full capabilities, because it's only virtual. Why are you making things so difficult and wasteful....?"

So what I did now is called a Dual Boot. It's the process by installing a second OS on your pc, so you can switch from one too another any time you want in their full form (well as far as you can say it about an old OS that doesn't get any updates and you have to search for outdated software, etc pp). So everytime I boot my PC now, an option pops up on the display for me to choose between Windows 7 and Windows 10.

It did take a bit of time, because ironically - SQL had a problem to run on Windows 7 installed on the physical machine. But in the end, now that I tinkered with this tool in a million different ways, I can tell you exactly what the issue is with the Toolset.




For starters - it doesn't matter where you install SQL, and what version you install, even 2008, 2012, 2015, or 2018. Some people said that they got it running just by installing fresher SQL, and either they didn't tell everything, or it was just my case. The thing is, that SQL as a program needs settings to be turned on in Windows of any version, or your system to download extra components/software, whatever it all was. Per default mine were all turned of in Windows 10 as well as in Windows 7. Maybe it was just me, but the thing is, that I NEVER have been to this section of Windows before and I never messed around in that section. Either it's a part of a big conspiracy, or this people had this options on and extra components from previous tinkering, installation, etc. Not that hard to be forced to, really, I am also forced to do this all the time on Windows 10.

Secondly - if you turn on the option in the Toolset installer for SQL to be installed (which you shouldn't, as I'll explain it in a moment), the Toolset will use the default configuration for the database location that will be different from yours. When you install SQL manually, your Service will be called "Computer Name"/SQLEXPRESS, while ToolsetConfig.exe has .\BWDATOOLSET. Because of this your SQL database DOESN'T HAVE the content for the Toolset in the first place. You installed blank Program, what should the Toolset use? So in order for all to work you have to create a databank, put the content in it that is luckily included in the installed Toolset files, and then navigate with the ToolsetConfig.exe of your Toolset to the databank.

Third - after you've done this, we are still not finished. The register entry, that all except for GOG users have per default (the GOG users have a file in the downloaded folder that they have to RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR, otherwise CMD will show a wrong error text) is set to the default databank of the toolset. We need to navigate this too..... and after that (or actually rather before, but that doesn't matter, I'll tell everything in the proper order in a sec) we have to navigate the Toolset to the correct game installation path, that at least for me was wrong.

There you have it guys - I don't know HOW all those people have succeeded installing and running this tool without mentioning any of this like EVER (at least I never read, had to work with wiki and then a million times with google too, since wiki is only the direction arrow, not the solution itself), especially on Windows 10, but I am here to make my own little donation to this pot.




Below you will see two sections:

The first one is the general handling of the system and the Toolset, and all the needs and all the interactions between them. All the settings that are needed.

The second section is for those, who want to make their life easier and decide to try the double boot reroute that I took. I'll give some obvious information and some tips for those, who haven't been around with Windows 7 in the last couple of years.




If you only want to know the tech specifics of the tool and troubleshooting, read until I say that we are finished. All the others are welcome to continue with this post.
IN GENERAL:

0.1) It's not me, the wiki say's that it's best to do a manual install. The Toolset setup brings SQL installation on, but SQL doesn't tell if everything went according to plan. It only says "I am finished", which can also mean "I failed at every corner, and ended the setup". Actually I wouldn't have gotten this thing to work ever in my life, if I hadn't started to do a manual installation, because of how much it is that one must edit as you can see. You can't find out this stuff with one single error message from the Toolset.exe after installation. If you want to keep trying to get it working the simple and quick way, be my guest and keep trying to search in all this forums with everyone else clinging on that one person who says, that he got it running by installing a later version, or something like that. Maybe it is that simple, maybe they already had made all the following steps in the past, maybe I'm just nuts. But none of the forums got me anywhere, only by doing the manual installation with the guidance of wiki. Nobody is promising anything. As the wiki says, even if you only find out what the actual issue is, it is a big step, because solutions start snowballing one after another when you got it going in the first place. What I might promise is that after this guide and try out you will know about almost every step and interaction of the program with the system. So if you want to give it a shot, you are welcome to continue.




ONLY FOR GOG USERS:

0.2) The Toolset depends on registry entries, which are by default always installed with the game, except for the GOG version. Those users have to run the register file included with the tool AS ADMINISTRATORS (otherwise the CMD will show something totally different). If you ran the register file multiple times, chances are that you also deleted the entry again, since the file does creation and deletion of this. When you run the file, it should say "Path not found. Do you want to create?" press Y. If it says that the path is already there, it gives you the option to delete it. Self explanatory. You will find out soon enough if you have the entry, you don't have to have it from the beginning, so just keep this section in mind and move forward.




JUST A TIP (GO ON IF YOU DON'T CARE)

0.3) You should install a powerful third party uninstaller. When you install or uninstall softwares errors may encounter and when trying to uninstall this software, a message may pop up "unable to uninstall". The default windows uninstaller sees this message and just goes on with it like "oh, okay, can't uninstall, I'll just abort everything". This will lead to residual files flowing around in your system getting in the way of working software, or even take the ability to uninstall the software at all. Third party uninstallers can help with that. I myself use IObit Uninstaller and it's just WONDERFUL. It monitors the files that are created by the installer separately and notes them. When an error pops up while trying to uninstall, this software just ignores it and deletes all the files individually that were created through the installation. It works in like 90% of the cases. NOTE: it may delete all the related files to the software, so if you have any work you've done and want to keep, you might want to back up. Doesn't really happen to me, but you never know.




NOW FOR ALL:

1) Install Dragon Age Origins, download the Toolset from your vendor (probably in "extra" section - it is at least in GOG), install the Toolset WITHOUT THE OPTIONS "INSTALL MS SQL EXPRESS 2005 SP3" AND "RESTORE THE DEFAULT DATABASE" (UNCHECK THEM).


2) Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features and on the left side click "Turn Windows features on and off". There go to "Internet Information Services" and just check EVERYTHING in there (support say's in particular Web Management Tools: IIS 6 Management Compatibility: IIS Metabase and IIS 6 configuration compatibility, IIS Management Console, IIS Management Scripts and Tools, IIS Management Service; World Wide Web Services: Application Development Features: .NET Extensibility, ASP.NET, ISAPI Extensions, ISAPI Filters; Common HTTP Features: Default Document, Static Content; Security: Basic Authentication, Request Filtering Windows Authentication;)

BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE, JUST TURN EVERYTHING ON........

Now you should have IIS7 installed on your PC (in Windows 10 it's IIS6 for god knows what reasons, but same procedure), and when you type ISS in the search field you'll see "Internet Information Services". Run as admin, on the left go to "View Application Pools/Set Application Pool Defaults". Choose "Enable 32-Bit Application" and set it to "true".

WITHOUT THIS, SQL WILL HAVE TROUBLES INSTALLING SOME COMPONENTS, HENCE THE INSTALLATION IS INCOMPLETE/FLAWED.


3) Download SQL (I did this with SQL 2005 on my Windows 7, on Windows 10 I tried 2005: not compatible, 2008: loads something, and then nothing happens, hell I don't know if my PC is full of junk now, since this stuff flies somewhat through the whole system, find leftovers everywhere...; 2012: error; for some reason even 2018 had an error, I don't get what's wrong with this system....). You need Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack 4 (or similar) & Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (64 or 32-bit) (or similar).


download.cnet.com/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2005-Express-Edition-Service-Pack-4/3000-10254_4-75452276.html

download.cnet.com/Microsoft-SQL-Server-Management-Studio-Express-64-bit/3000-10254_4-75452285.html


Use the default settings everywhere, don't change anything as it is stated like this on Toolset Wiki. It was a bit too much for me to play around with, and luckily Windows 10 didn't even let me this far, otherwise I had 1000 things to try out to potentially get it to work....


4) Now type in the search field "SQL Server Manager" and open it AS ADMINISTRATOR. In the middle field, the big screaming letters is your Server Name. Right-click on "Databases" in the window below and choose "New Database". Type "bw_dragonage_content" as Database name and click okay. Now you have the area the Toolset will search for content, but the content itself is missing. Luckily the Toolset installs a backup of it's database with the rest of the files. Right-click on the new "bw_dragonage_content" and choose "Tasks/Restore/Database". Switch to "From device" and navigate to "...\Dragon Age Origins\tools\dbbak" and choose "bw_dragonage_content.bak". DON'T CLICK "OKAY"!!! On the left click on "Options" and choose "Overwrite the existing database". Now click "okay", BUT DON'T CLOSE THE MANAGER!

Congrats, we have everything the Toolset needs for creation. Now to the navigation. We're almost there.


5) Go to "....\Dragon Age Origins\tools" and open "ConfigureToolset.exe". In Win32 Game Build navigate to your game folder, NOT THE TOOLSET FOLDER (my path was totally messed up). Click next. Uncheck "Use the default database" and click on the three dots. In "Select or enter a server name" copy your Server Name (the screaming letters in the Manager, or on the left side if you are not in the root folder). Don't copy the whole String, only what comes before the brackets. Me as example: THISPC\SQLEXPRESS (SQL Server 9.0.5000 - ThisPC\Alice Quinn), my Server Name is THISPC\SQLEXPRESS. Copy the string to the Data Link Properties of ConfigureToolset that you had opened. Make sure that "Select the database on the server" states "bw_dragonage_content", which is the name of your databank. Now click "Test connection". If it succeeds, congrats, everything exists and is working! Click "okay", BUT DON'T CLICK "NEXT"!

This is one of those ways how you rule out what the issue with the Toolset is. At this point, it can't be missing files  


6) Now the only thing that's left is to edit the register, as it was installed with the default path (now is the point were GOG users should start to remember :cool:). Press Windows button & R together. This should bring the Run window out. Alternatively just use the search menu. Type "regedit" and run it. The register window should show up. Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\BioWare\Dragon Age\Toolset\Environment". You should see "DefaultDatabaseConnection" in the big window. Double click on it. Now bring out the ConfiguteTool program and copy the new generated database path between "Database" and "...". Replace the content of "DefaultDatabaseConnection" with it. Click okay and close the register. Click next and finished in the ConfigureTool.

Run the Toolset, it should work now. If there are errors - it's not because of missing files or installation, only the proper naming and path, or compatibility in case of Windows 10, which is, well - that's what I warned you about. If you want to get it running, my solution continues below, for all the others.....




CONGRATS YOU'RE DONE 


















Now as mentioned before, here ends the guide for all those, who don't want to implement an alternative OS as an option for older software. If you are reading this, then you are at least interested AND YOU SHOULD BE!

Windows 10 is not a bad OS, I am not as radical in my opinion as many, but I am also not one of the choleric who always talk about Windows 7 lack of support, insecurity, and god know what. There are a couple of things to understand. If you are convinced anyway, skip the section until the green screaming letters:


1) Windows 7 still had updates all the way till 2021, and while some are pacifistic blocked by Microsoft with incompatible errors and pop up that your hardware is not supported, there are workarounds that let you install all the updates and drives and your system works like a charm. Well, maybe not a charm, because modern software don't include Windows 7 anymore, but we don't need modern software on Windows 7, we need this old hag to run the good old software and games that Window 10 is ******** about.


2) Regarding Windows 7 not being secure and THINKING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE: firstly, you shouldn't be looking forward to hanging around in internet using Windows 7, constantly downloading stuff, especially the questionable ones and of course don't do porn on Windows 7... You should use the OS for installing stuff, and for downloading you can even use the SHARED DRIVER (that is if you have two drives and you didn't give all the space of the second drive to your Windows 7, which is absolutely stupid, read below. And secondly - I use IObit system care and guess what - when I use it on WIndows 7 it says about 900 privacy traces, etc pp, which isn't much really, because on windows 10 I've got over 1000 and that while using best rated antivirus, malware protection, and regularly fixing those holes. Right now, I don't get any feeling of Windows 7 not being good cared off... Of course, I am not looking to provoke it either.


YOU CAN OF COURSE GIVE A VIRTUAL MACHINE A CHANCE, BY ALL MEANS! IT'S 99% SAFE, AS THE CONTAMINATION OF THE OS STAYS IN THE BOX AND THE CLEAN REMOVAL TAKES ONLY A COUPLE OF MOMENTS! BUT YOU SHOULD NOT SHARE CONTAMINATED FILES WITH YOUR PHYSICAL MACHINE, AS THE BOX WON'T HELP YOU MUCH THERE. ALSO BE AWARE THAT WHILE A VIRTUAL MACHINE DOESN'T REALLY TAKE MUCH RESOURCES (FOR MODERN STANDARDS.....), IT'S SPEED AND DOING SOMETHING BIG AND CREATIVE WITH IT IS MUCH HARDER, SINCE THE VIRTUAL OS ONLY USES THE POTENTIAL OF YOUR HARDWARE TO A MINIMUM. THAT'S WHY I DECIDED TO TAKE A DIFFERENT ROOT. APART FROM THAT - HAVE FUN! :cool:





Well, there isn't really much to say actually... the end just kidding...


But it is pretty simple and rather self explanatory. You make a new partition (preferably a different one from the first OS as you will see below), and allocate it some space. DON'T GET CARRIED AWAY, BECAUSE IT'S DUMB..... I HAVE WINDOWS 7, WITH ALL THE UPDATES, DRIVERS, SOME PROGRAMS, GOG GALAXY, DAO ULTIMATE, AND THE TOOLSET ALL ON THE SAME PARTITION AND IT ONLY TAKES ME 115,7 GB....... I allocated 200 GB and I am totally satisfied, runs quick and smooth, not looking to change anything. Now even if you don't have a 2 TB HDD/SSD, with 1 TB you still got 800 GB left on that drive, so don't worry. It will only get critical if, what, you have 20 OVER 50GB HUGE GAMES INSTALLED SIMULTANEOUSLY? I am sorry to tell you, but you've got some other problems, dude 

SO YEAH, ANYWAYS: new partition with 200GB preferably on a different drive, because when an OS is installing, it divides the partition in 3 parts and when you shrink this partition afterwards, THE FREE SPACE IS BETWEEN THOSE PARTS, AND THIS IS NOT GOOD! At least it can end up like this - I also read that people manage to install both OS on the same drive and if not for the fact that I just mentioned, there are no huge issues actually. Luckily, the installer of the new OS is very smart and you won't do something this wrong without notice, as it is going to worn you, when you choose the partition as the place of install. Convenient, no? Even the installer thinks about you not **** things up on your first OS :cool:

The first thing you will notice is, that when you boot/restart your pc you will be presented now with an option to choose between the OS. If you don't, the highlighted OS will be chosen within 15 seconds or so. When you boot up your PC, you may notice another strange thing, at least I did - the drive letter I assigned for the partition was changed. And this is funny, because my WIndows 10 has the C letter, as does my Windows 7, although they are on different partitions, and such thing is not possible in general... But here is the thing - the current OS gives the other OS a different letter! While my WIndows 10 has a C letter, in Windows 7 it is shown as E letter, and vise versa. Pretty funny, and I don't actually fear a lot, because this must be some kind of a safe mechanism. I installed a lot of things and nothing strange's happening so far, each uses their own stuff. The thing you might want to do is to go to drive manager an delete the letter of the other OS. Don't worry, that doesn't delete the files or anything, but it makes it very hard to get into the other OS, which will not only not have any letter which is in most cases a game breaker for installation, but also it will be INVISIBLE to you, and that's the pretty thing. When I am in Windows 10, I don't see Windows 7, only the rest of the drive that I kept separated from the Windows 7 OS, and same goes in the other direction - only the "second" drive, although it is the same, but a different partition, and no Windows 10 in sight. Makes things cleaned.

So the first thing we need on this OS is the Ethernet driver, because Windows 7 DOESN'T PRE INSTALL IT! You have either put the driver on the installation Stick/Disc, so you can open it when WIndows 7 starts up and install it from there, or use a driver CD if you have one, or even more clever - use your shared drive  That's right, and that's the cool thing - you can drop things in one OS on the shared drive and pick them up from the other. No sending, uploading, or other Voodoo stuff. Install the driver, and move on to the Updates first. At the beginning you will be presented with the nice 169 Updates. Iiiiiiiiiiihaaaaa. Click install, go to the cinema or something.... Nah, doesn't take that long, but 30 minutes should be in. Then you'll get the error message that 6 files couldn't be installed (maybe a couple more, seems to variate, maybe because I installed the first time on the VM...). Don't worry about that, people are getting them for years when they setup their OS anew. Just copy the errors and google for solutions. I already solved the errors twice this week and both times I did it within minutes, not hours. There is an error that is supposed to say, that your hardware is not supported by the system. It will come up either way, and mine was 80072efe (I think there are more of them, but I am not sure). Don't be afraid, there is a workaround. There is a software called Wufuc from Zeffy that overrides those errors and suddenly you are able to download I think over 20 extra updates. I'll post the link at the end. Don't delete it after the first use, as in the end the error updates may come back, or at least there is an update THAT DOES NOTHING BUT CONSTANTLY LETTING A MESSAGE POP UP THAT SAYS "YOUR HARDWARE IS NOT SUPPORTED". Veeeeery clever way to bring people to switch to new OS, let's just sell some annoying stuff as an update, that actually acts like a malware.... Look in Control Panel\Windows Update\Installed Updates and if you see KB4012218 listed, uninstall it, reboot. If KB4012218 is offered to you again you can right click and hide it so (hopefully) you will never see it again. This may be not the only such kind of an update, it solved the pop up issue for me though. But yeah, Wufuc will deal with all of them. After all the updates were installed, the updater is green and you ran Wufuc as well, go to "Change settings" on the left in the update windows and set it to "Never check for updates" as I guess Windows 7 won't get anymore anyway and we don't want the annoying pop ups to return....

After you did this, there isn't much you need, since as I said before - you should only use the OS for installing and using older software. But obviously you need SOME drives even for them. Start with the GPU as it is a tricky one. Don't just go and install it like you always do, as Windows 7 might get problems with newer GPUs. I use 1080 Ti and the first two installs where flawed. Instead use the Display Driver Uninstaller (link at the bottom) to uninstall all possible junk that may have come with the updates. Then go to the site that I post at the bottom as well, since that was the Nvidia site that actually gave me the right drive... I don't know why, it also looks different, but it worked. I'll also post a link that describes the details that I followed. For everything else I use IObit Driver Booster as an all in one installer, no matter Wndows 10 or WIndows 7, since it is very good - it analyses your system and picks the right drives for you. I only had a couple of times in my life were it installed something wrong, and more often I installed something wrong, so yeah. It's still safer then doing yourself actually. Should you install it, check if you have the trial version. If you do, try to delete and it will suggest switching to the free version. The reason is because the trail version only allows you to install 1 drive a day, while the free version gives you unlimited installations, with the exception for game drives, THAT YOU WON'T USE ANYWAY, SINCE YOU ARE NOT ABOUT TO PLAY HIGH END GAMES ON WIN 7. But you can of course do it manually. Your choice, your risk.

And to the very end, install the typical directx 11 (latest for WIndows 7) and all the c++ redistributable and try to do so with net.Framework (the latest 4.8 will install with an update, and the others I've tried got installed on the shared partition for some reasons, so I let them out, but choose for yourself). This you should install since they are often needed for software and games to run, no matter how old they are (well, relatively....). Of course get yourself an antivirus and malware protection, even though you shouldn't do risking surfing in internet, only trusting sites like Youtube and equal. Let Windows 10 do the searching and downloading and then drop the files to the shared partition, where you can pick them up with WIndows 7 and install. Just as easy and safe as that :happy:




Here are the links for....


Wufuc: www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/wufuc.html

GPU fix site: appuals.com/this-nvidia-graphics-driver-is-not-compatiable-with-this-version-of-windows/

Display Driver Uninstaller: www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

And Nvidia site that actually gave me a compatible driver (with Geforce experience and everything else, no hold backs): www.nvidia.com/de-de/geforce/drivers/




And that's it! Hope I could give another solution for some, not only for DAO Toolset but in general for all the software or games Windows 10 has issues with, because I just tear my hair off all the time, when this moment comes and I know, I've got the typical search afternoon before me...... Should you have any further questions, feel free to DM me and I'll try to help as far as I can.