Solve : Older games (8-bit color) and the Explorer issue?

1.	Solve : Older games (8-bit color) and the Explorer issue?
Answer» I think we've had a few posts about this over time. Many Older games, like Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, etc. use a 8-BIT INDEXED palette for their graphics. Thing is, with Vista and WINDOWS 7, those palettes can't be fully realized, which makes very odd artifacts on-screen. Age of Empires II, for example, features purple oceans. The most common fix is to use a batch file to kill explorer.exe. This is because for some reason explorer.exe refuses to let go of certain palette entries, meaning that they stick around when the game wants other colours at that palette index. By killing it, that issue is fixed. Why am I posting this? Well, turns out there is another solution to this issue, which is ALMOST completely unexpected. Upgrade to Windows 8- Windows 8 Fixes this bug in Windows Explorer, or at least has a working resolution or workaround, because all the games that required me to TERMINATE explorer before now work as-is on Windows 8. So much for newer versions of windows breaking older software and games.Oh yeah? Do 16 bit applications run on 8, or has that been broken?Windows 8 has 16-bit Application support as a separate feature, but only in the 32-bit version. Note that 16-bit Windows and DOS Applications do not run on any 64-bit version of windows anyway, and 16-bit applications are now old enough to be considered adults (~18 years, based on when Windows 95 was released and this 32-bit support became the vogue).I don't really understand why 16 bit programs won't run on 64 bit versions. Well, I understand why, but I don't understand why an emulator isn't included as it is for 32 bit or DOS programs is. There's something (um...an emulator) Microsoft has called "Windows XP mode" for 64 bit Win 7, but of course it's only allowed to install on the fanciest version of Win 7 64 bit, of which there are apparently several. I know it's eccentric to want to run a 16 bit program on Win 7, but I managed to run into that problem. Quote from: Hunter quest on March 24, 2013, 01:18:47 AM I don't really understand why 16 bit programs won't run on 64 bit versions. Well, I understand why, but I don't understand why an emulator isn't included as it is for 32 bit or DOS programs is. There's something (um...an emulator) Microsoft has called "Windows XP mode" for 64 bit Win 7, but of course it's only allowed to install on the fanciest version of Win 7 64 bit, of which there are apparently several. I know it's eccentric to want to run a 16 bit program on Win 7, but I managed to run into that problem. "XP mode" is a package. It is a combination of the latest version of Microsoft Virtual PC and a free licensed virtual machine image of 32 bit XP Professional SP3 which is only available for download for validly licensed users of three levels of Windows 7, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise. Only the Starter and Home cheaper versions are excluded. However, Microsoft Virtual PC itself runs on Windows 7 Home and is free for anyone to download, and they can use a validly licensed XP install disk to get the equivalent setup. It's not eccentric to want to run 16 bit programs, just unusual. Quote from: Hunter quest on March 24, 2013, 01:18:47 AM I don't really understand why 16 bit programs won't run on 64 bit versions. Well, I understand why, but I don't understand why an emulator isn't included as it is for 32 bit or DOS programs is. 32-bit Windows had a 16-bit layer that ran 16-bit programs within a separate process (wowexec), to emulate their earlier environment. It operates by thunking 16-bit calls to their 32-bit equivalents. A 32-bit variant for x64 would require thunking 32-bit calls to 64-bit calls, which is no longer possible because the x64 address space is too large. Even assuming it was possible, the 32-bit WoW program would be utilized to run the 16-bit WoW program to run 16-bit programs. It's likely the feature was axed simply because it wasn't worth the predicted support cost.It's probably because windows 8 uses hardware accelerated graphics for its GUI instead of the GDI or whatever. Might also be the metro interface. Does it happen if you disable metro? Quote from: Linux711 on March 24, 2013, 05:03:44 AM It's probably because windows 8 uses hardware accelerated graphics for its GUI instead of the GDI or whatever. Might also be the metro interface. Does it happen if you disable metro? Vista and 7 use Hardware accelleration on the desktop. The reason it works now is because they fixed a bug where explorer was realizing an 8-bit palette for some reason.

Answer»

I think we've had a few posts about this over time. Many Older games, like Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, etc. use a 8-BIT INDEXED palette for their graphics. Thing is, with Vista and WINDOWS 7, those palettes can't be fully realized, which makes very odd artifacts on-screen. Age of Empires II, for example, features purple oceans.

The most common fix is to use a batch file to kill explorer.exe. This is because for some reason explorer.exe refuses to let go of certain palette entries, meaning that they stick around when the game wants other colours at that palette index. By killing it, that issue is fixed.

Why am I posting this? Well, turns out there is another solution to this issue, which is ALMOST completely unexpected.

Upgrade to Windows 8- Windows 8 Fixes this bug in Windows Explorer, or at least has a working resolution or workaround, because all the games that required me to TERMINATE explorer before now work as-is on Windows 8. So much for newer versions of windows breaking older software and games.Oh yeah? Do 16 bit applications run on 8, or has that been broken?Windows 8 has 16-bit Application support as a separate feature, but only in the 32-bit version.

Note that 16-bit Windows and DOS Applications do not run on any 64-bit version of windows anyway, and 16-bit applications are now old enough to be considered adults (~18 years, based on when Windows 95 was released and this 32-bit support became the vogue).I don't really understand why 16 bit programs won't run on 64 bit versions. Well, I understand why, but I don't understand why an emulator isn't included as it is for 32 bit or DOS programs is.

There's something (um...an emulator) Microsoft has called "Windows XP mode" for 64 bit Win 7, but of course it's only allowed to install on the fanciest version of Win 7 64 bit, of which there are apparently several.

I know it's eccentric to want to run a 16 bit program on Win 7, but I managed to run into that problem. Quote from: Hunter quest on March 24, 2013, 01:18:47 AM

I don't really understand why 16 bit programs won't run on 64 bit versions. Well, I understand why, but I don't understand why an emulator isn't included as it is for 32 bit or DOS programs is.

There's something (um...an emulator) Microsoft has called "Windows XP mode" for 64 bit Win 7, but of course it's only allowed to install on the fanciest version of Win 7 64 bit, of which there are apparently several.

I know it's eccentric to want to run a 16 bit program on Win 7, but I managed to run into that problem.

"XP mode" is a package. It is a combination of the latest version of Microsoft Virtual PC and a free licensed virtual machine image of 32 bit XP Professional SP3 which is only available for download for validly licensed users of three levels of Windows 7, Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise. Only the Starter and Home cheaper versions are excluded.

However, Microsoft Virtual PC itself runs on Windows 7 Home and is free for anyone to download, and they can use a validly licensed XP install disk to get the equivalent setup.

It's not eccentric to want to run 16 bit programs, just unusual.

Quote from: Hunter quest on March 24, 2013, 01:18:47 AM

I don't really understand why 16 bit programs won't run on 64 bit versions. Well, I understand why, but I don't understand why an emulator isn't included as it is for 32 bit or DOS programs is.

32-bit Windows had a 16-bit layer that ran 16-bit programs within a separate process (wowexec), to emulate their earlier environment. It operates by thunking 16-bit calls to their 32-bit equivalents. A 32-bit variant for x64 would require thunking 32-bit calls to 64-bit calls, which is no longer possible because the x64 address space is too large.

Even assuming it was possible, the 32-bit WoW program would be utilized to run the 16-bit WoW program to run 16-bit programs. It's likely the feature was axed simply because it wasn't worth the predicted support cost.It's probably because windows 8 uses hardware accelerated graphics for its GUI instead of the GDI or whatever.

Might also be the metro interface. Does it happen if you disable metro? Quote from: Linux711 on March 24, 2013, 05:03:44 AM

It's probably because windows 8 uses hardware accelerated graphics for its GUI instead of the GDI or whatever.

Might also be the metro interface. Does it happen if you disable metro?

Vista and 7 use Hardware accelleration on the desktop. The reason it works now is because they fixed a bug where explorer was realizing an 8-bit palette for some reason.

Solve : Older games (8-bit color) and the Explorer issue?

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