oh, one thing i forgot (maybe this is important):

I am not using GoG Galaxy but the offline installer, how about you guys?

POSSIBLE SOLUTION

Hi there,

I was running into that problem, too. When trying to launch the game, it directly crashed with the message
DirectDraw Error DDERR_UNSUPPORTED.

To all the solutions mentioned above, I discovered the game demands a driver's support for the resolution
800 x 600 60hz to access the intro and game menu.

Modern integraded Intel graphic devices don't support that mode by default anymore.
BUT they can be added back manually without any harm to your system.

Either by
a) rightclicking on your Win10 desktop and choosing the intel graphic's settings. You should see a point "custom resolution".
Or if the most recent driver update removed that button
b) navigate to c:\windows\system32\ and execute the CustomModeApp.exe

Now you can add the 800 x 600 60hz as an option to your monitor, which all games should be able to access if needed after then.

Worked for:
Settlers 3
Populous 3
Heroes of Might and Magic 3

PS: Does anyone else see a numeric pattern here? :-)

Please share your experiences, if that worked for you, too.

Yes, this will never ever work on Valve games.

Hi all, sorry very simple IT person here... I've just bought the Settlers 3 ultimate collection for my Windows 10 and it wont run...

I've had a look through a previous post and tried a couple of suggestions but I'm getting the following message.


DirectDraw Error DDERR_UNSUPPORTED occured at CDirectDraw::DDSetDisplayMode"

I tried to download directx 9.0 but then it says you must be running windows 98, Milennium, 2000, XP or Windows Server to install... can someone please advise ? Many thanks :)

Have you considered installing Windows XP mode in your Windows 10 and running settlers within it? Keen to know if it works...

Hi,
on what hardware are you trying to install the game? Notebook, PC, Convertible, Tablet (like the MS Surface) or something else entirely? this might give us a good idea what we're working with. if it has some manufacturer or other Device ID on it we can try to figure out what hardware you are using, that might get us closer to help you out.

from what source and how did you try to install directX? version 9 is still compatible with Windows 10 as some games are still depending on it, you can download the correct installer at:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=35 (click on the orange "download" button and go through the installer (remove the checkbox for bing))

one thing i might add, since I'm not using the GoG version anymore, mostly because of convenience, is that you can buy the History Edition of Settlers 3 on Uplay:
https://store.ubi.com/de/die-siedler-iii--history-edition/5be2b34288a7e3b8170265cf.html

It's the link from the german store but it should change depending on your location, if not, just google it
It's on sale right now and i haven't encountered a single issue with it, working perfectly fine and always running in your desktop resolution. If you have absolutely no luck getting the GoG Version to work, this might be a good alternative