Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Developer(s)	Microsoft

Microsoft Windows is a popular family of operating systems.

General

Command Prompt

The Command Prompt is the command-line interpreter provided by Microsoft for Windows systems and is the not-as-powerful equivalent of the shell in Linux and Mac OS. It can be accessed by going to 'run' and typing 'cmd.exe' or by running a 'Batch file'.

Admin Command Prompt

Windows 8 and later Push Win+X, then push A.

Task Manager

The Task Manager is an application built into Windows that allows for the managing running processes as-well as providing information about computer performance. It can be accessed by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and choosing Task Manager or you can press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Esc to open it directly.

Device Manager

The Device Manager is an application built into Windows that allows for the management of device drivers. It can be accessed from the Control Panel.

Registry Editor

The Registry Editor allows users to edit the Windows registry. It can be accessed by going to 'run' and typing 'Regedit.exe'.

Basic Editing Push ⊞ Win+R, type regedit, then click OK. Navigate to the desired registry key, such as HKEY_CURRENT_USER, under the Computer category. Double click on any entries on the right side, right after selecting a registry key, under the Name category, in order to edit them.

Advanced Search Download RegJump, extract it inside the root directory of the main Local Disk location. Copy any desired path into the clipboard. Open a Command prompt as an admin. Write CD YourRootFolder:\, regjump.exe and regjump -c. Notes The last command tells Windows to open the Registry Editor at the path which was currently stored inside the clipboard.

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

A Blue Screen of Death (a.k.a BSOD or Bluescreen) is an error screen that Windows produces when it encounters an error that it cannot recover from.

DirectX

DirectX is a collection of APIs for Windows that allows programs to interact directly with hardware.

.NET Framework

The .NET Framework is a software framework for Windows that is required for games built in .NET-aware languages (such as C# or Visual Basic), including those that use XNA. Different games may require different versions of .NET Framework. A list with download links to all versions may be found on MSDN. Windows 8 and 10 users may want to read this.

DLLs

DLL stands for "Dynamic Link Library". DLL files (.dll) are Windows exclusive library files containing code and data that can be used over several applications.

While they can save time for developers, these files can cause problems for the end-user (commonly referred to as "DLL Hell").

Issues unresolved

SafeDisc protection doesn't work with Windows 10

Previous Windows of versions included a compatible version of secdrv.sys for the Macrovision safedisc DRM, but Windows 10 does not, rendering games requiring SafeDisc unplayable. According to a Microsoft representative "Safedisc is not supported on Windows 10" and people will have to wait for Macrovision to come out with an updated secdrv.sys.

Screen recorders, overlays, injectors won't work with Windows Apps

See Windows Store article for this and other Windows Apps related issues.

Issues fixed

Older Games Missing .dll File on Windows Vista and later

Some .dll files have different names on Windows Vista and later.

Copy DLL to folder Make a note of the name of the missing .dll. Go to %WINDIR%\SysWOW64 (or %WINDIR%\System32 if you are running a 32-bit version of Windows). Find the .dll that has the same name as the missing .dll but with an additional x in the name (e.g. if the game can't find dplay.dll, look for dplayx.dll). Copy that .dll into the game's installation folder (do not move it). Rename the copy to the name of the .dll that was missing (so dplayx.dll becomes dplay.dll, etc.) The game should now see the .dll and play normally.

Older games refuse to start on Windows 8 and later

Install DirectPlay Open the Start screen, type OptionalFeatures.exe and press ↵ Enter. Expand Legacy Components. Ensure DirectPlay is checked. Click OK to save your changes. Note: Normally Windows 8+ automatically detects if an application needs DirectPlay or other legacy components when it launches and prompts the user to install DirectPlay, but this requires a certain combination of services to be active such as the Diagnostic Policy Service which are sometimes disabled by the user.

Force CPU affinity

Provisional solution: Task manager Open Windows Task Manager Find game's process name (right click on its task and press "Go to process") Right click on the process name From the drop down menu select "Set Affinity..." Assign the game as many processors as you need

Permanent solution: customized shortcut Right click on your desktop Make a new shortcut to %WINDIR%\System32\cmd.exe Open its properties and add the following to the "Target" field /C start "" /D "<path-to-game>\" /AFFINITY 1 "<path-to-game>\game.exe" Notes Shortcut name and icon can be customized to match game's ones. Additional parameters can be normally added at the end of the target field Affinity value must be in hex. To assign more than a core check this table

Permanent solution: flag game executable Download ImageCFG Place it in the same folder of the game exe Open there a command prompt and run imagecfg -a 0x1 game.exe Notes Executable won't be backed up, so if you'll have to do so yourself if you wish to revert it. Affinity value is in hex. If you want to assign more than a core, check here

Use PsExec Download Sysinternals's PsTools Extract PsExec in the game executable folder Run the game through the following command (command line and/or a batch file can be used) psexec -a 0 game.exe Notes Additional cores can be specified with a comma after the previous ones

Use RunFirst Download RunFirst Create a shortcut to RunFirst.exe with the path to game executable as a parameter Notes This won't work if game requires to be launched through an external client

4-Gigabyte Tuning

Windows NT 4.0 Server Enterprise Edition and 2000 Advanced Server: edit boot configuration file Open C:\boot.ini Add the /3GB switch to the end of the line of the current boot configuration Windows XP Professional and 2003 Server (x86 only): edit boot configuration file Open command prompt under administrator privileges Type bootcfg /raw "/3GB /userva=2048" /A /ID 1 (where 1 is the boot entry id) Windows Vista and later (x86 only): edit boot configuration database Open an elevated command prompt Type BCDEdit /set increaseuserva 2048 Notes Windows default setting of 2048MB of user-mode virtual address space is used in the examples. Higher values may be attempted at risk of system instabilities

Force IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag in executables Download Large Address Aware enabler Open it and select game executable Tick LAA checkbox and save changes Notes Should there be any issue, revert modification and try 4GB Patch

Shoddy coded applications mess system-wide registry setting

Edit key ACL Open regedit Navigate to the relevant key Right-click over it, then Permissions and Advanced Depending on your Windows version either untick Permissions inheritance from parent or press Disable Inheritance When asked, choose to add/convert/copy previous permissions to the object Click on Administrators group and edit its permissions Select changes to apply This key only Last untick Set Value advanced permission Notes In the event of 32-bit offending program not expected to run with administrator privileges on Vista or newer Windows reg flags "<key>" set DONT_VIRTUALIZE /reg:32 can be used instead

Codec hell

Reset DirectShow filters Download and open DirectShow Filter Manager Go to the Troubleshooting tab Select Restore standard DirectX codecs Notes Single filters can be adjusted with Codec Tweak Tool

Missing codecs

Install ffdshow Choose the release with the number of bits your troublesome application is compiled for, regardless of the actual OS instruction set

Game files missing after upgrading or refreshing Windows

Upgrading or refreshing your Windows installation will move some files and folders to a Windows.old folder on the system drive.

Retrieve files from windows.old Open the Start screen/Start menu, type Computer and press ↵ Enter. Go into the system drive (usually C:). Go into the Windows.old folder. Go to the equivalent location for the files you are looking for and move them to their normal location.

Non-unicode applications

This is most commonly issue with Japanese games and visual novels. Games may work directly, but usually there may be scrambled text, bugs, game won't start or refuses to even install.

Easiest way to fix issues is to set Windows non-unicode language to language game origins from, but in some scenarios it may introduce unwanted changes in other programs, especially if OS language is other than English. This includes some basic characters being incorrectly replaced, programs defaulting to set non-unicode language and other programs suddenly not being able to launch or crash.

AppLocale runs the application with same effect without effecting system.

Use Microsoft AppLocale Download Microsoft AppLocale here and install it. With Windows versions after XP installation will fail. Simply put installer to XP SP3 compatibility mode to continue. Open AppLocale follow instructions. It should automatically detect programs language.

Change non-unicode language Go to Control Panel, Clock, Language and Region and Regional and Language Options. From Administrative tab change non-unicode language. Restart computer for changes to take effect.

Other information

Running previous Microsoft Windows versions bundled games on newer ones

Automatic patcher thing.

Game Bar

See Windows 10#Game Bar.