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Windows 7 compatibility issues? Look no further! Mon, 12 December 2011 20:26 Go to previous message
beanspoon is currently offline beanspoon

 
Chief Warrant Officer 3

Messages: 182
Registered: June 2008
(Edit by Ron: Nov. 1, 2019 Goto https://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/Stars_vs_OS and use the StarsWine or DOSBoxStars found there)

Some 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.

[Updated on: Fri, 01 November 2019 09:51] by Moderator




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