Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » The Bar » Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further!
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Re: Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further! |
Fri, 26 July 2013 15:06 |
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zeketheorc | | Crewman 3rd Class | Messages: 6
Registered: July 2013 | |
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beanspoon wrote on Mon, 12 December 2011 20:26Some of you may remember me from long ago. I have been cut off from this game for a while firstly due to real-world matters (gah!) and partly due to the fact that my lovely shiny new laptop runs 64-bit Windows 7, and does not carry support for doddery old 16-bit games like stars. However, I have managed to get around this little inconvenience, and hopefully will be able to save a few others and keep this wonderful forum afloat.
The answer is the Virtual PC. For those who don't know, this is (as the name suggests) a virtual computer that runs in a window on your computer, with full functionality. It is as though you have a remote desktop connection to a PC that doesn't actually exist, or rather exists in a small pocket on your hard drive.
So back to the business in hand. You have Windows 7, and when you try and run your beloved stars, you are told it is not compatible. What do you do? Firstly, if you are running Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate, your life is very very easy. Simply go to this site, follow the download and installation instructions, and skip to the end where I explain how to install and run stars on your Virtual PC.
For those of you with Home Premium or lower and don't feel like forking out the $200-ish for an upgrade, your lives are a little more difficult. Firstly, download the Virtual PC centre as instructed above. In the drop-down menu on the second page make sure you say that your system is either Pro or Ultimate, otherwise you won't be able to download anything. Unfortunately the Windows XP mode is no use to you as it knows you are too stingy to have the upgraded version. Once Virtual PC is installed, run it from your start menu, and choose to create a new virtual PC. Follow the instructions, selecting the location of your virtual PC and parameters. Personally, I used a spare external hard drive to act as the hard drive for my VPC, but its location is up to you.
Next you will need to obtain a full copy of an older windows product, preferably XP. Insert this disc into the drive, right-click on your new Virtual PC and choose settings. In the list on the left, choose DVD Drive, and from the options on the right, select your DVD drive.
If you are unlucky enough not to own a Windows setup disc, you will need an ISO file. Now I am not going to tell you where to obtain this, but I'm sure you can find that out on your own. Once the ISO is downloaded, do the same as with the disc, only select the ISO file as your virtual DVD drive instead.
After applying these settings, boot 'er up! Your VPC should boot up in BIOS, recognise the disc and begin installing windows. Don't worry, all installation is contained within the new virtual drive.
Once your VPC is up and running XP, make sure that under the tools bar at the top that integration services are installed and enabled, and your VPC should connect through your network to the internet. This is important, as you must upgrade (for free from the windows site) to Service Pack 3 in order to access your real PC's drives from your VPC.
Having done this, you should now be able to access your real PC's hard drive, locate the stars.exe file and copy it across. Load it up, enter your serial key and away you go!
If you have any problems, please reply to this message or PM me and I will endeavour to help.
I installed virtual pc, but it just opens to an empty folder. I copied the exe there and it still said not compatible. What do I need to do?
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Re: Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further! |
Fri, 26 July 2013 15:18 |
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I'm sorry for asking a basic question, but the installed virtual PC runs which windows version?
I know my minefields.. but I'm a chaff sweeper.
I used to curse when I got stuck in traffic... till I realised I AM traffic.Report message to a moderator
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Re: Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further! |
Sun, 28 July 2013 01:37 |
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your virtual pc requires win XP, or lower for stars to run...
I know my minefields.. but I'm a chaff sweeper.
I used to curse when I got stuck in traffic... till I realised I AM traffic.Report message to a moderator
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Re: Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further! |
Wed, 30 April 2014 12:55 |
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beanspoon | | Chief Warrant Officer 3 | Messages: 182
Registered: June 2008 | |
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Hey guys sorry I haven't posted on here in so long. I'm sure you've already figured out the answer to your questions, but I'll answer them anyway. Nmid any version of XP or earlier will work for the virtual machine. The main point is that it must be able to run in 16-bit mode.
Zeketheorc: You have virtual PC installed, but now you need to actually set up a virtual machine. Here are the instructions from the original post:
Quote: Once Virtual PC is installed, run it from your start menu, and choose to create a new virtual PC. Follow the instructions, selecting the location of your virtual PC and parameters. Personally, I used a spare external hard drive to act as the hard drive for my VPC, but its location is up to you.
Next you will need to obtain a full copy of an older windows product, preferably XP. Insert this disc into the drive, right-click on your new Virtual PC and choose settings. In the list on the left, choose DVD Drive, and from the options on the right, select your DVD drive.
If you are unlucky enough not to own a Windows setup disc, you will need an ISO file. Now I am not going to tell you where to obtain this, but I'm sure you can find that out on your own. Once the ISO is downloaded, do the same as with the disc, only select the ISO file as your virtual DVD drive instead.
After applying these settings, boot 'er up! Your VPC should boot up in BIOS, recognise the disc and begin installing windows. Don't worry, all installation is contained within the new virtual drive.
Once your VPC is up and running XP, make sure that under the tools bar at the top that integration services are installed and enabled, and your VPC should connect through your network to the internet. This is important, as you must upgrade (for free from the windows site) to Service Pack 3 in order to access your real PC's drives from your VPC.
Having done this, you should now be able to access your real PC's hard drive, locate the stars.exe file and copy it across. Load it up, enter your serial key and away you go!
The goat whats YOU.Report message to a moderator
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Re: Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further! |
Mon, 05 January 2015 19:57 |
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rolfverberg | | Master Chief Petty Officer | Messages: 103
Registered: March 2006 Location: Ithaca, NY, USA | |
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For some reason, to do with my home router or internet, I can't login to autohost, so I've been very quiet for a long while. Sorry...
I'm out of town now with internet that works
Anyway, I just had my laptop crash while on another trip and got a new one with Windows 8.1. I expected lots of trouble after having read these posts earlier, but I had in fact an easy ride. I first tried to run that Dosbox thingy as instructed somewhere else in this thread and that worked totally as advertized. I also found out though that the resolution was a pain and of course it didn't really address another issue and that was that my C++ compiler (an old one, MS Dev Studio '97) didn't like 64 bits either. I kinda hate to admit that here, but that was almost more painful than not being able to play stars in a decent resolution...
So, I figured I'll try the other suggested approach as well and install a Virtual PC. That went smooth as can be. Just followed the instructions and made the Virtual PC install and a virtual 25GB "hard drive". Then installed Vista, for which I had a legal installation disk. I totally prefer XP, but didn't have an installation disk at hand. The short story is, Stars ran fine in the Virtual PC under Vista. My C++ developer studio as well. Life is good again
Thanks for the discussion on the Windows 7 issue! The proposed solutions work just as well under Windows 8.1.
Cheers, Rolf.
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Re: Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further! |
Wed, 01 June 2016 20:21 |
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So does anyone know if it is possible to get Stars! to run with Windows 10?
-Upgrade Dancer
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Re: Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further! |
Wed, 19 October 2016 01:45 |
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Not earlier, but use Mark's post on how to do it.
You can also get it to work though virtual machines installed on your main machine or dosbox.
I would strongly urge a Win XP VM. It takes only an hour or two to set it up.
Mark Hewitt wrote on Sat, 27 August 2016 00:54Using Windows 10 and DOSBox isn't as flexible as running under Wine on Linux, where each window was a X window of appropriate size, but I think I can get most of what I need now as opposed to later when I get a new Linux workstation up and running. And below I add in a step-by-step procedure to get Stars! running under Windows 10.
I don't think I can improve on the resolution, as that's tied up inside DOSBox machine emulation. (And who knows what Windows 3.11 would do?) But I do have command line arguments working.
As for tools, I checked a couple. Stars Calculator 3.06 just works in Windows 10 directly, although its help file is only accessable under earlier Windows with the appropriate Winhlp32.exe (same as the Stars! help file). Stars Notebook needs to run under Windows 3.11.
Here's how I did it. Adjust the locations as you need to.
0. I install most manual installs and special games under C:\Prog\. I also have C:\Prog\bin\ in the PATH environmental variable.
1. Download DOSBox 0.74 for Windows from https://www.dosbox.com/ . I installed it in C:\Prog\DB\.
2. Goto the wiki article here http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Stars_vs_OS and download DOSBoxStars.rar. I installed it in C:\Prog\Stars.DB\
The .rar's only contents is DOSBoxC, the directory containing the Windows 3.11 Windows directory and a Stars directory, with just a Stars.exe. It also contains the dosbox.conf, DOSBox's configuration file.
4. Move dosbox.conf from C:\Prog\Stars.DB\DOSBoxC\ to C:\Prog\Stars.DB\ and edit its [autoexec] section to contain:
[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
mount C C:\Prog\Stars.DB\DOSBoxC\
set PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\STARS;C:\NOTEBOOK
mount D .
D:
The trick I use to have Stars! and other Win311 programs access files outside of its mapped C drive is to map a D drive on the current working directory from the Windows 10 file system and use a Windows 10 command window running the batch files I list below.
5. Replace the contents of C:\Prog\Stars.DB\DOSBoxC\Stars with a complete set of Stars program files. Here's what I have (Stars.exe is 2.6JRC4 with the player colours changed back in 2013):
C:\Users\mark\Prog\Stars\Stars>dir
Volume in drive C is OS
Volume Serial Number is EC87-0D61
Directory of C:\Users\mark\Prog\Stars\Stars
2016-08-26 12:26 <DIR> .
2016-08-26 12:26 <DIR> ..
2004-08-03 23:00 256,192 help.exe
1998-04-27 22:12 1,104 helpread.txt
1995-04-17 03:19 99,856 hyprfind.dll
1998-04-04 23:37 1,631,550 Stars!.hlp
2009-05-27 00:00 3,344,384 stars.exe
1998-04-04 23:37 1,631,550 stars.hlp
2000-04-26 14:25 4,218,116 stars26jrc3.exe
2009-03-16 11:48 3,344,384 stars26jrc4.altcolour.exe
2000-12-19 16:06 3,344,384 stars26jrc4.exe
2009-05-27 00:00 3,344,384 stars26jrc4.mycolour.exe
2000-04-26 14:09 3,153,152 stars27jrc3.exe
2003-09-23 13:08 209,608 tabctl32.ocx
12 File(s) 24,578,664 bytes
2 Dir(s) 9,832,062,976 bytes free
6. I add in two tools. Starcal v3.06 and Stars Notebook v2.xf, in two directories under C:\Prog\Stars.DB\DOSBoxC\, Starcal and Notebook. Starcal I can run in Windows 10. Notebook I use Windows 3.11 to run.
7. Create 2 batch files to run programs in the Windows 3.11 environment and put them in C:\Prog\bin\ (as they will be run from a Windows 10 command window):
stars.bat
@echo off
start /b C:\Prog\DB\DOSBox.exe -noconsole -conf "C:\Prog\Stars.DB\dosbox.conf" -c "win /n stars %* -x" -c "exit"
starsnb.bat
@echo off
start /b C:\Prog\DB\DOSBox.exe -noconsole -conf "C:\Prog\Stars.DB\dosbox.conf" -c "win /n notebook" -c "exit"
8. And a 3rd batch file to run the Stars help file in Win3.11. It can be put anywhere as it won't be run from the command line.
starshlp.bat [ this one gets cut off unless you show the full post ]
@echo off
start /b C:\Prog\DB\DOSBox.exe -noconsole -conf "C:\Prog\Stars.DB\dosbox.conf" -c "win /n stars.hlp %*" -c "exit"
Now I can go to the directories where I keep my Stars races, games.def, and games, and open up a Windows 10 command prompt. I can type "stars <command line options" and get a new Windows 3.11 window open up with Stars! running with those options. Similarly, if I type "starsnb" I get Stars Notebook (albeit with an error message to start).
Still have to test this further to see if it stands up to running a game. It does glitch out some. One thing I will likely do is disable sound as that also goes wonky in a noisy way.
[Updated on: Wed, 19 October 2016 01:47]
I know my minefields.. but I'm a chaff sweeper.
I used to curse when I got stuck in traffic... till I realised I AM traffic.Report message to a moderator
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