Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Windows

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 14:09, 21 July 2017 by Mirh (talk | contribs) (→‎4-Gigabyte Tuning: NT/2000 info is nice "because you can", but -aside of *nobody* (especially noobs enough to have to read these pages) using them- realistically what hell of game that can run on those OSs could require the switch?)
Windows
Windows cover

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

Instructions

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'.

Instructions
Instructions

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.[1]

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

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

Issues fixed

Alt F4 doesn't terminate freezed applications

Instructions

Older Games Missing .dll File on Windows Vista and later

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

Older games refuse to start on Windows 8 and later

Instructions

Force CPU affinity

Instructions
Instructions
Instructions
Instructions
Instructions

4-Gigabyte Tuning

Instructions
Instructions

Shoddy coded applications mess system-wide registry setting

Instructions

Codec hell

Instructions

Missing codecs

Instructions

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.
Instructions

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.
Instructions
Instructions

DOS compatibility (32-bit Windows only)

In the transition from Windows 9x to NT based versions, DOS compatibility was temporarily maintained, at least for 32-bit editions. For modern versions of Windows, we recommend you use DOSBox.

If you're having trouble getting DOS games to run on older versions of NT (XP & 2000) checkout The Sierra Help Pages.

Other information

Running previous Microsoft Windows versions bundled games on newer ones

Automatic patcher thing.

Game Bar

See Game Bar.


References