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In the Forums... |
Posted: June 21, 2000 Written By: Keith "Farrel" McClellan Accompat.exe There is a file on the Windows 2000 CD (there is actually a version of it included along with Win9x as well) called accompat.exe, which can be found in the support subdirectory. This program will 'fake' the program into thinking it is running under another operating system. You can use this program for two things - first, you can use it to actually install a program under Windows 2000 that refuses to install, and you can also apply the program to the games executable and see if you can get the game to run that way. The program allows you to 'emulate' the settings produced by several Microsoft OSes, such as Windows 98 and WinNT 4.0. Keep in mind, however, that using this program does add some extra overhead to your system so use it only if the above methods are causing you trouble, or you aren't dual booting your system with Win9x. This is definitely a last resort method, simply because of the extra necessary resources - but if it means that it gets a game to work, who's to complain? Sketchy Performance If you can actually get the game to run, but you either have serious graphical distortions even after updating your driver or perhaps the game is just running really slow, there are a few things you can do. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to turn down all the game settings to the lowest values and enable any problem solving features that the game offers and see if that helps (for example, "Safe Mode"). If it seems to clear up the problem, go ahead and turn on one option at a time until you run into problems again and leave that one off. If, however, that doesn't work or you are simply getting graphical errors no matter what, this is something you can do. It's time to tweak out your video drivers. If you are lucky enough to have any kind of setup options for your drivers, use those. Otherwise you are going to have to delve into the registry. There are a few keys you are going to want to run a search for in the registry: the name of the company that makes your card, the name of the company that makes the specific drivers you are using, the name of the company that makes the chip that is on your video card, and the specific name of the drivers you are using. One of these four should point you towards the proper keys to tweak out your video card. I wish I could give more information here on specific driver versions, but many of the companies are continuously revising their key and value definitions so as to make any ones that I have right now obsolete very soon (or possibly already). Other Possibilities There are a few other things you can do to try to improve sketchy game performance under Win2k. If the game has any type of autoexec file, you could try tweaking that to improve performance -- or, if you can get in touch with their technical support, they may be able to tell you of some kind of game setting that you can use to fix whatever problems you are currently having. Sometimes it isn't even the fault of the OS itself. If you try running the game under Win9x and it is still pretty finicky, the problem may very well be with the game and have nothing to do with the OS it is running on. Of course, if you are just experiencing a lot more hard drive read/writes than within Win9x, it is because the OS needs more RAM. 128 MB is a must to run smoothly, and many times you will find that 192+ MB will serve you much better. Nothing Worked! You've done everything you could, and still the game won't work. You only really have one option when it comes down to this -- you have to dual boot and run the game from within Win9x. Yes, I know it's a pain and a waste of space on another crappy Microsoft OS, but what other choice do you have? Conclusion I hope this guide has helped you out a bit. From what I can tell, the above methods will generally get between 90 and 95% of your games running, and running well, on Win2k. The ones that don't, well, I don't know what to tell you. As always, feel free to send in your questions/comments, but remember I won't be answering any game related or "Your Win2k Gaming Guide killed my computer" emails this time around. Of course, errata and other methods of getting games to work are most certainly welcome. Click here for a printer friendly version of this article. |
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