Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords
How to install the disc version of Knights of the Old Republic on Windows Vista / 7
This guide was taken from the LucasForums. It can also work for Knights of the Old Republic. To avoid any potential problems this should be done with an administrator account.
1: Download and install the latest version of DirectX.
2: Insert the game disc, and ignore any auto play screens.
3: Open up the Start Menu and click on “Computer”. Right click on the disc drive that has the game disc and select “Explore”.
4: Right click on “setup.exe” and select “Properties”. Click on “Compatibility” and select the options “Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP Service Pack 2(SP2)" and "Run as Administrator".
5: Run “setup.exe” and install the game as normal. The path where the game is normally installed is
C:\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\
but you will want to install the game outside of Program Files
C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\
6: Patch the game. See the Patches Section. Once the patches are downloaded, right click on the files, select “Properties”, and follow the same compatibility settings as done on “setup.exe”.
7: Explore the hard drive and find the folder where you installed the game. Right click on the folder, select “Properties”, un-check “Read-Only”, then click “Apply”.
8: Right click on every .exe file in the game folders and set the compatiblity modes to the same as in step 4.
9: Right click on the “kotor2.exe” and select “Create shortcut”. Move the shortcuts to your desktop.
10: If you are using a multi-core computer, you will need to set CPU affinity. Right click on the shortcut and select “Properties”. In the target box, type in:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start "SWKOTOR" /D "C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\" /high /affinity 1 "C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\kotor2.exe"
Replace
C:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\
with where you installed the game. This shortcut needs to be set to “Run as Administrator”. To change the icon to the shortcut, click on “Properties” and then “Change icon”. A new box will open. Find your game folder and select the game .exe. To prevent the command window from popping up briefly while launching, under the shortcut properties change the "Run" mode to "Minimized".
11: Finally you need to download this fix for Windows 7/Vista. Place the file in your main game directory.
Patches
Download the manual patches instead of using the game's auto updater. When you install the patches, you will need to run them in Windows XP Service Pack 2 compatibility mode and run as administrator.
International Patches for the UK, French, German, Italian and Spanish versions of the game. You will need to download both the 1.0a patch and the 1.0b patch, then install the patches in order.
The original in game cut scenes and music that came with the game were of a low quality. LucasArts later released patches that replaced them with ones of a higher quality. These are large downloads and the movies patch is released in several parts.
Movie Update Patch parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Issues and Fixes
Crash in Transition Loading Screen
Unequipping lightsabers before the transition as well as disabling soft shadows and frame buffer effects have helped in some cases.
Mods
TSL Restored Content Mod
So that the game could be ready by its intended release date, much of the content originally planned for the game had to be cut. This mod attempts to restore as much of the lost content as possible.
Widescreen Mod
KOTOR and KOTOR2 are both supported by UniWS. Download from the site and follow the instructions carefully. Download the HUD files from that page in order to correct the minimap.
Third Party Software
Save Game Editor
The editor works for both KOTOR and KOTOR2. Download from Filefront.