So now you might ask, “How do I get a copy of the latest patch?”  This is going to be harder than you would expect, given the volume of people who want to download it.  I got it in about an hour using a torrent, which beats all the FTP and HTTP servers out there at the moment.  Here is a link direct to the Torrent file courtisy of http://www.speltorrents.se.  I recommend you use µTorrent to download the data the Torrent file links to.  Note that you will need to install patch version 1.41 prior to installing 1.50.

So, at this point I’m going to assume you have installed BF2, (maybe also BF2:SF as I have), followed by patch 1.41, then patch 1.50 and finally a nice reboot.  If you now try and jump into the game you are going to have a world of trouble, as Punkbuster (the anti-cheating software) is going to chuck you off most servers you try and play on.  So, how do you fix this?  Google is full of unhelpful forum entries of people saying “Why would you use Windows Vista/7?  You should go back to Windows XP”.  This isn’t very helpful and to be honest (I might post another blog later), something I totally disagree with.

You need to get your Punkbuster up to date, as BF2 doesn’t seem to auto update as it is supposed to.  You will need to download, save, then run as Administrator PBSetup.  Follow the instructions on the Punkbuster site to install, and you will find it will update most of the items needed.

Side note: To ensure you run an application as Administrator in Windows Vista or Windows 7, right click it’s icon and chose “Run as Administrator”. Do not do this often, as it can leave your system at risk if you do it without understanding and trusting the programme you are running.

Now you have run PBSetup, there is one more item from Punkbuster you will need to install.  This is called PBSVC, and is used in Windows Vista and Windows 7 based systems.  Basically this allows Punkbuster to run in the background of your PC, without you having to manually grant it administrative rights each time.  Download the PBSVC file from the link above and run it as Administrator.  Follow the instructions to install and test the services required.  If you want to know more about what it’s doing, check out this FAQ.

After this step, BF2 should run fine.  I decided to reboot prior to running BF2, just to make sure.  I’ve had the odd crash, which I suspect is driver related, but on the whole it works fine.  I’m also running Kaspersky 2010, which I have not needed to change any settings to make this work.

I hope this helps.  Have fun!