I hope I'm posting this in the right area. I just ran into a big problem, because I didn't think to find out about this first. My son decided he wanted to start playing this, after watching me a few times. Well, I already all five slots filled up so I installed it again, in C/games/virtual families, keeping it separate from mine that was in c/program files/virtual families. He was able to start a whole new game without a hitch, but then when I went back onto mine today, ALL my families were gone, and replaced by his. I went into his game, and then mine again, to double-check. Sure enough they are now identical. I realized what happened. They both used the same game save folder in "My Documents." I thought for sure his new install would create its own save folder.

So...after that rambling explanation, I have a two-part question. I bought the Windows version, but I'm playing it on my Macbook Pro, on Windows XP through Bootcamp. I was thinking I could just install one on the Mac side and keep one on Windows. But would I have to pay for another one, to have it on the Mac side also? If so, is there someplace where I can tell one game to use a different save folder? I was so bummed, because I had a couple families that were WAY up there in generations and money, and a couple I worked really hard at finding just the right people to adopt and pick for spouses.

Sorry to babble on for so long. Thanks for any help you can give me!

It appears that you and you son are both playing the game on the same Windows user account, which is why you are having this difficulty - both you and your son are using the same file location for your savegames. The savegame files are stored in My Documents\LDW\Virtual Families, not in the application folder. The savegame files are technically user files, and to be compatible with later versions of Windows, the savegame files must be stored in My Documents.

Since booting back and forth between Mac OS X and the Boot Camp partition is a very time-consuming process, the easiest way to resolve this issue is to create a separate user account on Windows for your son. That way, his games will be stored in his My Documents folder, and yours will be stored in your My Documents folder (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Mom\My Documents\LDW and C:\Documents and Settings\Son\My Documents), so that your games won't be interfering with each other.

To create a new user account for your son, go to Control Panel and select User Accounts. Just follow the instructions there for setting it up. There are also step-by-step procedures in Windows Help.

To save space, you can delete the second copy of the game, if you like, since both user accounts can run from the same application.

Thank you so much for your help! I didn't even think about setting him up his own user again. DUH! He used to have one, but never logged onto it, instead filling up my side with all his "teenager" history files, and installs. So when I had to do a Windows restore I didn't bother putting him back on. Plus I only partitioned about 25 GB for the Windows side.

I knew where the saved games were kept, I just wrongly assumed each game installation would make it's own saved folder within My Documents. That was the first time I had a need to install two copies of the same app, on the same drive. Switching back and forth from Mac to XP is a regular routine for me, but I do like the idea of him having his own XP desktop back. This time I'll make sure he uses it.

Thank you again for your very prompt assistance !

Well, I guess I need some help and a little more detailed information on this subject. I just created a new user account, but VF didn't show up on the new user desktop. And when I went back my desktop, my Families are all gone! What did I do and how can I get them back, if I can get them back? Thanks.

You should be able to create a shortcut to launch the application from the new windows user account.

To give your son access to the families he had on your account you can copy the saved game files to the shared documents section, then move them to the LDW folder. I'll go over that process for you, but your statement that they are not on your user has me concerned. On the main windows user, when you open My Documents\LDW are the saved game files there?

Unless you actually deleted the savegame files, they will still be in the My Documents\LDW folder in your original Windows user account. You can find more specific instructions for locating (and backing up) the savegame files here in the Virtual Families guide.

Since you created the second Windows user account after Virtual Families was installed, you will need to create a new shortcut for it in the new user account. The easiest way is to open My Computer, navigate to C:\Program Files\Virtual Families, and right-click on the game's program icon (make sure you don't accidentally click the uninstall icon, which looks similar), then select Create Shortcut. Drag that shortcut to a convenient place, such as your desktop. You can also refer to Windows help to learn how to set up programs in newly-created accounts.

Barbara, are the save game files deleted on an uninstall? I'm thinking he may have uninstalled to get rid of the duplicate installation. Glad you're still here - I thought you were offline.

No, the savegame files are not deleted when you uninstall the game. Since people often uninstall the game to update or otherwise correct a problem, we decided it was best to leave the savegames intact.

Ok, great. I'm out of this one since you're here. *exits gracefully*

FYI for anyone who runs into this same problem:

You can have multiple copies of the game on the same user account, but in order to have them create their own saved games folder you need to rename the *.exe files so that they're different from each other. This is a good solution for people who want to play using different mods for each family, too.

I hate switching user accounts.

That's true, but people need to be aware that doing so will require more system resources. The two solutions both have advantages and disadvantages.

That's true. The game takes up 150MB of space, which is pretty small for a game these days. People should definitely learn to understand what their computer specs really mean and how that affects whether they can install a particular program.