You can use the Archive/Restore feature in Impulse, to first Archive the game, and then Restore them at a later time.

Please follow this procedure to archive a game:

-Launch Impulse, you must have the game already installed for the Archive to be available.
-Once Impulse is loaded, right click on the game in the 'My Games' Tab and from the menu choose
'Archive Application'
-Once you've archived the game and all components you want, copy the archives (located by default in C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Impulse\backup for Vista or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\Impulse\backup in XP) and the Impulse installer ( http://www.impulsedriven.com/impulse_setup.exe)to a portable media.

To restore at a later time
-Copy the saved impulse_setup.exe file onto the computer.
-Run the Impulse installer
-Copy the archived files into C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Impulse\backup for Vista or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Stardock\Impulse\backup in XP
-Click the Blue Stardock logo in the upper left and click 'Restore archive" and select the archive(s) you wish to restore.

You will have to re-register the games in order to continue to receive free updates.

Thanks for your help

I don't like the idea of having to install before archiving, is there any way to download the products and install later?

Here is my situation :

I have Galactic Civilization 2 and the first expansion pack Dark Avatar.  In impulse I downloaded and Archived the Dread Lords games but it won't let me download ans archive Dark Avatar whithout installing DreadLods first.  Is there anyway to download and archive whithout installing anything?

You have to know that they both appear in "My Games" tab because I have bought both of them.

You can use Impulse Anywhere to download either game.

http://anywhere.impulsedriven.com/Default.aspx

Sign in with your Stardock.net account to access the installer/archive files for the games.

At this time only Stardock titles are available via Impulse Anywhere. This may change at some point in the future to include all titles available via Impulse.

So untill then I have to download each game 4 times. That is outrageus.

Here is my OS upgrade list in the time I have been with Impulse and have had to download it each time. 12 games

XP Home x86

XP Pro X64

Vista ultimate x86

Vista ultimate X64

Windows 7 Ultimate X64 RTM-OEM

Actually, if you use the "Download and Archive" option in Impulse you can download an archive that can be installed on each machine.  This archive is not OS specific like making an archive from a completed install and can be transferred from machine to machine via local storage like a flash drive, external hard drive, or CD/DVD.

I'm using Windows 7 and have a file downloading with "Download and Archive."  The default file that Stardock uses to archive is  C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Impulse\backup, or  C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Impulse\temporary while it is downloading.  The problem with finding it is that ProgramData is a hidden file, so needed to be unhidden.

The process, though it gets the job done, could be smoother.  Might I suggest, before the download begins, to ask where we would like the file to be saved, instead of just downloading it and putting it in a default folder (which happens to be hidden in Windows 7) that we have to go check preferences to find.  And then when we want to restore (or install) it, we can direct the installer to whereever the archive file is located, like say the desktop.  That would lend more transparency to the process.

EDIT: Also if we could have a progress bar for during the extraction that would be great.  And while I'm on my wishlist if we could have an option to burn the Impulse archive and the impulse extractor on to a DVD from within impulse, that would make the functionality much nicer.

Anything under a gig is fine to just download from Impulse.  But with games growing in size and download speeds staying about the same, a friendlier option to save our downloads would be great.

A solution should really be provided for titles not on Impulse Anywhere.  I've got games where I've downloaded the archive to use for a future installation but it won't restore the archive.  Why?  I have systems that are net connected but my service provider sets bandwidth limits due to my remote location.  I can't download multiple Gigs of data at that location.  I could use my other connection to create an archive, move it on a jump drive and restore except that doesn't work!

If you have an option in the Impulse client that doesn't work, and hasn't worked for more than a year, I find that to be a poor mark of customer support.  And I only bring that up because I've come to expect better - Stardock's fault for having good service other than this.

Is there really no solution to this situation after this long???

I was hoping to see a reply to this at some point during the week...

Still only silence?

Balthagor you should probably email [email protected] and start a ticket.