I have successfully got Anno 1602 to run windowed on my Windows 10 laptop. Here's what I did:

1) Get DXwnd. The version linked to above works fine for me.
2) Go into your Anno 1602 folder, right click 1602.exe and selec properties thent the compatibility tab. What you want to do is disable compatibility mode. You may need to click the "Change settings for all users" at the bottom and disable all the compatibility settings there, then start this step again and go into the compatibility tab and disable it for you.
3) Run DXWnd, click edit, and then add. Select the button beside Launch and navigate to the 1602.exe executable. At the bottom set the window resolution to at least 1024 x 768. My laptop is 1080P, so I selected 1380 x 1040 for mine and then set the window position as X=1, Y=1, and selected Desktop center so the window is about as big as will fit. It scales nicely.
4) Once you have an entry for 1602, run it through DXwnd.

It runs very well on my computer. One thing to note, the alt-tab key is still disabled so you can't use it to switch programs. I think the GoG version of this game does that on purpose because task switching when the game is full screen doesn't work well. I haven't figured out a way yet to enable alt-tab while the game is running. At least, though, with it windowed you can use the mouse to switch programs.

Hi Vader,

thx on the great tutorial on how to get anno 1602 in windows 10 running in a window, i did it and it worked, only thing i miss is the smoothened Type all over ingame in the game menu and the info bar etc.

i remember i had a stretched image before using dxwnd but the ingame type wasnt distorted like it is in the window. it was sharp and readable when running in fullscreen, must have been GOG programming to get a sharp type letter style while using a stretched 4:3 resolution on a widescreen.

btw i suggest using the free downloadable cursor lock app it will keep the cursor inside the game window making the edge map scrolling easy and smooth. using a hotkey you can always leave the window and work on other tasks or go to windows desktop.

now weirdest thing happened as i described in my recent topic in this forum, anno wont start from the exe any more as it didt perfectly before, but will now crash immediately after starting exe or the shortcut. not even playing the intro video.
tried all compatibility settings no change and also several reinstalls of the game.
weird about it is the fact is dxwnd is still running anno 1602 windowed without any problems.
howdya expalin that? :)
i guess i will just be glad i stillcan run it this way and play windowed from now on.

I am ALSO having this issue with an old CD copy I installed after the recent giveaway made me nostalgic. What's interesting is that the post I'm quoting, my own post on Reddit, and a single thread at https://www.annozone.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=15253 are the _only_ instances of people asking about this that I can find. So it's got to be relatively obscure and consistent across versions (why I'm not jumping in to buy th egame from GoG as a solution). The solution in the linked thread was to unplug a joystick, but neither the second poster in that thread or myself have secondary input devices. Is there anyone with any help to this frustrating problem?

thanks alot for the guide! at first I struggled a bit to get it running (you have to set a name and the path in DXWnd, and have DXWnd run as administrator otherwise nothing happened for me (Win 10)), but now it works fine. :)

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on the downside: the game pauses when switching to another screen/program. and alt+tab doesn't work.

I tried to follow your tutorial, but upon starting the game it still runs in Fullscreen instead of windowed. So what did i missed here?