Compatability Tools - A basic instruction manual!

[BladeRunner 0]

Anybody who has used WinXP and more importantly the included 'compatibility tools' will know how useful they can be.

They are going to be so very useful once WinXP hits the shelves and the mass public get their hands on it.

However for every good side there is always a bad.

I've noticed from posts, not just in this forum, that some people seem to be jumping straight to these tools without attempting to run things first.

The same goes for Win2k as it stands now, too many people attempt to run things with the tools without attempting native support first.

On a couple of forums I read I've answered postings from people who can't get a game to run.

"I tried the compatibility tools and said I had Win98 but the game wont run"

 

"Have you just tried running it under Win2k/XP without the compatibility tools?"

 

"No, but if it wont work with the tools being told it's Win98 then it wont run under Win2k"

 

"Just try it"

 

"Oh look it works"

 

Whenever you attempt to run an application/game under either Win2k or XP the very first thing you should do is try it as is.

That means, insert the CD, let it auto-run, install it, run it.

Don't start playing with the compatibility tools, just run it.

A lot of you will be so very suprised, the majority of games and applications will just run straight out of the box.

Another argument I see on forums is that although the game will run natively under Win2k, they run it in Win98 compatibility mode because 'it runs better this way'.

This is highly unlikely and in my experience so far under Win2k, WinXP Beta2 & WinXP RC1 certainly isn't the case.

If anything you should see a drop in performance.

The compatibility tools really are great, I've managed to get some games & applications running under Win2k/XP that really didn't want to, but it's not the norm.

Another word of warning about the compat tools.

If an application and/or disk management software is run under Win2k/XP and you either get a "Not supported under WinNT" or "This application has some issues under WinNT please see this URL" please don't attempt to get around it using these tools.

There is usually a good reason why they aren't supported under the WinNT platform and unless re-installing your whole OS and all applications is your thing you really should pay attention to these warnings.

 

I know this looks like pretty basic stuff to most of you, but to those who are new to Win2k/XP and the contained compatibility tools, please use them correctly, only attempt to use them if it fails to run natively and heed all warnings applications & disk management software gives you.

[DosFreak 2]

and patch the game with the latest patch before you try the game too! Geesh.

[Arian 0]

I have actually managed to run two games on XP that I always had slight problems with under 2K. One was Q3, and the other was Total Annihilation. Both workd perfectly straight out of the box. Im very impressed with this OS.