SMAC/SMAX on Win 7 - problems SOLVED Windows Update SECDRV.EXE

[Thund3rb1rd]

I've been playing SMAC/SMAX since they were released using various flavors of Windows, and as odd as this sounds, until the past six weeks or so, have NEVER had problems of any sort.  I've been using Win 7 Home Premium the past few years, and to repeat, have had no problems.  Then, sometime after September 4th, it simply stopped working.  It would start to load, then simply kick me back to the desktop.  Nothing had changed on my machine, apart from the normal MS patches.

Long story short, I've managed to track everything back to Windows permissions.  As soon as I get one thing working, something else blows up.  I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole!

I've been able to get SMAC working more-or-less, but SMAX not at all.  The problem I'm having now is that Quick Start isn't reading the INI file to carry the previous configuration into a new game.  Did I mention that SMAX still won't load, but until I get SMAC working again, I doubt I'll have much luck with that.

I've read everything I can find on the various SMAC sites, and this site seems to be more sophisticated in it's approach.  I've tried every tip I found, even though some of them don't make much sense, and don't work anyway.

I'm having the same problems on two machines - one Win 7 Home Premium and the other Win 7 Pro.

Did I also mention that until about six weeks ago, I wasn't having any problems at all!  The only changes made to either machine were the MS patch files from Windows Update.  I've even gone so far as to do a system restore back to the date I last successfully played SMAX.  Didn't have any luck, though.  SMAC barely works, and SMAX still won't load.

Actually, now that I re-read that, it isn't entirely true.  I reinstall SMAC and get it working as well as possible.  Then, when I reload SMAX, they both stop working.  I use the same CD's and Firaxis patch files I've used for years, and that were working fine up to six weeks ago.

I see GOG mentioned quite a bit on the various sites, but frankly, I'm a little leery of putting a credit card into a British website that is a front for a Hungarian software company.  Besides, from what I'm seeing, GOG is having it's own problems with Win 7 and Win 8.

So I guess my question(s) involve any problems anyone else is seeing between SMAC/SMAX and any MS patches, particularly those involving the UAC and the permission matrices?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.  I miss my game.

UPDATE 10/29/2015

Long story short.  "...September 2015 Windows update  KB3086255 basically disables secdrv.sys which is an anti-piracy copy protection that is used by many games developers and some other software companies..."

BAD NEWS:  This has affected a TON of older games.

Anyone wanting to go down the rabbit hole check out this link:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/access-denied-please-login-with-administrator/23d52455-18c8-4b4b-9852-a6f4c633a86e

Don't let the Windows 10 hang you up.  Win 7, 8 and 10 are all affected.  This first came up back in 2007.

The fix, if you want to call it that, is to manually restart the secdrv.exe service.

BEWARE!!!  If you google the phrase 'Access Denied. Please login with administrator privileges and try again', you will get a ton of information and "suggested" options including editing the registry, batch files, reloading your system, blah, blah, blah.

I restart the secdrv.exe service when I want to play SMACX and disable it when I'm done.  The game runs perfectly.

The one thing I haven't been able to figure out is why the Quick Start tab won't read the .INI configuration.  I'm not sure it has anything to do with SECDRV.EXE, but you never know.

I'm certainly open to suggestions.