Age of Empires 2 on Windows 7 has color issues

Anonymous

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

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Anonymous

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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201 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-03-08T09:28:02+00:00

Windows 7 user need to install DirectX version 9.29.1974. You can download it from the below link,

http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-DirectX-Redistributable-June-2010/3000-2121\_4-10176490.html?tag=contentBody;pop

This will fix the color issue. Enjoy playing AOE :)
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Anonymous

2013-02-27T09:06:26+00:00
Hello Sotcr,

To Make the batch file,
1. Make a new Txt file
2. Write any commands that you want. {in this case
taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe

age2_x1.exe

Start explorer.exe}
1. Click save as
2. Click the type of file to everything from txt
3. Name it to whatever you want and add .bat at the end
4. Execute it to run the commands and launch the game
Thanks

Ramy.
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Anonymous

2013-02-23T16:05:08+00:00

Great answer. Thank you. First time in years that AGE has worked right on W-7. I had to use a dual boot with Vista on a second drive to play the game Again Thank you

Douglas
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Anonymous

2013-02-22T22:27:00+00:00
THIS IS THE ONE THAT WORKS. IT IS THE 'OFFICIAL" FIX. I HAVE USED IT ON 'MANY' COMPUTERS BOTH 32 AND 64 BIT. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO UNINSTALL ANY SECURITY UPDATES OR TURN OFF EXPLORER.EXE ETC. THERE IS NO NEED OF ANOTHER POST ON THIS.

READ READ READ!!!

The xomicron color issue can be fixed on both.

Download directdrawfix at http://www.xomicron.com/software/directdrawfix/

Run DirectDrawFix.exe as administrator

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

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.

Ok, I got this to work on AOE & Expansion, & AOE II & Expansion. Some people have a problem with this patch/fix when they use a No CD patch for their legal retail game. Some No CD patches will work and some will not with this official fix. This fix WILL work on an untouched retail EXE of the games.

LeAsker123

Unzip the above file. 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.
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