Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour – GenPatcher and C&C Online (Windows)

Generals and Zero Hour are the most involved games to fix out of The Ultimate Collection. The following guide will get you up and running using GenPatcher and C&C Online.

Guide to GenPatcher and C&C Online

All credit goes to Jeod!

Initial Setup

Download GenPatcher. At the time of writing, GenPatcher is not yet updated for Steam TUC, but it can still work.

• Extract GenPatcher.exe from the zip file, but do not run it yet.
• Run both Generals and Zero Hour once, then exit from the main menu from each.
• Run GenPatcher.exe: you should not receive any errors about games not found; click yes to continue.
• Apply all fixes and install GenTool from the GenPatcher window.
• In the additional content tab, install optional things like GenLauncher and a control bar.
• In Steam launch options for each game, set like:

"PATH-TO-STEAM-LIBRARY\steamapps\common\Command and Conquer Generals\GenLauncher.exe" %COMMAND%

and

"PATH-TO-STEAM-LIBRARY\steamapps\common\Command & Conquer Generals - Zero Hour\GenLauncher.exe" %COMMAND%

Now launching either game via the Play button will launch GenLauncher, and Steam will still count playtime as long as GenLauncher is open. Open GenLauncher, and click a button that says “Change to Normal Start”.

Click the Options button and set your desired options, including resolution. Now we will move on to the online setup.

C&C Online Setup

Online play is available through GameRanger, C&C: Online / Revora, and RAdmin VPN. This guide will set up C&C Online.

Assuming you have set up your C&C Online account, you will come across a common error when trying to log in:

This occurs because the Steam version of The Ultimate Collection does not assign CD keys for each game. To fix, we will add our own blank keys.

Note: A future update to GenPatcher may automate this step, or a Steam update may make it obsolete.

• Open regedit
• Navigate to:
  • Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Generals
• Right-click the Generals folder and click New -> Key, name it ergc.
• Click the new ergc folder and double click the (Default) string. Paste the following into it:

0000-0000-0000-0000-0000

• Repeat the above steps at:
  • Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour

Your registry should look like this: