The problem people have with installing Simcity 4, rush hour or whichever, is they allow it to auto install in the C:\Program Files (x86) directory, as we know,
any changes in this directory require admin authorisation, and for some reason it just does not work well with Simcity 4.
I simply installed it in C:\Program Files, note that it is not the (x86) directory. This directory has free reign and does not require admin for changes,
anyways the point of all this, is I have now clocked over 120 hours of game play, with over 200 plug-ins, and had absolutely not 1, crash. I have it running on max graphics,
max everything, and it runs perfectly.
This fix is so simple, so extremely basic, I'm not sure why I have never seen it posted anywhere on the net on any site, perhaps this has already been covered, It is something so basic, I would be surprised if it hadn't already. But the main thing is, IT WORKS!
Fix posted by Mechalic on Simtropolis in 2012,
Following the trend of Windows 10, Microsoft has released security update KB3086255
for Windows 7, Windows 8.1 & Windows Vista.
Due to "security concerns", this intentionally disables the service
which runs the secdrv.sys driver -- a component of the SafeDisk protection which
SC4 uses.
As a result, this prevents the disk-based (CD) version of SimCity 4 from running, and you may receive an "Access Denied - Please login with administrator privileges and try again" or similar permissions error. Many other legacy games are also affected.
It would seem the update simply disables the service, rather than removing secdrv.sys completely (like Windows 10 has).
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3086255
needs the disk in drive to play
I used the sku2 update (Europe) here