These games (both AoW I and AoW ShadowMagic) run perfect on my Windows 7 64-bit laptop, without any special tweaks and while allowing GOG installer to do it's thing (install to the default folder).

However, my laptop graphics chip is "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4600" (not integrated graphics). It sucks power, so the battery life isn't good and it must be plugged in while playing games, which kind of defeats the purpose of a laptop. It's a trade-off I suppose, but I doubt I'd buy another laptop to use for gaming.

I've got windows 7 64 bit on my laptop, and Aow2 aned Aow:SM work with little effort(compat mode XP SP2), but Aow1 only works in window. problem is, the game starts on default full screen, and trying to force window by adding either -w or -window to the shortcut path does not work.

same problem as above, but with little addition. The game actually works perfect, but the screen will not update. it is possible to navigate the menu's, with a bit of guesswork, and a lot of Alt+Tab to see where you are, (even though the cursor defaults to the middle of the screen everytime you refresh), but i managed to set it to windowed mode from in-game(have to be in a game to access the menu).
started playing campain, everything worked fine.

next day (today), its fking defaulted back to full screen mode. anyone got a better way to force it to windowed mode? or to get it to work anyway else?

if you can point me to whatever place the setting is stored in the game files, fine with me to. i couldn't find it.


EDIT: oh, and i cannot access the setup. it asks for a CD, which i dont have since i bought if from GOG.com.

Not to ask an overly simple question, but did you look in the game folder as shown in the attached pic? I've not heard of anyone having the problem you describe with the GoG version of the game... Also, did you install to a custom C://games/Age of Wonders folder or to the Program Files folder which can cause issues?

I installed to c:\Spel\Age of Wonders, so no Program Files there,

Also, at the location described in the Pic, it asks for CD. I've done a reïnstall already, to no avail.

I might add to that, it also gives just Install as option, though it is in the installation folder. Might be something that could be done in the registry, and im willing to try, but i've got no knowlegde about that sort of things. if you do, please share it...

BTW, ty for a response within a day.

So im still looking for the solution...

Does anyone has an idea?
(bump)

2015, and I still have this same problem on Win7 64. :-P

Game runs great for me in Win10x64 RTM (1511.) (With no compatibility options set.) I run it full screen and I can switch resolutions in-game and all of the menus work as intended. Game runs flawlessly.

I notice that AoW has a compatibility exe you might try if you haven't. It's AoWCompat.exe.

You should also download and install the JUNE2010 runtime for DX9.0c (direct from Microsoft) if you haven't already installed it--anyone playing games should install that alongside dx10/11/12. One thing I have noticed about Win10 is that it has a lot better compatibility with games than I remember with Win7. In fact, some games I couldn't for the life of me coax to run in Win7 are running fine now in Windows 10.

I bought Age of Wonders on gog.com Yesterday.

I have tried:
- all variations of Application files added or not added in the DEP settings exeption list
- I have tried JUNE2010 runtime for DX9.0c
- changing the compatibility settings on all possible combinations of application files and or shortcuts
None of the above or any combination of it worked for me.

The simplest solution is:
- Return your win 7 settings back to how they were before you got AoW.
- Install your gog.com AoW with the installer.
DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING in Win 7 64 - not even the compatibility settings.
- run AoWsetup
In the setting screen instead of choosing a higher or lower screen size ... scroll back past the lowest and choose Window.
Then press play and everything runs as smooth as it should, without any complex downloads or tweaks.

Worked for me. Hope it works for you too. :)

For anyone else that comes across this, one of the other things you need to try with these old games, is to add an exclusion to the "DEP".

- Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties
- Click on the Advanced tab (or Advanced System Settings) and then Settings under Performance
- Click on the Data Execution Prevention tab

From the you can add the executable programs. Doing this is what solved the problem for me.

Note that WIn8/10 also have DEP but I don't know how you access them on there.

Tempus64, thank you for mentioning that. I tried all the other things, but switching DEP I think made the difference for me.
Best,

… And all three titles work on my decade-old laptop with (32-bit) Windows 7 Home Premium. :)