"[Filename] not a valid Win32 application" (where "filename" is the name of the file you try to run)

it usually means the file is corrupted. Mainly you can encounter this error with downloaded files (such as patches, etc) that were corrupted during the download. If this happens, the only way to fix it is to download the file again - if possible from a different source.

• "Cannot locate the correct CD-ROM, select ok and restart the app.", or
• "Please insert the correct CD and restart the application", or
• something similar to the above.

In this case it should help if you run the game in compatibility mode:

• Run Windows Explorer and navigate to the FM installation folder (default location is C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2007\).
• Right click the file "fm.exe".
• Click on "Properties".
• In the dialog that shows up, click the "Compatibility" tab at the top.
• In the "Compatibility Mode" section, tick the box that says "Run this program in compatibility mode for".
• In the dropdown, choose Windows XP SP2.
• Click "Ok" to close the dialog and apply the changes.
• Try to run the game.

If you still get the same error, repeat the above steps and change compatibility mode from "Windows XP SP2" to "Windows NT".

Some links that are useful to achieve this:

• DOSBox is a free and open source DOS emulator. It should let you run CM2 and the games based on the same engine. It needs to be set up properly.
• D-Fend is a frontend to DOSBox which makes setting it up a lot easier.
• Essential utilities for DOS games contains a list of various things you may need or just find useful for getting old DOS games to run (in this case inside DOSBox).

1. Running too many leagues

Ensure you are not running too many leagues for your system. When starting a new game, the "Recommended Setup" will give you an indication as to how many leagues and what kind of game setup the game itself thinks your system is capable. While this is not necessarily 100% accurate, it should err on the side of caution.

If you are running a game with too large a database and/or too many leagues at the same time it is possible that you can run into out of memory errors, as the system may not be able to handle all the data the game requires. In addition to that, running too many leagues or with a database that is too big will severely impact the performance of the game.

2. You have 512MB RAM (or thereabouts) on Windows 2000 or XP

Older versions of Windows, like Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Millennium Edition, may have problems both in general Windows usage and when running the game if you have more than 512MB RAM installed in the system.

You can try to work around this by using a utility from Microsoft called Application Compatibility Toolkit, which you can find here. Follow the instructions to download the latest ACT. Once downloaded, install it by double clicking the downloaded file and following the instructions in the installation wizard.

Once installed, do the following:

• After installing ACT 5.0, run Compatibility Administrator.
• In the left side panel it should be focused on "New Database" under "Custom Databases". If not, make it so.
• Right click "New database(1)", go into the "Create New" menu and click on "Application Fix...".
• Type a name for the application (CM1020),, name of the vendor (SI), and click "Browse..." to locate cm0102.exe in your disk.
• Click "Next", and you should be on a page called "Compatibility Modes".
• Under "Operating System Modes" select "Windows 98/ME.
• In "Select additional compatibility modes" tick the box named "ProfilesSetup" (should be the bottom one).
• Click "Next" - you're now on a page called "Compatibility Fixed.
• Find and tick the box named "GlobalMemoryStatusLie".
• Click "Next", you're now on a page called "Matching Information".
• Click "Finish" and the wizard closes. Click "File" and choose "Save", and type a database name (for example: MyAppFixes), and click OK.
• After saving it, right click the database name (MyAppFixes) in "Custom Databases".
• Save it on your disk somwhere using the file dialog that comes up - default location is My Documents.
• Give it a file name and click "Save". From the menu, click "Install".
• You will get a dialog telling you that the database was installed.
• A new item in the list on the left side will appear: "Installed Databases".
• Now try to run the game.

3. You have more than 512MB RAM on Windows 98 or ME

Older versions of Windows, like Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Millennium Edition, may have problems both in general Windows usage and when running the game if you have more than 512MB RAM installed in the system.

You can try to work around this by doing the following:

• Run the System Configuration Utility and tell Windows not to use more than 5 12MB of the available memory: Click 'Start', then 'Run...', type 'msconfig' without the quotes in the 'Open' box, then click 'OK'. Now click 'Advanced' and locate the option 'Limit Memory to <x> MB:' and set it to 512.
• Making sure there is at most 512MB RAM physically installed.
• Also see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q253912/

• Start FM (do not load a game).
• Go to the Preferences.
• Make sure you're in the "General" section.
• In "User data folder", change the location of this setting to another partition (e.g. D:\ on Windows, or a different mounted (but writable) volume on Mac).
• Tick the box that says "Use 'user data' folder for temporary files".
• Click "Confirm" to save the changes.
• Quit the game.

If you hadn't already moved the "user data folder" and were manually saving savegames to a different location on D:\, you can now copy those savegames into the "D:\the path you typed above\games\" folder and the game will pick it up and you can save and load the games more easily (less navigation). The "user data folder" you choose is the base folder for the FM data and documents, and will contain certain subfolders (like games, skins, sounds, and so on - more information about these folders and their default locations can be found here).

You may have to restart the game before the "games" is created automatically. Also note that if you had any custom skins, database updates and stuff in the default "user data location" (C:\Documents and Settings\your username\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2007\) you'll need to copy/move all these to the same sub-folders in the new location.

Restart the game and you should be all set to go. FM won't be touching your system/default partition for anything major. It will still use it to store settings and some cache files, but these are not big.

1. Change Vista theme to Classic

• Minimize all windows (or use the "Windows Key + M") to reveal the desktop.
• Right click on desktop itself (not on an icon on the desktop) and from the pop-up menu select "Personalize".
• Select "Theme" in the dialog that shows up.
• On the "Theme Settings" dialog select "Windows Classic" from the dropdown menu.
• Apply your changes and then try to install the game.
• Once installed you can change back to using the Windows Vista theme of your choice.

2. Run installer from command line

• Click the "Start" menu, then "Run...".
• Type: cmd
• Press Enter/Return.
• Type: D: ("D:" is the drive of your CD- or DVD- where your FM07 disk is located - if this is not D:, use the correct drive letter, such as E:, F:, etc.).
• Press Enter/Return.
• The command prompt should now say: D:\>
• Type the following on one line in the command prompts, including all quotes: "Setup FM2007 PC.exe" -console
• Press Enter/Return.
• The installer should now launch, follow the instructions to install the game.

There are a couple of things you can do to try to fix this problem.

1. Uninstall Java Runtime Environment

Read the 'uninstall' section of the following document, then try to run the FM07 installer again. The installer comes bundled with Java that it will use if there is no Java present on the system.

2. Install the latest Java manually

If the above doesn't work, then you can try to install the latest Java runtine environment manually (read more details here). Then try to run the FM installer again.

3. Other errors and possible workarounds.

• Error "could not utilize start class: com.installshield.wizard.Wizard"
• Error "java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError : run Exception in thread 'main'"
• Blank or gray installer dialog (you see an empty installer).
• Error "One or more errors occurred during the copying of files (bean 13)".
• Error "Error occurred during the installation: null"
• Installer stops/hangs/freezes when "creating uninstaller".
• Installer "Error in instruction. Invalid jvm file name specified in LAUNCH. Invalid variable specification.Line number (9)"

4. Check your hard disk for errors

Please follow the instructions here.

5. Make sure your disk is defragmented

Please follow the instructions here.

6. Installer problems on Windows Vista

Please refer to this document for possible workarounds if you are having trouble installing the game in Vista.

You managed to work around an installer error, but now the game doesn't work properly

If you previously encountered an error during the installation but subsequently worked around this, but you are now experiencing other problems such as a black screen or get a font error, then it may be worth doing a full clean re-install to make sure no partially installed file content are left over and that there are no missing files.

Error occurred during the installation: null.

If this happens, it means that a previous software installation and/or uninstallation caused the InstallShield installer to run incorrectly and possibly have corrupted an InstallShield file on your system.

There are a couple of possible workaround for this:

1. Rename InstallShield Common Folder

Windows

• Open Windows Explorer.
• Navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Universal\
• Rename the 'common' folder (inside 'Universal') to 'common_backup'. Do not rename the 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\' folder!
• Now try to install FM07 by running the FM07 installer.

• If there is a folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Universal\Common Files\, rename the 'Common Files' inside 'Universal' to 'CommonFilesBackup'.
• If there is a folder 'Sports Interactive inside the 'Universal' folder, try to rename this to 'Sports Interactive Backup'.
• Now try to run the FM07 installer.

• If 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Universal' is not present, look in: C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\InstallShield\Universal\ - there might be a 'common' (or 'Common Files'): Rename it to 'common_backup' (or 'common_files_backup').
• Now try to run the FM07 installer.

• If those doesn't work, also try to rename the "Sports Interactive" folder inside "InshallShield\Universal" folder (either in C:\Program Files\Common Files\ or C:\Documents and Settings\<your username\) to "Sports_Interactive_Backup".
• Now try to run the FM07 installer.

Mac OS X

• Open Finder.
• Navigate to your home folder (it should be in the Finder sidebar, having your user name).
• Go into the "InstallShield" folder.
• Go into the "Universal" folder.
• There should be two folders: "common" and "Sports Interactive".
• Rename "common" to "common_backup" and try to install FM07.
• If that doesn't work, also try to rename "Sports Interactive" to "sports_interactive_backup" and try to install FM07.

2. Install logged in as a different user

• If you have a different user (with administrator priveleges), log out of the current user and log in as this user, then try to install the game.
• If that doesn't work, or if you have no other user, create a new user by clicking the "Start" menu, then "Control Panel", then "User Accounts" and click on "Create new accoun". Make the user a computer administrator. Once completed, log out the current user and log in as the new user, then try to run the FM07 installer.

3. Uninstall and/or re-install the Java on your machine

Please read this document on how to uninstall and re-install the Java version on your machine, and see if it works with no Java installed on your system, or if it works when installing the latest version of Java.

1. Check that the font files are present

Please check the 'fonts' folder in the application data folder (see FM2007 Folder Locations, Application Data Folder section for details). You can do this by running Windows Explorer and navigating to the specified folder.

This folder should contain a number of font files - 8 in total:

• fm main.t2k
• fm scoreboard.t2k
• fm symbol.t2k
• fm thin.t2k
• report.t2k
• report_bold.t2k
• vera.t2k
• verabd.t2k

If one or more of these are missing, then not all the necessary data files are present; see below for more details.

2. Check your hard disk for errors

Please follow the instructions here.

3. Try to do a full clean re-install

Please read HOWTO: Do a clean re-install.

4. Try to run the game logged in as a different user

If you do not have nother user add one first ("Start" menu -> Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Create new account; make the user a computer administrator).

Log out the current user and log in as the new user and try to run the game to see if it helps.

• Run Windows Explorer
• Navigate to the cache folder on your system.
• Refer to this document for details on where this may be (the section User Cache Folder).
• Delete the contents of this ('cache') folder, all files and any subfolders.

• Click the "Start" menu, then "Run...".
• In Windows 2000, XP or Vista, type: cmd
• In Windows 98 SE or Windows ME, type: command.com
• Press Enter/Return.
• Type: D:
• And press Enter.
• "D:" is the drive of your CD- or DVD- where your FM07 disk is located - if this is not D:, use the correct drive letter, such as E:, F:, etc.
• The command prompt should now say: D:\>
• Type the following on one line in the command prompts, including all quotes: "Setup FM2007 PC.exe" -is:log c:\fm07_install_log.txt
• Now press Enter/Return.
• The installer will now launch, follow the instructions to install the game.
• If the installer fails, then open Windows Explorer and navigate to "C:\" (root of the C: drive in "My Computer"). Open the file "fm07_install_log.txt" by double clicking it. If asked to, copy and paste all contents of this file to a forum thread; or attach this file to an e-mail and send it to the provided e-mail address.

"Error in instruction. Invalid jvm file name specified in LAUNCH. Invalid variable specification.Line number (9)"

or

"Error in instruction. Invalid jvm file name specified in LAUNCH. Invalid variable specification.Line number (4)"

(or possibly similar, where line is different).

We have yet to determine the actual reason(s) for this, so the following are possible workarounds that have been reported to work in certain cases.

1. Install the game from the original disk

Do not use a backup copy or disk image copy of the disk. Only use the original disk to install and run the game.

2. Try uninstall and re-install Java

This document describes this in more detail. Once completed, try to install the game.

3. Make sure the disk is clean and not damaged

Make sure the disk is not dirty (no dust or dirt on blank side), and that it is not damages in any way (in other words, no scratches, etc).

4. Try to install the game on another computer

If possible, try to see if you can install the game on another computer, and if so, if it completes successfully. This is to rule out any potential system problems (it doesn't fully prove there is or isn't, but it may point to a slightly bigger problem, such as problematic disk, if it doesn't work on multiple computers).

5. If possible, try another disk of FM07

If you know someone that has a copy of FM07 and you can borrow this disk, try to install this copy on your computer and see if it completes successfully. This is to try to see if there is a problem with the disk.

6. Run the installer manually

First, please follow the instructions in point #2 above on installing the latest Java SDK version. You will need the latest Java SDK (JDK) installed to complete this suggestion, the Java Runtime Environemtn (JRE) is not sufficient. See point #4 in this document for details.

• Click the "Start" menu
• Click "Run..."
• Windows 2000, XP or later, type: cmd
• Windows 98 SE or Windows ME, type: command.com
• Press Return.
• Type: D:
• Press Return. 'D:' is the drive of your CD- or DVD-ROM, if the actual drive is different you need to use the correct drive letter where the FM07 disk is located.
• Type the following, including every quote (on one line): "Setup FM2007 PC.exe" -is:javahome "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_08" -is:log log.txt
• Press Return. The installer should now run.
• The actual value of "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_08" may be slightly different depending on the actual version of Java you have installed and where Java is installed. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to "C:\Program Files\Java\" (if you installed Java to a different location, change the path accordingly, e.g. "E:\My Java Folder\"). Check the actual name of the 'jdk' folder - in the example it's "jdk1.5.0_08", so the complete path is "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_08". An example of a different path to use instead may be "E:\My Java Folder\jdk1.5.0_09" if you installed Java to "E:\My Java Folder" and the JDK you installed was version 1.5.0 Update 9.

1. Uninstall Java Runtime Environment

• Click the "Start" menu.
• Click "Settings" and then "Control Panel".
• Double click "Add/Remove Programs".
• In the "Add or Remove Programs" dialog, scroll down until you find the program called "Java Runtime Environment".
• Click "Remove" to uninstall "Java Runtime Environment".
• When asked to confirm removing Java from the system, press "Ok".

2. Install the latest Java Runtime Environment (JRE) manually

• Download the latest Java from Sun's Java download page.
• Install Java by double-clicking on the file you just downloaded, and follow the intructions.

3. Uninstall the Java SDK

• If you have a Java SDK installed, then this may also be causing some problems in some cases.
• In this case, do the same as in step #1 above.
• Once in "Add/Remove Programs", choose to uninstall anything that starts with "Java".
• This should mean that, combined with #1 above, you now have not got any Java installed.
• Now try to run the FM07 installer.

4. Install the latest Java SDK (JDK) manually

• As a last resort, you may want to try to install the full Java SDK (JDK) rather than the (smaller) Java Runtime Environment (JRE). In some cases this has been reported to help.
• Go to the Sun Java download page, and click "Download" for the latest "JDK Update" (Currently this is: "JDK 5.0 Update 9").
• You will be taken to a download page for the JDK installation.
• Click on the link that says "Windows Offline Installation, Multi-language".
• Download this file to your computer somewhere (e.g. the desktop, or another folder).
• Once the download has completed, double click the file you just downloaded.
• Follow the instructions in the Java installer dialog to install Java on your computer.
• Now try to run the FM07 installer.

1. Let it work

First of all be a bit patient. Sometimes it may take a little while, but if it takes more than five minutes then it is safe to asssume something has gone wrong.

2. Re-install with different install options

• If it is still frozen, quit the installer (force quit from Task Manager if necessary)
• Read this document on how to do a clean re-install and follow the steps. If some steps are not applicable because the item does not exist (such as in the Add/Remove Programs dialog) then skip them.
• Reboot your computer.
• Run the FM07 installer again, and when you have the option to choose the installation type ("Full" and "No demos"), select "No Demos" then click "Next".

3. Make sure the Java version is up to date

The installer comes bundled with its own Java version and should use this if it doesn't find a compatible version on your system. However in some cases the installed Java version may be causing problems - please refer to the installer issues document for details on how to uninstall the current version and download and install the latest Java from Sun.

Generally this may contain some additional data of your system that you may not want to post to a public forum. Normally you will not be asked to post these results to the forum, but rather mail them to an e-mail address at Sports Interactive.

Here is how to get the PC audit results:

• Download the free version of Belarc Advisor.
• Install this version by double clicking the file you installed.
• Once installed, Belarc should run automatically, and open a local webpage containing the audit results.
• To run Belarc, click the "Start" menu, then "All Programs" and then "Belarc Advisor". A local webpage will open with the audit results
• In your browser, click "File" and "Save as" (or "Save page as").
• Set file type to "Web page" (or "HTML")
• In the "Save As" dialog, click "My Documents" and save the file (remember the name of the file, you will need it in a moment).
• Open your e-mail client and compose/create a new e-mail message.
• Set the "To" address to the address you have been asked to send the results to.
• Attach the Belarc results file (which you saved to My Documents a few moments ago) to the e-mail - exactly how this is done depends on the e-mail client you are using: it may be a button on the toolbar saying "Attach" or "Attach file", or a menu item in the "File" menu, "Edit" menu or another menu saying the same or a similar thing.
• When in the "Open File" dialog of the e-mail client used to attach files, browse to your "My Documents" folder, and double click the Belarc results file you saved above.

If you are asked to also attached the DirectX Diagnostics results, then please do so before sending the e-mail.

If you have been asked to provide any other details or information in the message of the e-mail then please do so before you send it.

You will most likely have been asked to use a specific "Subject" (Title) of the e-mail so the person or people who will receive the e-mail knows more easily what to look for - please follow the intructions you have been given, and it will help us help you quicker.

"One or more errors occurred during the copying of files (bean 13), please refer to the install log for additional information"

then the installation did not complete successfully for some reason. We have yet to track down the exact cause(s) for this, but there are certain workarounds you can try to fix it.

Please note that if you experience this error, it may cause a side effect in the game where you will see black screen when running the game. This is due to the installer failing to install all the files it should do, and there many possible reasons for it, some of which are covered below.

1. Anti-virus or other security software preventing the installer from installing all files

In some cases anti-virus software (or other security software) may be preventing the installer from installing the all the files it is trying to install. If this happens, the above error may occur. If this occurs, please follow the instructions for how to do a clean re-install, then disable the anti-virus (or other security software) and try to re-install the game. You may want to reboot the computer between disabling the anti-virus and attempting to install the game.

Once the installation has completed you can re-enable the anti-virus software, however you should exlude the FM installation folders and the FM user data folders (see this document for FM07 folder locations from any real-time monitoring system. If it is monitoring all the FM07 folders in real-time it will severly affect the FM07 performance.

2. Make sure the Java version is compatible

Please refer to the general installer issues document for details on how to uninstall any current Java version, and download and install the latest one from Sun.

3. Install game from Safe Mode

If it still doesn't work, it may help installing the game from safe mode. Please note that you should only attempt this if a previous install failed with the above error. If not, the copy protection system may not have been installed correctly and it may not be allowed to installed correctly from Safe Mode, which may in turn cause the game not to run.

• First clean up all FM07 folders from your system by deleting all contents in the following locations: C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2007\, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2007\ and C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2007.
• Please be aware that if you have any savegames, edited databases, updated skins or other data you want to keep you should back up any such data before deleting the contents of the above folders.
• Reboot Windows into Safe Mode (Reboot your computer, press F8 after the BIOS screen (with logo and/or memory details, etc) - a menu pops up, choose "Safe Mode" from this menu and boot into Windows Safe Mode.
• Run th FM0 installer and install the game.
• Reboot the computer.
• Start FM07.

1. Uninstall and re-install java

Please follow the instructions on this page to uninstasll the current Java version, download the latest and install it to your system. This may solve your problem.

2. Turn off anti-aliasing in the graphics card driver setup

Doing this is dependant on which graphics card is in your system and who the manufacturer of the graphics card is. Please refer to the graphics card manual or online help for details on how to invoke the driver setup for your card.

Find the anti-aliasing setting for the card and disable it.

• Click the "Start" menu, then "Control Panel".
• Double click "Display".
• In the "Display Properties" dialog, click the "Settings" tab.
• Click the "Advanced" button in the bottom left corner.
• There should be an anti-aliasing feature somewhere in the advanced settings - turn it off and click "OK", then "OK" again to close the main "Display Properties" dialog.
• Some more details can be found on Sun's Java support pages.

Now try to install the game.

For now, the following workaround will fix the issue (by removing the stored image from the cached profile):

• You do not need to do a full re-install.
• You also do not need to clear all settings (although that will also work).
• You need to delete two files from the FM07 settings folder - please refer to this document for details on exactly this may be on your system.
• Navigate to the settings folder as defined in the above document, then go into the '702' sub-folder and delete the following files: profile0.xml and profile0.set.

Make sure FM07 is not running when doing this. Once you've done the above, run the game and load a game (or start a new one) - adding a new manager should now work.

Please refer to INFO: FM2007 Folder Location for details on where various FM2007 folders are located by default, including the possible database folders.

In general you can have a 'skins' folder on three levels:

• Your FM user data folder.
• The shared user data folder.
• The application data folder.

Skins should always be installed to either your own user data folder or the shared user data folder. Users may not have the necessary rights to the folders in the FM2007 installation folder.

• Download the skin you want to install.
• Most likely it will come in a compressed file format, probably as a ZIP file.
• You will need to extact the contents of this file to one of the above 'skins' folders.
• To do this you may need to install a ZIP utility (http://www.7-zip.org/ or http://www.winzip.com/).
• Open the ZIP file, select all folders and files and choose to "Extract to..".
• You should be asked to browse to the folder you want to extract the files to.
• Browse to the "skins" folder in your user data folder (see here for details) and extract the files and folders here.
• Make sure you preserve the paths so that files in sub-folders are extracted into the correct folders (usually this is on by default in most compression/uncompression utilities).
• Usually the compressed file with the skin will have a single sub-folder in the top level, so it uncompresses correctly into a subfolder of the 'skins' folder. If the file does not contain a subfolder that is the name of the skin, then you will need to create a subfolder inside 'skins' manually, and uncompress the contents of the file to this subfolders rather than into the 'skins' folder directly.
• In the the "skins" folder in your user data folder you should have a sub-folder that is the name of the database update you just installed.

Once this is done, you can run FM2007 and select the skin from the "Display & Sounds" section in the game preferences (available from the "Options" menu, or from the "Preferences" button on the main menu).

1. Use the "skin cache" feature

FM2006 introduced (and FM2007 continues) the skin caching functionality. If there is an up to date skin cache for the current skin in the current language available, the game needs to do very little work when starting up.

By default this feature is turned on. You can turn it on and off in the game preferences by going to "Display & Sound" and tick "Use skin cache" to turn it on (not ticked means off). If possible it is highly recommended you have it turned on.

If there is no skin caching available, the game will need to look through a number of folders and sub-folders to look up images and other data for the skin. When you first run the game it will need to do this (as the game does not ship with pre-generated skin cache files at the moment). However, if you leave the skin caching turned on, as is its default setting, when you run the game again later you should notice quite a significant speed improvement.

2. Hard disk speed

The hard disk speed also impacts the general performance of the game, but possibly where this is the most noticeable is when starting up the game. Due to the disk-heavy work it may have to do (if rebuilding the skin cache), a fast hard disk can help a lot to reduce the time it takes to complete this work.

3. Optimise your hard disk (Defragment your hard disk)

It is always recommended that you defragment your hard disk regularly, possibly once a week if you have the time. Please refer to HOWTO: Defragment your hard disk for further details.

A fragmented disk means files are spread in small chunks across the disk, and reading the files and going through folders takes much longer than if they were all neatly placed one after the other. If you defragment your disk the system (or third-party application) will optimise your disk in such a way that the files can be accessed in the quickest possible way. Please note that defragmenting a heavily fragmented, particular one with little available space left, may take a very long time. Please be patient.

4. Available disk space

If your disk is running low on disk space it may impact both the performance of FM and the general performance of your operating system. It is always advisable to have plenty of free disk space on your disk, a few gigabytes at the very least.

5. Available memory (RAM)

The amount of memory available to the game can help a lot in more than one way. Both general game performance and startup performance will benefit from having as much memory in your system as possible. In addition to this, to optimise what memory you have, it is always advisable to not run any background programs (or as few as possible) while running the game.

Giving as much memory to the operating system and FM as possible means the both the game and the system can cache things it otherwise may not be able to, something that should improve performance.

6. Anti-virus software

It is highly recommended that the FM installation folder, all sub-folders in this folder, and all files in these folders are excluded from any real-time anti-virus software running in the background. If anti-virus software (or other monitoring software) is monitoring these folders in real-time (in other words, always and including when they are accessed, read, written, etc) the performance of the game will be severely affected, both in general game play and when starting up.

In addition to the FM installation folder, there may be other FM folders you should exclude as well, such as the FM user data folders, FM shared user data folders, and so on. Please refer to INFO: FM2007 Folder Locations for further details on which folders and where they are.

How you exclude files and folders from the real-time scanning of your anti-virus software is different from product to product, and you should look up the manual or help files to see how you do this.

7. FM2006 vs FM2007 Startup Speeds

There is one fundamental difference with how FM06 and FM07 starts up. FM06 would look for all the pictures and data files before it showed you anything (a window with the splash logos). At this point it was possible to click through some of the logos (but not all, due to legal reasons). FM07 shows you the logos immediately, and then proceeds to look for pictures and data while it shows you the logos. This means that in some way it may appear that FM07 starts up slower, as you will not be able to click through any logos as long as the game is still scanning folders and sub-folders for data files. Once the game has finished this work, you can click through any remaining logos that can be clicked past (some can't due to legal and license reasons).

Please note that clicking rapidly and multiple times on the mouse while the logos are displayng will not speed up the startup of Football Manager.