[mcbarker]

Since the 1.4 enhanced version upgrade didn't work for me, I considered buying the enhanced version DVD, but after doing some research, changed my mind. The only thing I don't like about CD Projekt's The Witcher (Enhanced Version) software is that it also installs a protection system (Tages + SolidShield) on one's hard drive, and loads 3rd party DRM drivers on boot up, but I'm not certain if these are disabled after the install is validated. The DRM protection looks for any disk emulation software installed on the system (amongst other things), and if detected, may cause a completely legal Witcher install to be flagged as illegal, in turn, causing certain quest dependant NPCs in the game not to show up, which ultimately means that the player cannot successfully complete the game. Apparently, some SCSI and SATA drivers also cause the DRM system to flag the install as invalid. Since I use Alcohol 120% (a completely legal program), which creates virtual drives on my system, I would be hesitant to install The Witcher enhanced version on my system. Too bad.

[coastie65]

Hi mcb, You know it was strange. I completely uninstalled The Witcher as I had completed it anyway. I then installed the Enhanced Version. When I stsrted it, I was surprised to find that my save files ( From the other game) were still in there. I was sure I had done a full uninstallation including the save files. From what I've been able gather there is no DRM, But I do know it is a pain and was ill advised in my opinion. I remember with the old Commodore 64 5 1/4" floppies, The copy protection was such, the head was jumping all over the disk from sector to sector when loading. Noisy too. coastie

[mcbarker]

Hi Coastie... The Tages copy protection was on the original DVD, which I found out when I tried to copy it to a virtual disk using Alcohol 120%. From what I can gather, it was removed, as was the necessity for using the DVD, if the 1.4 free enhanced edition upgrade was used (the one I couldn't install). The new enhanced edition DVD unfortunately uses Tages 5.5.2.6 on both the US and UK editions. Russian editions use StarForce copy protection.

[coastie65]

Hi mcb, I registered this one after I installed it. It is still flashing for an update, but when I click it, it is for 1.4. Which does nothing but give you a runaround. Took me about ten minutes to download all that stuff and then when it went to install, it told told me it was unable to complete it because I needed the language pack. I proceed to download the language pack, and it tells me it can't complete the installation, because it doesn't have the stuff I intially tried to install. I got tired of that merry-go-round. I tried it "Bare Naked " ( no security ) as well and it still didn't work. No adverse effects from that, but I wouldn't tempt fate and do it again.