ET Key issues in Vista

Post by **dirtyolman** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:28 pm

I've managed some time to post this, I said I would, so I am!

Vista users have been having issues trying to find this "Ghost ET Key" that causes some users to Format their drives. For example, if you have

admin rights on a server, and no longer want those rights, then you can simply erase the ET Key in the ET Main folder, and another will be

generated when you start ET. However, in Vista,there is a "Hidden" key. Let me elaborate.....I found this key in an unusual place, installed in a

new way. Vista sets PB to generate a folder deep in the user's Vista Profile, in which, Windows XP does not do.

By the looks of the profile structure, windows vista generates this folder and not PB.

Now if you erase ET, and accidentally delete your key, you can find it here.

I'll call that a !Dirty Bailout

To find this "Hidden key, follow the pics below, and note the red circled folders, they will guide you.

Enjoy.....
!Dirty!

TheDecipher · Post by **TheDecipher** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:45 am

So now if we delete the etkey in the original et folder, does it generate a new etkey in both places or it uses the 'stored' key in the punkbuster folder???

D :)

Post by **dirtyolman** » Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:35 pm

This is a good question...................

When you remove the keys out of the ET game folder all together and start ET, it will generate a new key, and a new profile will have to be made to make it work (scratch profile).

The Problem I had in Vista is when I did this, it still saw my old key, and no matter what I did to correct it, it still went back to my old key

I made this attempt numerous times and had many Saga-driven Epic failures

each time. In turn, the only choice was to Format the ol drive .

ET uses the key located in the ETMain folder usually, ET must have detected a key change and reverted to a known profile, and this would make sense.

I found the log that ET generates in the users profile folder that shows this Users folder being generated, and it is generated by ET and utilized by PB, as I would venture a guess to be a profile backup.

This was an actual event.