company of heroes wont install on my computer

im trying to install company of heroes, the original version, on my laptop that has vista. yesterday i tried installing it, the install was successful or so i thought. the game file didnt show up under the start menu, and the game icon didnt appear on my desktop. however, i looked on the hard drive in program files and found the game file in there. no game play icon though. so i tried to play the game through the my computer cd drive icon, and when i clicked on it, the game menu came up, but then when i clicked play, a window with "demo shield" popped up, then another window popped up taht said demo shield is not working. so i closed everything and uninstalled the game. that was yesterday. today i tried reinstalling the game, but about 90% the way through the install, an error message popped up, something about a ".avi" file not found. i installed the game successfully on my desktop, however, there is a stuff ton of lag with the desktop. id rather have it on my laptop because my laptops faster. i had the game installed on my laptop a long time ago, but then uninstalled it when i had to reboot and reinstall windows after i got a virus like a year or so ago. any help with this would be great. also i had another question. i have been reading about mods for the game and they sound pretty cool, although im not sure how to go about installing them. and another thing, whats the whole deal with "patches"?

Hello brendan fitz, Welcome to the WTT Forums! First off, one of my major concerns is this virus that you mentioned. Did you seek any advice when you got this virus? If so, could you post a link to the forum topic. Secondly, has your laptop been acting strange at all? Have you installed any new software or hardware recently? What are the specs of the laptop? (Manufacturer, model number etc.) And now onto to the more game specific stuff : Have you successfully installed any other games? Is the Installation CD dusty, dirty or scratched at all? And now a bit more info . A "mod" (short for modification) adds third party functionality to a game. What I mean by that is that someone who isn't an official game developer has modified the files and content of the game to add extra features or storylines. You normally get two types of "mods". The first is a partial mod, which only adds features and tweaks the game but keeps the content essentially the same. The second is a full replacement of the game and replaces nearly all aspects of the game. Patches are official updates for the game released by the development company. Patches will typically fix bugs, tweak game dynamics and in some cases adds extra content. Newer games sometimes have something called "DLC"'s, or Downloadable Content. These are officially released extra features and expansion packs released by the development company. One thing to keep in mind, third party mods may not always work and they might force you to reinstall the game entirely. A DLC is officially supported and will work without any issues. Cheers, Nahumi

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