Age of Empires 2 on Windows 7 has color issues

Anonymous
2009-05-15T17:57:15+00:00

Hello, i want to run Age of Empires 2 on my Windows 7 rc computer. But there are color issuse when i run it, the grass aren't green and the water isent blue. How should i do to fix this? I have try to run it complatify with windows xp service pack 2, and installd some driexct 9 drivers. but not result to better colors. I hope someone have a good answer, because i love this game.


Frozzare, Scout in Sweden

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Gaming

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2009-05-29T12:28:55+00:00

Go into task manager select the processes tab and end explorer.exe then alt-tab back into age of empires

Note: this will make your task bar disapear and any open folders

To restart explorer open the task manager agian in the aplications tab hit new task and type explorer in the box

The colours change because of the Aero theme's poor handling of colours

Edit:

You can also make a batch file with the following lines and place it in the same location as your age of empires 2 executable

taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe

age2_x1.exe

Start explorer.exe

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-09-08T15:35:17+00:00

    I tried out D3Dwindower per someone's recently and did get Conquerors to run in a window in Win7. Very cool. I just had to make sure that UseCursorGet=1 in the hook.ini file to get my mouse to track well.

    Pretty cool running Conquerors in a window!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-09-08T15:33:53+00:00

    Thanks for trying to help, but why would you question that on 2 of MY computers,  that had that windows update, that was what was crashing Conquerors every time? As soon as I removed KB2718523 that particular crashing problem went away.

    Just because you didn't need it on your system doesn't mean that other people in the entire world might not have the situation that I was facing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-09-07T15:22:02+00:00

    What worked for me (Windows 7 starter):

    -Right-click the executable

    -Properties > Compatibility > Run this program in compatibility mode > Windows 98

    Perfect colors in game.

    Hope it helps anyone with the problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-09-07T04:53:15+00:00

    The xomicron color issue can be fixed on both.

    1. Download directdrawfix at DirectDrawFix - xOmicron Software
    2. Run DirectDrawFix.exe as administrator
    3. Browse the Age of Kings Executable to fix. Most likely it would be C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\empires2.exe and press apply
    4. Now browse the conquerors Executable to fix. Most likely it would be in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\age2_x1\age2_x1.exe and press apply

    If you do it for both empires2.exe and the conquerors.exe, then the color issue will be fixed on both. It will work on other older games also.

    Ok, I got this to work on AOE & Expansion, & AOE II & Expansion. The problem comes when you use a No CD patch for your game. Some No CD patches will work & some will not with this fix. This fix WILL work on an untouched retail EXE of the games.

    Unzip directdrawfix at DirectDrawFix - xOmicron Software. Click on the EXE file & then RUN. Do it in Aministrator mode if useing Vista or Windows 7. A window will open up that has a browse button for you to browse to the EXE file of the older game that you wish to patch.

    This IS THE LEGIT FIX. It works, period. No more debate or wondering about it.

    IMHO

    isepiq

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