I will never install Windows 8 and later on any of my systems but You can try using <span class="podkreslenie">DxWnd</span>. Maybe it will work on Your system. Maybe not. No idea.
You should launch DxWnd and add Heroes II game executable (HEROES2W.exe for example) into its list (Edit->Add).

Thanks you for this reply ! And maybe a solution :)

I will check Dx Wnd and post after the resultat of this testing.

Enjoy !!! I'ts possible to play Heroes of Might and Magic 2 : Gold with Windows 10 !!!

Tarnum has a very good idear (thank you !!!!)

DxWnd is the holly graal for playing homm2 under Win10 :)

But before find the graal something must be done ... remove a dll

winmm.dll from GOG install directory (for exemple C:\GOG Games\Heroes of Might and Magic 2 (Win)) must by erased by the winmm.dll from Win10 C:\Windows\SysWOW64\winmm.dll

Several game have the same trouble with Win10 (i suppose Win8/8.1 too) and GOG game, replace this dll et use DxWnd seem to be "La voie Royale" ( more explain about winmm.dll here =>www.gog.com/forum/star_wars_xwing_and_tie_fighter_series/working_with_windows_10/page1 )

I attached the export DxWnd file than i set for Heroes Of Might and Magic II (normaly only image will be attached, so after download, rename extension .jpg per .dxw and import the file in DxWnd "File" => "Import")

Now in DxWnd double clic on "Heroes of Might and Magic 2" and have a good game :)

I test a lot and it's work, i have only one Game crash (hang) but it's seem a classical bug ^^

Nice!

I hope :)

Before go to work i launch game for stability testing, no crash but few minutes using later crash (see image attached).

This evenning i will test with other heroes2w.exe than the gog version.

Looks like a typical multicore CPU related crash. Set the affinity to a single CPU core for HEROES2W.exe (there are sveral ways to do so: using Task Manager, using imagecfg.exe, using SingleProcAffinity fix via Microsoft Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit, using 'start /affinity 1 HEROES2W.exe' ...)

lol i check affinity before change the winmm.dll and forgot after ^^

Another thank you for your help Tarnum !!! i don't have any crash since single core is set !!!

I change directly affinity in DXWnd and share here with a fake image (rename .jpg to .dxw)

I created a launcher application to restore CD soundtracks for games that had the winmm.dll issue in Windows 10 (such as HoMM2). Let me know if you have any issues. http://www.filedropper.com/launchwithwinmm

Usage:

Place BOTH the LaunchWithWinMM.exe file and oggwinmm.dll inside the game directory. Remove winmm.dll from the game directory if it exists!

From a command prompt or batch file: LaunchWithWinMM.exe "NameOfGameExe"

Eg, LaunchWithWinMM.exe HEROES2W.EXE

You will need the VC++ redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, available here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

Note: This oggwinmm.dll is based on the publicly available ogg-winmm library on GitHub. If GOG has distributed modified versions for some games, my version may not work at all for that game. I've tested my version with both HoMM2 and X-Wing 98, both seem fine.

Very nice idea :)

At the beginning i have an issue : System error when lauching LaunchWithWinMM.exe HEROES2W.EXE from install directory (after install VC++ x64).

it's a popup error about VCRUNTIME140.dll missing

i try :
"cmd" prompt classical
"cmd" prompt with admin right
without reboot after install vc_redist.x64.exe
with reboot

the same error message :(

i search on my drive and find this dll in c:\windows\System32 !?
so i cut/paste to C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and tri again => another error 0xc000007b

My OS is WIn10 x64 so i downloaded the x64 version (vc_redist.x64.exe) but it's seem not the correct way... so i use the 32b version (vc_redist.x86.exe) and alleluia ^^ The launcher work perfectly !!!!

Opera sound loved since 1998 and tcp/ip playing possible too, thank you for this powerfull tool !

I have made a simple go.bat witch launch LaunchWithWinMM.exe HEROES2W.EXE and exit to close prompt windows

I don't find how use dxwnd.exe to full screen the child process so to play in full screen so i use this following :

launch "Graphic Setup.exe" not in fullscreen only with 1280x1024 set and quit game

launch go.bat and after windowed homm2 has started press F4 to fullscreen and the game work perfectly in fullscreen mode

After quit game if i launch directly go.bat (or heroes2w) black full screen, but if i do same loop (Graphic setup 1280x1024 no fullscren quit and lauch go.bat) i can play in full screen !!!

I check regedit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\New World Computing\Heroes of Might and Magic 2\1.0 Main Game Full Screen and Editor full screen are set to 0 or 1 depend of my "Graphic Setup" fullscren set,
so i have updated my go.bat to call a homm2_win10.reg

go.bat:

regedit.exe /S homm2_win10.reg
LaunchWithWinMM.exe HEROES2W.EXE
exit

and
homm2_win10.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\New World Computing\Heroes of Might and Magic 2\1.0]
"Main Game Width"=dword:00000500
"Main Game Height"=dword:00000400
"Main Game Full Screen"=dword:00000000
"Editor Width"=dword:00000500
"Editor Height"=dword:00000400
"Editor Full Screen"=dword:00000000

But this F#### windows 10 don't permit this...

so i change go.bat to :
LaunchWithWinMM.exe HEROES2W.EXE
exit

and i manually launch the homm2_win10.reg before launch go.bat.... and now i have homm2 without blackscreen :)

But i must press F4 for manually set fullscreen for playing.

I make tomorrow a little AutoHotkey Script to only clic on link only one time ^^

I love this topic ^^

Thank you for your help now i can play under windows 10 at Heroes of Might and Magic II in full screen with full sound quality :)

The last step is to play in french ^^ With the gog dos version it's possible to copy DATA to gog win but the ./heroes/anim is not in the root directory, but a cd is mount with two files :

homm2.gog
homm2.inst

i have make a copy of this two files and rename homm2.gog to homm2.bin ans rename homm2.inst to homm2.cue

i have open homm2.cue and rename homm2.gog to homm2.bin + remove all track index after the first to have this cue content :
FILE "homm2.bin" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE2/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00

After i can mount the cue/bin and copy the HEROES2\ANIM to gog win version !!!

Some text are substring in heroes2w and are not translate but it's a good openning (may be a day GOG Team release win version for other langage than english ?)

I'm glad it worked for you! Yes, sorry, you need the x86 VC++ redistributable dll.

I totally forgot, but this tool also include a fix I made for HEROES2W where the CD music resumes from where it left off (instead of restarting) whenever you change terrain or enter castles. This makes the GOG version behave almost identically to the actual retail game. The official GOG version without my tool restarts the music every time you move to new terrain, I like my enhancement more :)

Finally, I also wrote a DirectDraw wrapper for Heroes2 to fix the full screen/ windowed bug. There may be bugs (haven't done any extensive testing), but I can upload it as well f you are interested in trying it. It replaces the old, original DirectDraw commands with new DirectX calls that are more compatible with current PCs.

You're welcome ! I like your enhancement too ^^

Of course i want to test (and after use;) this other wonderfull tool !!!

You can upload :)

http://www.filedropper.com/heroesddraw

Drop the "ddraw.dll" into the Heroes 2 game folder. You should now be able to launch the game directly in full screen mode. I honestly don't know if there are any bugs, but please let me know if you find any issues!

Quicky testing => no issues, workpefectly !!!

After hard testing => no game crash :) Three issues (not blocking) :

- some little graphical artifact in castel. Under mouse pointer some square apear with other pattern (from another coordonates of the same picture it's seem)

- double clic pointer for moving heroes fail, you can set a destination but not moving to by twice clic (source capture mouse trouble ?) but the move is possible by clic on horse button

- cpu affinity must be set from taskmgr, a nice addon will be to have affinity set by LaunchWithWinMM.exe (i try to use c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 LaunchWithWinMM.exe but the affinity is set for LaucnhWithWinMM not soon process Heroes2W.exe)

Very nice and usefull tool :) If you don't have any time to optimized it it's all ready a good job.

Any chance for a repuload? Anyone?

Also if possible, source code?

So I am trying to make Heroes 2 work with ExaGear Strategies on my Android tablet. It's ths fancy app that is able to run Windows executables and works with a lot of nice games, like Heroes 3 or Disciples 2.

Now, the DOS version of Heroes 2 (HEROES2.EXE) does not work with it, maybe because it has a DOS exe which might be different than the Windows executables the application is known to run.

However, the Windows version of Heroes 2 (HEROES2W.EXE) runs with no problems. On the other hand, it asks for the CD (which does not happen on my PC, I don't know what GOG did to bypass this).

The problem is that all the no-cd cracks, patches and solutions all over the internet involve modifying the windows registry so that you make the game look for the files in a folder on your hard drive, rather than the CD.

Unfortunately, this is not possible in ExaGear, since it features no simulation of a windows registry, so I'm unable to play the game even though I have all the files.

Can someone help me find a workaround or a solution to the problem? I'm open to all suggestions! :)

Thanks in advance!