How to perform a fresh install of GM: S 1.4

Richard
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Some errors are caused by the way in which GameMaker has been installed and something has been corrupted in some manner, or you may have a licensing or updater issue which means that updating normally will not work for you until you have the new version installed.  This is usually a last resort option, but will avoid or solve a lot of issues.

This guide will show the path names for the normal GM release, but the same steps apply to Early Access - you generally just have to add "-Early-Access" to the folder names.

  • "appdata" typically refers to C:\Users\<YOUR NAME>\AppData\Roaming\GameMaker-Studio or C:\Users\<YOUR NAME>\AppData\Roaming\gamemaker_studio if you're using Steam
  • "localappdata" typically refers to C:\Users\<YOUR NAME>\AppData\Local\GameMaker-Studio or C:\Users\<YOUR NAME>\AppData\Local\gamemaker_studio if you're using Steam

 

Backup Before You Begin!

Please note that you will lose your preferences here, so (unless we have already advised you otherwise in a Helpdesk ticket or similar) please use Regedit to export your preferences registry key.

Start > Run
"Regedit" [press enter]
Follow the tree on the left to find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GMStudio
Right-click this folder and choose "Export", then give it a suitable save name and location
You will get a .reg file you can simply double-click later on to restore your preferences

 

If you are an Android developer, go to your localappdata folder and move your Android .keystore file(s) to a safe place first - you MUST NOT lose this file if you have published games on Google Play or Amazon, as you would be unable to update these products!

If you are a GameMaker Marketplace publisher, go to your localappdata folder and move your .pem certificate(s) to a safe place first - you MUST NOT lose this file if you have published assets on the Marketplace, as you would be unable to update these products!

Feel free to back up anything else you want. If you have certificates for stores not listed above, please make sure you back these up also!

 

Removing Your Files

First of all, open Control Panel > "Programs and Features" and uninstall GM as you would any application.

Then, make sure your localappdata and appdata folders are definitely deleted.

 

 

Removing Your Registry Settings

Open Regedit again and delete the folder we located and exported earlier along with another key:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GMStudio
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\5tudio

(note that is a number 5, not a letter "S").

You may also have some at the following locations, so remove them if you do have them:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\5piceIDE_RASMANCS
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\GameMaker-Studio_RASAPI32
  • HKEY_USERS\ <BIG NUMBER> \Software\5tudio
  • HKEY_USERS\ <BIG NUMBER> \Software\GMStudio

For Steam users, you will only have the one folder and it will be: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GMStudio_Steam

If you are having trouble finding these, simply do a search (Edit -> Find) for the folder.

After this, please restart your computer.

 

Getting Your Installer

Now you are free to re-install GameMaker from your License Page or you can click the installer download link in the green version number heading at the top of http://store.yoyogames.com/downloads/gm-studio/release-notes-studio.html.

Steam users will need to install GameMaker Studio via their library as normal.

 

Re-Applying Your Saved Preferences

Once your installation is complete, close down Studio's welcome screen after it launches automatically (if modules are downloading, then wait for that to complete first) and then double-click your preferences .reg file. Windows will ask you to confirm adding the information into your registry, just accept this. Now launch Studio again and you're good to go.

 

If Issues Still Persist

Unfortunately, support for 1.4 has ended as of July 31st 2018, so if you have issues with your system that a fresh install was unable to fix, then we cannot advise further what your issue might be. Try Googling any error messages you can see in your trace.log file in your localappdata folder, plus your traceIDE.log file if you have one in your appdata folder (both of these are simple text files you can open with Notepad, etc.). 

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