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Edit history:
honorableJay: 2014-07-10 04:14:15 pm
honorableJay: 2013-05-15 10:02:18 pm
honorableJay: 2011-03-17 12:11:01 am
The Dork Knight himself.
***Last Update: 7/10/2014***
I'll update the list of games that people confirm to work with the fix. If you've used this in the past to fix a game, re-check again before posting so the list stays as accurate as possible.

While trying to get the original Fallout to work in Windows 7, I stumbled across an interesting solution.

Problem:
During cutscenes and other menus the color scheme looks like an acid trip gone horribly wrong (or some developer released a Technicolor yawn upon your screen).

Solution:
Kill explorer.exe before the game is launched. Apparently older games that use DirectDraw are affected by the Windows color scheme that explorer.exe uses. By disabling the Windows GUI the color scheme doesn't get affected while playing the game. Of course this does introduce some other possible issues (some key combos like alt+tab etc don't work properly all the time, don't know of any others at the moment) and I don't know exactly how it will affect programs like Fraps, but at least it's a start.

Make a .bat file for whatever game you're trying to play and paste this into it:

@ECHO OFF
TASKKILL /F /IM explorer.exe
"C:\Program Files\Interplay\Fallout\falloutw.exe"
pause
START C:\Windows\explorer.exe

Here's how it works: The second line kills explorer.exe, and the 3rd line launches the game (this is the .bat I'm using to load Fallout, edit the path to your game). Once the game is launched the script is paused. When you're done playing, just click on the command prompt window and press any key to load explorer again. If you have to load a game in compatibility mode, all the options you choose will still work even with explorer not running.

Tested games: (will be updated as people post)

Descent **definite confirm??**
Fallout (still requires Win98 compat mode)
Jedi Knight (still needs -windowgui to avoid menu crashing until another fix is found)
PAX IMPERIA - Eminent Domain
Tie Fighter **definite confirm??**
Worms Armageddon
Diablo II **need confirmation on either direct draw or D3D**
Starcraft I
Age of Empires 2
Diablo I **awaiting confirmation**
The Curse of Monkey Island

Can anyone else test/confirm this will work with other older games and how it affects recording software (fraps/camtasia/etc)?
Thread title:  
Fucking Weeaboo
Just note that not all versions of Windows comes with this (like XP Home).  Here's a copy of it just in case it's that situation.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UF7LXELT


Extract, drop it in your Windows/system32 folder (Windows/system folder for 9x/ME users) and register it (enter the following in the run box):

    Windows 95, 98, or Me:
    regsvr32 \windows\system\taskkill.exe

    Windows NT or 2000:
    regsvr32 \WINNT\system32\taskkill.exe

    Windows XP or Vista or Windows 7:
    regsvr32 \windows\system32\taskkill.exe
Why register? It's an executable.
Fucking Weeaboo
To please the Windows Gods, of course!  Do not defy Bill Gates!
PAX IMPERIA - Eminent Domain  works! Fixed the colour perfect, thanks.
Edit history:
Kiyura: 2011-03-15 12:29:20 pm
Wiiaboo
Just my 2¢...

I've already used this solution in the past to fix wonkiness with Diablo, Worms Armageddon, and (I think) Tie Fighter and Descent, so I can confirm it works wonders. Also, I'm pretty sure you don't actually need to keep explorer.exe killed for the whole time, just as the game starts.
The Dork Knight himself.
Quote from Kiyura:
Also, I'm pretty sure you don't actually need to keep explorer.exe killed for the whole time, just as the game starts.


I'll check when I get a chance, but if it is the case I'll update the first post.
Works with Diablo II
The Dork Knight himself.
What video mode did you use? I don't have any video problems at all running it normally in D3D mode. It flat out refuses to run for me in DD mode though so I can't test that. Try running the game with these compatibility settings in D3D mode without killing explorer: Run as Admin, WinXP Service Pack 3
I love you honorableJay, you just fixed starcraft 1 and age of empires 2!
Hmmm... Hi, I might have done something wrong along the way, but I could use a little bit of help here :O

Made myself the .Bat file for diablo 1 and followed the instructions as you gave them, but it turned out to invert the small portion of colors that were fine.. Meaning that the game's color seem to be completly inverted :O

Any chance you could help me out with that?
Well, nvm it all, figured another way
The Dork Knight himself.
So did the fix work for you in the end?
Fixed the colour issues on The Curse of Monkey Island also.
Old thread but why not add this. This SORT OF worked for Heart Of Darkness (PC) from 1998. Using the batch file method, it would fail to start the game, the screen would go black as normal, but after a few moments my desktop returned with the batch files window with the message that Explorer was successfully killed and the Pause message. If I did this MANUALLY, worked perfectly: Opened the Task Manager to Processes, opened the CD's Autoplay, then in Task Manager killed Explorer (leave Task Manager open) - in that order because we need Explorer to open things. Then in the CD's start menu I started the game, good colours! Once I exited the game, in Task Manager do "Run..." and type "explorer.exe". Not sure why the Batch didn't work, I even tried putting Compatibility Mode on the file on my desktop to run it in Windows 95 or 98 mode. I might try sticking the batch file in the Heart Of Darkness folder itself.
UPDATE: Heart Of Darkness (PC) (1998), the batch method works if I put the batch file in the installation folder (with or without the full path being in the batch file) or from the desktop if I have the batch file run the Autoplay file on the CD instead. Note that I'm running Windows 7, I could believe that all three methods (manually using Task Manager, batch file in the installation folder, or batch file running the Autoplay from the CD) would work in Windows 10 too (I might try on my Windows 10 laptop in a few days).