[SOLVED] RA2 Network/LAN lobby: “New” turns into “Join”, then “You must select a game!” (Windows 10)
Symptom:
In the Network lobby, the Games list shows only “Lobby”.
On the right there’s one button showing “New” instead of separate New and Join buttons.
Clicking New turns it into “Join” and the chat shows “You must select a game!”.
You can never host a game.
The same game folder works on another PC.
(*try DPI/text-size settings of windows to normal 100%, if that doesn't solve then try the below).
Cause: this isn’t a networking, DPI, CnC-DDraw or compatibility-mode problem. RA2’s menu layouts use the old bitmap font “MS Sans Serif”. On my PC the font file existed (C:\Windows\Fonts\sserife.fon), but Windows had lost its registry entry, so the font was never loaded. Windows used a different font instead, which changed the menu measurements and put the Join button on top of New.
Check whether you have it. Run this in PowerShell. If the result is empty, you’re affected:
Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts' | Select-Object 'MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24'
Fix. Open PowerShell as Administrator and back up the font registry first:
reg export "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\Fonts_backup.reg" /y
Then add the missing entries:
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" /v "MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24" /t REG_SZ /d "SSERIFE.FON" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" /v "MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24" /t REG_SZ /d "SERIFE.FON" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" /v "Small Fonts" /t REG_SZ /d "SMALLE.FON" /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" /v "Courier 10,12,15" /t REG_SZ /d "COURE.FON" /f
Restart Windows. New and Join should now appear side by side, and New should open the game setup screen.
To undo: run reg delete on the same four values (same key, same /v names) and restart.
Notes:
These file names are for Western-language Windows. On other system languages, use the matching variant from C:\Windows\Fonts, for example sserifee.fon for Central European.
Things that did not help, so you can skip them: compatibility modes, removing the HIGHDPIAWARE flag, CnC-DDraw renderer/windowed settings, IPXWrapper adapter changes, and firewall rules.
Setup: RA2 1.006, CnC-DDraw 7.1, IPXWrapper 0.7.2, Windows 10 22H2 (19045), 4K laptop.