So silly me, somewhere along the line I turned on User Account Control in Vista, and next time I tried to connect to battle.net it said it couldn't identify the application version and to try reinstalling SC. Well, I did, and got the same error, then realized UAC could be screwing it up, and turned off the UAC. Sure enough, that was the problem. So I'm all happy, and it's connecting and downloading the patch for me, but then I get an error, as detailed later. "Well no problem" I says to myself, I'll go and download it from the blizzard support page. So I do, and I run it, and get a different patching error. Uh oh, I think to myself. I start fooling around with compatibility settings and stuff and re-download my version of starcraft and redownload the patch a couple times, but nothing's working. Here is an email I wrote to support@blizzard.com, but I'm not sure how fast they'll respond, so I figured I'd ask for help here too in the hopes one of you guys might have encountered this before.

Dear Blizzard Representative,

Recently I was trying to play starcraft brood wars on battle.net, so I downloaded it from the blizzard store and installed it like usual, and the game itself seems to work fine. Unfortunately however, when I attempt to connect
to battle.net, the patch does not install correctly.
Attempt at standard patching through connecting to battle.net:


Patching cannot be completed because the patch archive is corrupt.
File name: SEXP_IX86_1xx_1161.mpq
If you are unable to correct this problem, please contact Blizzard Technical Support.
Blizzard BNUpdate v2.133 compiled on Jan 9 2009
Log created at 12:01 pm on 08/09/2009
ERROR: unable to open archive 'SEXP_IX86_1xx_1161.mpq'.
RESULT: Patch failed


I also tried to do the patch by downloading BW-1161.exe from the support page and running it, but I get this error:

Blizzard BNUpdate v2.133 compiled on Jul 24 2008
Log created at 12:12 pm on 08/09/2009
This patch upgrades Brood War from version 1.04 to version 1.16.1.
ERROR: unable to apply patch to file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\StarCraft\StarEdit.exe'
RESULT: Patch failed


I am on an administrator account on Windows Vista 64-bit, Starcraft is being run in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2, StarEdit is being run in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2, and Brood Wars has patched itself perfectly multiple times on this same computer before. I'm baffled, please help?

Thanks.

I have no idea what's causing this, but if anyone can help you, Farty can. Try and get in touch with him.

Edit: Got him for you. Unfortunately he didn't know either according to what he's telling me on AIM. Which isn't good, because the only person who knows more about patching than Farty is Baja, who recently decided he didn't like SEN, or anyone else for that matter, anymore.

I have no idea, but a random stabs at it:
Maybe put patch in the Starcraft directory, turn on compatibility for the patch's exe, and try again?
Try installing somewhere outside Program Files (I put all my games in Game Files by default) and make sure the new folder has no folder protection modes.

Don't just use the compatibility modes for no reason. Most programs don't need them and some programs misbehave when using them. No program I know of that is related to Starcraft needs to be run in XP compatibility mode.

Anyway, based on the error messages, I'd say you don't have write access to your Starcraft folder. You might need to mess with permissions on your Starcraft folder or install it to a place where you will for sure have write access (for example, somewhere in the Public folder works).

I've tried it with and without compatibility modes, tried putting the patch in the correct directory, and I'm on the only administrator account which means I have write permissions.

One thing I left out accidentally is another part of the BW-1161.exe error, it says that staredit.exe failed the checksum. I have no idea why...

Just curious did you install it using CD or the download from blizard?

Have you try completely deleting sc from your comp via regedit and then reinstalling it?

I've had this problem before and fixed it by running SC as admin from the actual binary in the SC folder instead of the shortcut when patching via battle.net. I haven't gotten the offline patcher provided by Blizzard to work however.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Aug 10 2009, 9:58 am by Epsilonite.

You should check the permissions on your Starcraft folder just to be sure. It is of course possible to have a folder or file you cannot write to (or even read) even as an admin if the permissions are not set up to allow it. If the permissions aren't set up to allow you access, Windows will not just automatically change them even if your user is able to change them.

I'm just mentioning more about it because I still think it sounded like a permissions issue.

By the way, issues related to file permissions are actually probably one of the biggest types of program compatibility issues experienced with Vista, and they aren't hard to resolve if you know what to do.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 10 2009, 12:17 pm by ShadowFlare.

Using the blizzard download. I haven't deleted stacraft using regedit, I suppose that's worth a try, but I'm not quite sure where in the registry the SC values are located. Epsilonite, what do you mean by running it from "the actual binary"? I don't see any .bin files in my SC folder. And thanks for the reminder Shadow, but I did check the permissions and I do have all of them, at least for SYSTEM and Administrators. "Users" doesn't have write permission, but I'm on an admin so I think that should be fine.

I think he meant running SC's exe rather than from the shortcut, and trying to patch through Bnet then. Also try putting the downloaded patch into SC's directory and trying it there.

Edit: This is yet another reason I am doing the sensible thing, staying on XP, jumping over Vista, and getting 7 when it's out.

Okay, I have no idea why, but that worked. I'm back on SC. Weirdest freakin thing.

Windows 7 is basically just a newer version of Vista. It's going to have the same kinds of compatibility issues with programs that Vista had.

Edit:

Reading more about it just now, I've read about various people still having this exact problem with it on Windows 7.

Edit2:

By the way, worked fine for me when I tried installing Starcraft to C:\Users\Public\Programs\Starcraft -- everything worked as it should, including opening Starcraft from its shortcut and patching to the latest version. This was with my Starcraft 1.0 and Brood War 1.04 discs. This is the easiest way to make games work properly that are going to be frequently needing to write to files at the game's installed location. I'd recommend it to anyone knowing in advance that the game will need to write to its own folder. Program Files just isn't a good place for such games anymore (or other programs that do the same). You can also just put it in your own user's folder if you don't care about giving other users access to it (or don't want to give them access).

Post has been edited 5 time(s), last time on Aug 11 2009, 1:01 am by ShadowFlare.