This
first section of the guide deals with fixing compatibility issues with any
applications you have installed on your Windows 2000 Operating System or are
trying to run on it.
Update
Much
of the issues with Windows 2000 are down to poor drivers or require update for
Applications/Windows 2000 itself. The most important updates as a result being
Service Pack 2 & Hardware/Chipset Drivers along with any available
Application/Game patches. You can find the relevant links for Windows 2000
Updates on our OS
Updates page (Links for Windows 2000 updates along with other recommended
downloads & Chipset updates), while you can find links for Hardware devices
on our Drivers
page.
Microsoft
also regularly release Compatibility Updates for Windows 2000 that have fixed numerous compatibility
issues with Applications/Games (Over 170 currently). You can download
the latest Compatibility Update from Microsoft.
To
find any other remaining updates you
should scan your system at Catch-up.
Application
Compatibility Tools
Windows
2000 comes with a utility that can trick many applications into believe they are
running on an Operating System other than Windows 2000. Although not perfect,
this utility can help you to install/run many applications under Windows 2000. Take
the following steps to use the Windows 2000 Application Compatibility utility.
-
-
Insert
your Windows 2000 CD. Open the Support folder on the CD.
-
Double
click the APCOMPAT.EXE file. This will load the Application
Compatibility utility.
-
In
the Start the following program tab enter the location of the
setup/executable file you wish to run, e.g. C:\Sin\Sin.exe.
-
Select
the Operating System you need to use, e.g. Windows 98.
-
Click
Ok to attempt to run the program.
Should
this fail try Ticking one of the 4 boxes at the bottom of the screen
& try again. You may want to try different combinations of Operating Systems
in conjunction with this.
With
Service Pack 2 installed Microsoft have added a more convenient to use
application compatibility mode. Although this isn't enabled by default.
To enable the use of this feature click on Start then Run.
Type in the following command - regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll
& hit Enter. Click Ok when prompted that this succeeded.
To
use this feature you must have a Shortcut to launch the particular
Application/Game (Obviously you shouldn't use this feature unless you have
problems with the Application/Game). Right click on this shortcut &
select Properties. Select the Compatibility tab.
Tick
the Run in compatibility mode setting & select an Operating System
from the drop-down menu (Preferably your choice will be of whatever the programs
native Operating System is, e.g. if you are trying to use an NT4 program then
select the Windows NT4 SP5 Compatibility Layer option first). Select Ok
after you have made your selection.
Should
you need to disable this feature then simply Untick Run in
compatibility mode & hit Ok, or if you wish to uninstall this
feature altogether (It can still be added again later using the command
mentioned earlier) then click on Start, Run, type in regsvr32
/u %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll & hit Enter.
Windows
2000 is the future of all Microsoft Operating Systems (Well, NT, but
anyway). Windows 2000, while admittedly great does have a few problems with it,
compatibility
issues happen to be one of them for many people, as does poor WDM drivers
(Although there's not much which can be done about them in this guide). This guide
however will give you
tips on how to improve Application/Game Compatibility & Performance in Windows 2000.
Read on.
