Hiya again,
I wasn't sure if I should've just continued this thread here or not, so apologies for making a whole new one.

I've just finished installing all of my discs. I have patched them intermittently with each install, and I have not attempted to run the game yet at all.
When it came time to install Freetime, I did run into our new common issue of it being blocked for my protection, which I circumvented by changing the year on my computer. I didn't expect to get this as I didn't install to Program Files (x86) like was instructed, but alas.
After M&G finished installing, I immediately put in the no-cd exe. Still at this point have not opened/attempted to open the game yet.

Now I could be completely misunderstanding why that issue occurs, but I was wondering if it was related to SecuROM. I have heard many a bad thing about SecuROM just in general and so I started to follow this leefish tutorial on how to remove it.
However, when I run the removal tool it does not detect any SecuROM-using things. The TrashReg also does not detect any suspicious keys.

Is this because I haven't actually ran the game so SecuROM was not installed? I thought it was like a thing where it installed alongside the game installation, but does it only install itself once I run the game and because I haven't, and applied the no-cd, does that mean SecuROM will not be installed? And that's why the removal tool didn't find it?
Or does the removal tool not actually work anymore?

I'm slightly hesitant to start my game in the meantime, as I don't want it to be installed if it hasn't been. But I think if I understand the no-cd prevents that.

Again, sorry for creating another thread.

If you installed and patched without loading the game then changed to a modded no cd exe and loaded from that, you should not have secuROM. I did this last time I had my game on disks. I have gone to a download now as its really so much easier. I counted 18 disks last time I installed off disks. *sweats*

Ah okay, so it is one of those type of things where it'd install after I started the game, but not before? That's what I was hoping since the removal tool didn't find anything to remove. I've not loaded the game at all, not original exe or no-cd exe. But the no-cd exe is in place, so that is what I will be loading it from. Hopefully that means no SecuROM whatsoever.

You'd be right! My dad came to check on me at one point and asked how many I had left. I said 8, and he was like out of how many. Counted 18!

Yes, SecuROM was in the executable, it would install itself the first time you ran the game. If you never run the original EA executable, SecuROM never gets installed.

Good to hear it!
I've seen some horror stories of it severely damaging peoples' drives and whatnot so if I had gotten it, I wanted to remove it asap! But good to know I won't get it.