Hi.

I just finished building a retro gaming PC (E8600, 8 GB DDR2-667, Radeon 4770), and I dual boot Windows XP (SP3) and Windows Vista (SP2). I have filled an external HDD with offline backups of the GOG games that I want to play on the system, but there is something going on. The games installed fine on Windows XP, but when I switched to Vista and tried to install some games there nothing happens! I run the .exe as I usually do, the CPU spins up to 50% usage for a second, and then nothing further happens. I tried running the files in compatibility mode, but this didn’t help. For funsies I got a Windows 7 (SP1) PC and tried running the exact same installation files from the exact same HDD, and they ran fine. For some reason the games on my HDD just won’t install on Vista.

Is it just me, or does GOG games not run well under Vista?

Best regards,
Michael

Maybe you are missing some runtime package like the many different C++ Restributables?
Also, Vista didn't receive patches for newer SHA-2 code signing which is used by Microsoft's installers and patches since 2019. There are some workarounds but that's way too complicated to even start explaining here.

Who knows! Why you chose Vista over Windows 7, XP, or even 2000 is frankly an interesting mistake to have made.

You'll even note that GOG, starting when they did, willfully chose to skip Vista support.

I have XP installed, and I will be using that the most, but I also wanted a DX10 capable OS running beside it for games that run better that way. Vista was the only Windows version that I didn't have installed on a system, so I thought why not? It should have been fine, but of course the SHA-2 thing is what is getting in the way.

I'll look for a workaround and post again if I find anything good.

Hello Sareld!

May I ask, which specific version of Windows Vista you are using?

Why, because when I started to be a customer of GOG.COM, I used a Windows Vista 32-Bit (SP3) for about six years without much of a problem.
I briefly tested Vista Aero 64-Bit on a desktop computer, but had a lot of trouble with that one.

I know there were a lot of issues compared with other Windows versions, but Vista served my purposes for quite some time without seeing the need to upgrade to Windows 7.
Unfortunately, my Vista 32-Bit machine stopped working, thus I can not confirm whether SHA-2 would cause an issue with the current GOG installer files.

(Do you still have a backup of some of the older offline installer files following the formats *_1.0.0.1.exe or *_2.0.0.3.exe? Maybe the issue lies within the galaxy-fication of the current offline installers that stream the data in temporary folders before reassembling them in the destination folder.)

Kind regards,
foxgog

As the installer includes everything you need to get it running (except maybe .NET) i doubt it. Last time i tried to use XP with gog games was 2015, and it worked okay, although Soul Reaver had some sound issues that couldn't be fixed.

Hmmm... Compatibility XP SP3 and as administrator. May also make sure Defender is turned off. Beyond that i am not sure, depends on the game. Though it's surprising how easy said full CD's are to find on archive.org and a few other locations. May just have to install the original version(s) for your retro setup.

I really really really really wish the installers was in 3 parts, a 7z file just to extract and run the game, a registry modifier or entry (should it be needed), and any dependencies it may need.

If you really want to continue on the Vista path and solve the SHA-2 problem:
Search for the SSU Update KB4493730 that "introduce SHA-2 code sign support for the servicing stack (SSU)".
If it isn't available for Windows Vista, choose one for Windows Server 2008 SP2 instead.

After that you should be able to install patches/updates from Microsoft from July 2019 onwards. Such as the various security fixes and quality update roll-ups which were later published for Server 2008 SP2
(KB4507461, KB4507452, KB4507704, ...).

Good luck.