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Windows Compatibility Mode

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 18:48, 12 September 2012 by Citadel (talk | contribs) (Robot: Cosmetic changes)
Windows Vista Compatibility Settings

Windows Vista, 7 and XP sometimes have trouble running older games. Luckily, there is an option within the properties panel which can help rectify this called "Compatibility Mode".

To change the compatibility settings simply right-click your .EXE file that runs your game and choose "Compatibility" from the menu.

The Color Fixes For Older Games article may also be relevant when running older games.

Some old games may not run due to missing .DLL files. The Old Games on Windows Vista/Windows 7 Fix may help with that.

Compatibility Mode

There are a maximum ten different modes you can choose to run your game under. It is recommended to choose the mode for which your game was originally released for.

These are:

  1. Windows 95
  2. Windows 98/Windows ME
  3. Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5)
  4. Windows 2000
  5. Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
  6. Windows Server 2003 (Service Pack 1)
  7. Windows Vista
  8. Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
  9. Windows Vista (Service Pack 3)

Settings

Run in 256 Colours

Choose this for running 8-bit games.

Run in 640x480 Screen Resolution

This reduces the number of pixels on screen to 640x480.

Disable Visual Themes

Stops visual themes built in to the operating system from affecting the game.

Disable Desktop Composition

Disables Aero, the default theme and and graphical user interface.

Disable Display Scaling On High DPI Settings

This stops large monitors from increasing the DPI (dots per inch) to a size too large.

Privilege Level

This setting makes the game run as if the user account was an administrator, which is required for some games.

See Also