For the 'finishing installing bit', see the FAQ below.
If the game still stalls, please send me your dxdiag and ACW\settings\general.opt file at
pmalacher@age-studio.com, I'll reduce your settings to affordable level.
Question: AACW installs correctly and then wait with a message saying 'finishing installation'.
Answer:
The installer has launched the registration utility, but for some reason it does not appears on the screen.
First check that the installer window don't mask the utility. Try to reduce the installer window, or do alt-tab to check if a program named 'AGESettings' is not waiting in memory.
If this does not work, terminate the installer by clicking on the close button (do not cancel!). Alternatively you can close it by going to the task manager to terminate it.
You should have a program group created (in the Start Menu) with the game registered. There is a link to the registration utility, AGESettings.
In case of further problem:
The utility is installed in the game directory: by default in c:\program files\AGEOD's American Civil War\, it is named AGESettings.exe
In this don't work:
For a reason unknown the utility to register your key is not allowed by windows to run. This can happen most notably on Vista. Sometime it is because of a protection program like a firewall, antivirus and such.
Know though that the utility don't access internet and don't perform any special operation on your computer. It is a plain and simple windows utility to write your key in a text file and that's all!
What can be done is that you write the key yourself. Please open the file <game path>\ACW\Settings\general.opt (this is a text file, open it with notepad for example). At the end, you should see something like
serial =
enter your serial after equal, save and exit. Now launch the game, hopefully it will be ok.