Here you go...
How to get GalCiv updates through SDC assuming you have an installation CD or the installation files (if you are trying to install with SDC, skip step 1 and see the notes below):
1) Install GalCiv wherever you want.
2) Install Stardock Central wherever you want.
3) Launch SDC
4) A registration dialogue pops up the first time you do this: Where it says "Nick Name", this is your Stardock account nickname and what will be used for your Metaverse account. If you have previously registered with Stardock, use the *same* handle and email you used before.
If you want to change your Nickname later on there is an option to do so in the Stardock account maintenance portion of www.wincustomize.com - why it's on that Stardock page and not others is a good question.
5) SDC will update itself and restart. After the restart, click on the 'Software' button at the top right under the File/View/... menus. This opens up a browser like 2 pane interface. On the right hand pane you will see a tab for each family of Stardock products, GalCiv is part of the Drengin network, so click on the Drengin.net tab.
6) At this point, you will see one of two things: either you will just see a list of Drengin.net demos (The Corporate Machine, Stellar Frontiers, and Lightweight Ninja) or you will see Galactic Civilizations followed by those games (demos for just GalCiv customers, full versions for Drengin.net customers).
6a) If you can see Galactic Civilizations go to step 8.
6b) If you cannot see Galactic Civilizations go to the 'Tools' menu at the top and select 'Register Products'.
7) To register your product with the Register Product dialogue you want to choose, like above, the Drengin.net tab. The first field on this is 'application'. If you are a Drengin.net subscriber, leave it alone, if you are just a GalCiv customer, use the drop down selection to choose GalCiv and NOT Drengin.net in the application field.
7a) Next, enter your serial number for GalCiv (or Drengin.net) in the Serial Number field (the email should be filled in automatically) -> Click 'Update', it will contact Stardock and if its successful, it will tell you your account has been found and show you the date your support expires next to the 'update' button. If it doesn't find your account, double check the information; if it's correct and it cannot find your serial number with that email I would suggest contacting Stardock directly as something is wrong, probably with that serial number.
7b) Last, although my experience is that SDC finds stuff fine through the Windows registry, you can browse or enter the directory on your computer that you have Galactic Civilizations installed into at the bottom of the dialogue. Select OK, you're done here.
8) Note that the right panel has a number of columns: name, installed, available, updated, & action. Name is the app, you obviously are looking for GalCiv. Installed is the version on your computer. Available is the version of an available update if there is one. Updated is the date any available update was posted to SDC (if there is no update available, both columns show "------").
If an update is available, what you will see is version numbers in both the installed and available columns for GalCiv. If you are convinced there should be an update available but none is showing, select the 'Tools' menu again but choose 'Refresh Application Data' - this will cause SDC to poll Stardock again to see if there's been a change.
If there's no update available, you're done, if there is one, go to step 9.
9) Click on Galactic Civilizations in the right hand panel, this will cause the "Update" button to appear in the "Action" column -> click that and you will now see the progress of the update in the lower portion of the left hand frame.
9b) For Galactic Civilizations there is also a Multimedia Pack, Bonus Pack, Windowed Version, and PDF manual that are part of this process. They work the same way - if there is a version number showing in the 'Available' column, click that item and the 'Update' button becomes available, click that and it will download. If it's the first time you've downloaded these optional components, the button will say "Install" instead of "Update".
10) You're done, go play some GalCiv.
The summary of the process is: launch SDC, select the Software button and choose the Drengin.net tab on the right hand frame. If an update is available, it is listed as a new version number in the 'Available' column. If you click that item, the 'update' action becomes available, click it and it will update automatically.
If a patch does not appear and you think there is one, try refreshing the application data (under Tools menu). If all else fails, recheck the information in the product registration (also under Tools menu).
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If you do not have a separate installation, the only difference is that you will obviously skip step 1. At step 9, rather than getting the "Update" when you click on GalCiv, you would get "Install" - this is going to take a while
If you want to control where SDC installs the game do this first: Under the Tools menu you'll find the "Settings" choice. In that dialogue there is a checkbox under the 'Installation' heading that says "Prompt to enter an Installation Directory", check it. Otherwise SDC will put it wherever is listed in the Product Registration dialogue.
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