Hi all. Would love some help. New to using mods and know very little about computers. I read the instructions on downloading mods and downloaded winrar and oblvion mod manager. I went to mod download and downloaded a mod and saved as winrar archive. Okay, all fine so far. I open Oblivion Mod Manager and click create archive and select the mod. Okay, the mod will not show up in the window however. I tired clicking create omw and it did create however. The problem is, when I click it on to activate it will not populate on the data side on the left of the manager. It remains blue and tells me it is activated but it does not move to data directory. I am thinking part of the problem is that I am using Vista and from what I have read around here is Vista is almost impossible to download mods with. Is there some way around this? I read that Oblivion should not be downloaded to default site since the security is hard to work around. Problem is, I did that without knowing about mods and dont want to reload Oblivion and lose everything I have already done. Any advice?

Forgot to add, I'm using Oblivion Game of the Year Edition, if that matters.

What mod are you trying to install? If it is a texture only type there will be nothing on the left side of OBMM. A mod must place an .esm and/or .esp file in the game for it to show up there.

You installed Oblivion in the Program Files folder? If yes you have to reinstall it in a different folder.

It seems to be every mod I try to download, ugg. I hate losing everything on reinstall but I guess I need to do that. Thanks for help. Maybe I should just get Windows 7 and get rid of Vista. Seems to be a real pain.

Go to your Oblivion install directory. Right click OblivionModManager.exe, select properties, navigate to the compatibility tab, and check the "run as administrator" box. This will give OBMM the ability to write directly to Program Files. Repeat for every .exe in the folder. I generally don't install games to program files on Vista, but sometimes I accidentally forget to change my install path. Setting proper permissions generally solves the problem. I never have to disable UAC and rarely ever have to reinstall elsewhere. It's worth a try if you are hesitant to reinstall.

Unfortunately that trick didn't work so guess I need to do the total reinstall. Thanks for trying to help.

the more in-depth method to work around UAC on Vista is:
1) right-click on the oblivion folder
2) go to properties
3) click the security tab
4) then click the Edit button
5) find your user name
6) and check "allow" on the full control opinion, save the changes.

i use vista and this solved my mod install problems (along with the solution jasmer mentions). fyi if u reinstall oblivion the settings revert back to default. so you have to redo the UAC alterations.

I already had that checked.

I run Win7 and was playing around with mods just copying the data folders over to my Oblivion folder (those that didn't come as omods). At one point something messed up the game and I had to reinstall cause I was stupid enough to not have a backup (yes I learned my lesson). After I reinstalled, however, the problem seemed to persist in that the video sequences stutters a lot and are basically not viewable. I'm afraid it will have an impact on the rest of the game too, so I took to downloading new drivers and all and then converting all my mods into omods, just as described above, but they didn't seem to have been installed as I looked for the most obvious ones ingame.

Is it all a compatibility issue, even with Win7, and even when OMOD manager doesn't encounter any conflicts when I run the utilities test? It seems to be true that omod manager indeed doesn't transfer the data as it's supposed to even though everything shows up right in the manager.

Any help is appreciated. Also with my graphics issue, for which I've read pretty much every tweak companion available.

just so you know you're not going to lose everything if you've already played the game for hours, just don't delete your saves and you'll be good to go after reinstalling.

Hmm, I'm beginning to think the people who make these mods dont consider compatibility issues with different systems. Somehow I was able to download The Lost Spires mode for Oblivion. I love it! The Archaelogoy Guild is amazing. For some reason of all the dozen or so other mods I have tried to download no others will download to directory.

It seems the best way to install a mod so you're sure it'll work is to just copy over the Data folder. That's a mess to keep track of and you can't remove it again. The omod manager is great, but not if it doens't install the actual mod =/

The fact that Lost Spires installed correctly yet others didn't makes me wonder if you are actually using OBMM correctly.

Well, of course that is possible. I admit I am a beginner to all this. I read the instructions on the wiki and followed them. I clicked create archive and the create omod. It then asks you to name author and add description. The mod in the list on the right turns blue and says it is activated. The problem is, it does not appear on the left in the directory of Oblivion, esm, or whatever that file is. It has The Lost Spires, the Oblivion.esm, Shivering Isles DLC, and Knights of the Nine file, that is it. When I enter game the mod is not there even though it says it was activated. LIke I said, The Lost Spire is the only mod that seems to work.

I think you may be making 'empty' omods. These will activate - turn blue - but of course nothing will show up since there is nothing to add. Try this:

- deactivate one of the non-working omods
- right-click and select 'Edit'
- the lower half of the dialog shows esp's by default - anything there?
- select the 'Data Files' radio button right at the bottom. The lower half of the dialog now shows bsa's, nif's etc - anything there?

When I deactivate and right click edit nothing shows up in the window on the bottom. When I click on data files ( this was a mod called Castle Dunkelore) it shows a number of files. The first one was Tamriel.cmp follewed by C:\users\OEM Preinstall and underneath that Tamriel 25-45. LOD with numbers increasing from 45. Then some texture, voice, and mesh files.

Definitely not right.

- Delete that omod
- check readme of the mod for optional files etc
- click 'Create'
- click 'Add Archive'
- navigate to the downloaded archive and select it

(at this point, if the mod was packed oddly you may get a warning - hopefully not - just click 'yes')

- delete unwanted esp's if required (refer mod readme)
- fill out mod details
- click 'Create omod'

After creating the omod, you still have to double-click on it in the right hand panel to actually install it. The first step just creates an omod that you can use for future installs. Actually installing the mod requires that you "run" the omod you just created. The newly created omod will have a green dot next to it. Once you've installed it, it will turn blue.

It sounds like you're installing it (it turns blue), but I just want to make sure.

Hmm, same thing happens. Unable to find any other info on optional files.

Castle Dunkelore doesn't sound like your typical mod. It might have to be repackaged to be compatible with OBMM. Why don't you try a simpler mod? Grab the little Gate Closer Spell that has a new release thread. You may not want to use it, but it's a simple mod that will allow you to confirm the process. Then you can look at repackaging Castle Dunkelore.

Andalaybay: Yes, I double-click the mod and it turns blue. It tells me it is activated but does not appear in data directory on the right.

wetblanket: I followed instructions and activated mod again but same thing. It turns blue and tells me it is activated but does not populate in data directory. I read somewhere this might happen in Vista if Oblivion is stored in default location. I was hoping not to reinstall since I am not sure how to move Oblivion and not sure how to completely uninstall so there is no overlap with anytthing left over. I was just thinking since The Lost Spires mod loaded without a problem there must be a problem with the mod and compatibility with Vista.

I checked Castle Dunkerlore - it's fine.

Yeah I just had a look too. I don't understand what Prufrock is seeing.

@Prufrock: where are you downloading your mod archives to? You could use the downloads directory under your user account, but I'd be more inclined to create a new directory especially for your Oblivion mods. Don't put them under the Oblivion game directory. I have a directory at the root called GameRepository with a bunch of subdirectories under that and use that for my downloads.

When you create the omod, navigate to your new download directory when you click add archive. In the case of Castle Dunkerlore, you should see the plugin file in the box at the bottom of the dialog box once OBMM has finished adding the archive. Then if you click the data files radio button at the bottom of the dialog, you'll see the rest of the files. They will be in temporary directories - don't worry about that.

Compatibility issues with Vista will affect everything, not just one mod. Now Castle Dunkerlore might be trying to create new directories under your Oblivion install, but if you followed the instructions posted earlier, your user account should have the permissions it needs to create those directories. It is much easier if you install Oblivion outside of program files... It's also easier to get at!

Thanks all for trying to help. I give up. I am following the instructions you gave as best I understand and same thing seems to be happening. No idea at this point why it isnt working

Since I'm going through the exact same thing with Win7 I'll let you know what I found out next time I mess with it. I'm inclined to just copy the mod over and merge it with the Data folder and activate it in Data Files in the Oblivion Launcher.