Since DirectDraw has been deprecated, a wrapper is required.
DDrawCompat - Stable Release: https:// github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat/releases/tag/v0.2.1
The DirectDraw wrapper fixes plenty of issues, - Text renders properly - No more black graphical glitches with the UI - Houses render properly on the neighborhood screen - Stable frame rates - No artifacts when dragging the game window - Alt-Tab works better - Transparency continues to work after using Alt+Tab
To install the wrapper, just extract the ddraw.dll from the .zip file and put it in the game's installation folder. Windowed mode doesn't work with the custom resolution patch when using the DDraw wrapper, windowed mode works only in 800x600.