How can I get starcraft to run in windows 7?

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MrHood22

Supreme [H]ardness
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Aug 21, 2007
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How can I successfully get starcraft broodwar to run in windows 7? I get it installed and everything but the menu systems are all "distorted" (kinda like artifacting) and the water in game is also "distorted". I tried compatibility mode and it suggested Windows XP SP2 but I still had the same error. In game there is also a box in the bottom left square (if the screen was 4 squares) that blinks very fast and is annoying.

http://img267.imageshack.us/i/50806476.png/

you can't really tell but that's the main menu. The low resolution makes it hard to show you the problem.
 
I'd probably try running it in XP Mode. You're system supports it, so give it a shot.
 
With Windows 7 Professional, when you run "XP" mode on an executable, it actually runs the executable in a virtual install of XP that comes preloaded with Win 7 Pro. This virtual XP though is only present in Pro and Ultimate though. Home and Home Premium do not have it.
 
Way overthinking it here.

Just set your Windows desktop to 16 bit color. It runs fine in Win7 with no other changes.

edit: tested it just now-
 
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There are several compatibility options like disabling desktop composition on a few other things, as well as running in lower color scale like the guy above me said. Try those out. Also, Windows 7 has a built in compatibility wizard that will kinda walk you through and ask questions about the errors and try to set it up right for you.
 
You also might try registering with the new battlenet. Sign up register your CD keys with Blizzard then you can do digital downloads of the games you registered. They're also all up to date with all patches with the Digital download.
 
You know whats weird is I cant get it to take a screenshot *with* the error. Even if I see the corruption on the screen, both the game's screencapture and Fraps take a perfect shot. Odd.
 
I'm having a different problem trying to play SC in Win7. If I play SC in xp32, I can use fixed aspect ratio scaling perfectly, so not everything is squished on my widescreen making everything wide and fat - distorted. When I go into my catalyst control center, the options are greyed out, but not in xp32. I've tried resetting my bios and 3 clean re installs of win7 and aspect ratio scaling is still greyed out. If I try Vista it works too, but I don't own a license for it and I have a SSD so I rly want it to work in win7 without having to go back to using a old crt monitor.
 
Kangg said:
You also might try registering with the new battlenet. Sign up register your CD keys with Blizzard then you can do digital downloads of the games you registered. They're also all up to date with all patches with the Digital download.
Click to expand...

I would still try this. Me and some friends had random distortion every once in a while on Vista. Restarting the game a few times would make it go away, and compatability mode wasn't a permanent fix though I think it may have helped. Once they opened www.battle.net, we tied our keys to our accounts and the digital download made the problems go away.
 
So nobody plays StarCraft here on a widescreen LCD, Windows 7 and an ATI card? I've needed help with this since win7 came out. (I know not that long rly)
 
Another idea, that so far always works for me, is to bring up the windows screen resolution changer window and leave it open when you start the game.
 
Mine still doesn't run 100%. The artifacting was fixed by going to 16 bit color but on the left half It gets another type of graphical error. It's a bunch of lines that disappear and reappear very fast. Almost like in the forum of a barcode. Also, there is a box in the top left (1 inch x 1 inch) that is blacked out and does the same thing. any suggestions?
 
veyr simple to fix.

Right click the game sicon and go to properties, then go to the compatibility tab

Select run in 256 colors and it works perfect for me.
 
I can run fine with win 7 without doing anyhting.

sure the menu colors are missed up but in game is fine.
 
Closing explorer.exe is another option while playing to fix colors.

For the guy playing on widescreen can't you just go into menu on the monitor itself and choose fixed aspect ratio from there? That's what I do.

Also for anyone who's having the freezing issue were the game locks up mostly at 5mins in, closing winamp while playing worked for me.
 
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I fixed the color problems by clicking the icon, going to compatibility, and checking "disable display scaling on high DPI settings". However, I still get that "barcode" problem.
 
I ran into this problem at a LAN a few weeks ago. I'm surprised it took this long to be a topic here.
Win 7 on a 5870 with a 23" widescreen. Artifacting bad. No compatibility setting helped at all. Left the resolution screen open and the menus were still fubard but the game worked fine. Ever since then the game runs fine without doing anything else, menus still suck though, but as long as I can get in who cares about the menu?
 
Zicro said:
For the guy playing on widescreen can't you just go into menu on the monitor itself and choose fixed aspect ratio from there? That's what I do.
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This fixes it in Xp32 and vista x64, but not Win7 X64 I'm pretty sure it has to do with my particular monitor not playing nice with Win7 DRM. At the moment i've had to just quit playing starcraft because I do too much on going work on my system to be rebooting to switch OSes every time I want to just play starcraft without fugly stretching. I bought Command and Conquer 3 so we'll see how that goes.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
What?
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My monitor has support for Windows Vista HTCP DRM (says so on the screen) for the secure digital video link or whatever it's called. Problem is, i'm running win7, not vista and it's not working right like vista was *shutter. I mean seriously haven't you seen those windows Vista monitors that you have to have to watch blu ray on vista? Heres an article about it:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/windows_vista_hdcp_lcd_roundup/

It's gotta be shitty Microsoft DRM stopping me cause my screen supports Vista DRM, and not 7. And i'm only having the problem with 7x64, and never vista x64. By the way i've done fresh installs and everything imaginable to fix this so it's gotta be the O/S.
 
ZodaEX said:
So nobody plays StarCraft here on a widescreen LCD, Windows 7 and an ATI card? I've needed help with this since win7 came out. (I know not that long rly)
Click to expand...

I do, and if i get the weird color issue i alt tab out and then go back in.
 
sdotcarter said:
I do, and if i get the weird color issue i alt tab out and then go back in.
Click to expand...

Does your Catalyst Control Center let you adjust digital flat panel scaling options? Mine is greyed out in Win7 X64, but not in XP32, or Vista64 on the exact same hardware. Does yours suffer from this problem with the CCC too?
 
Anybody else on HardForum who plays Starcraft on Windows 7 with an ATI card, and a DVI Monitor? Please I need to know if digital flat panel scaling is greyed out in Catalyst Control Center. The problem lies either with Windows 7 DRM or my Ati card and I really need to know which cause I miss online starcraft. I can still play starcraft on my nintendo 64, but my tv is really crappy and I get headaches easy. :(
 
ZodaEX said:
Anybody else on HardForum who plays Starcraft on Windows 7 with an ATI card, and a DVI Monitor? Please I need to know if digital flat panel scaling is greyed out in Catalyst Control Center. The problem lies either with Windows 7 DRM or my Ati card and I really need to know which cause I miss online starcraft. I can still play starcraft on my nintendo 64, but my tv is really crappy and I get headaches easy. :(
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I"ll check my Starcraft tonight if I have time. Don't remember if I even have it installed right now.

But you do realize that DRM can't be the issue right? HDCP only comes into play when you are playing content that requires it. Starcraft has no DRM restriction like that.
 
Vermillion said:
I"ll check my Starcraft tonight if I have time. Don't remember if I even have it installed right now.

But you do realize that DRM can't be the issue right? HDCP only comes into play when you are playing content that requires it. Starcraft has no DRM restriction like that.
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Well if that is true, why would I be having this issue in Win7 x64, but not at all with Vista x64? Now that i think of it though, I have tried 2 different ATI cards with this same issue, so I doubt it could be a problem with the card. All I know is theres windows Vista HTPC stickers all over my monitor and I never had this problem with xp32, xp64, or vista64 what so ever. Don't Ati cards use the same driver for Vista and Win7? I wonder if they have a immature Win7 driver or something.
 
ZodaEX said:
Well if that is true, why would I be having this issue in Win7 x64, but not at all with Vista x64? Now that i think of it though, I have tried 2 different ATI cards with this same issue, so I doubt it could be a problem with the card. All I know is theres windows Vista HTPC stickers all over my monitor and I never had this problem with xp32, xp64, or vista64 what so ever. Don't Ati cards use the same driver for Vista and Win7? I wonder if they have a immature Win7 driver or something.
Click to expand...

You seriously need to go read up on how HDCP works. The HDCP in 7 isn't all that different from Vista. StarCraft was around LONG before HDCP (or any real restrictive DRM like SecuROM) was even thought of much less added to computers and software.

The drivers are close to being the same as well. Vista uses WDDM 1.0 where 7 uses WDDM 1.1 (although it can still use 1.0 drivers). So there is a difference and that is probably the issue. Driver bug or something new in WDDM 1.1 that StarCraft doesn't agree with.

While I can't promise anything I should have time tonight to fire up StarCraft and see if it works on my system. Honestly can't remember if I have it installed right now or not. If I do get to test it I will be using Catalyst 9.12 which was just released. ;)
 
Zicro said:
Closing explorer.exe is another option while playing to fix colors.

For the guy playing on widescreen can't you just go into menu on the monitor itself and choose fixed aspect ratio from there? That's what I do.

Also for anyone who's having the freezing issue were the game locks up mostly at 5mins in, closing winamp while playing worked for me.
Click to expand...

When I had SC installed on the RC I just wrote a batch file to end explorer and run sc.exe, then upon game exit it run explorer again. Worked seamlessly even gave it the sc.exe icon lol. Haven't played it since I upgraded to retail Ultimate because I was hoping i would playing SC2 beta lol.
 
ZodaEX said:
Well if that is true, why would I be having this issue in Win7 x64, but not at all with Vista x64? Now that i think of it though, I have tried 2 different ATI cards with this same issue, so I doubt it could be a problem with the card. All I know is theres windows Vista HTPC stickers all over my monitor and I never had this problem with xp32, xp64, or vista64 what so ever. Don't Ati cards use the same driver for Vista and Win7? I wonder if they have a immature Win7 driver or something.
Click to expand...

StarCraft runs just fine on my system. Catalyst 9.12 with Windows 7 Ultimate x64. HD4870s.

I get some weird color issues on the menus but the game itself is flawless. Videos are flawless as well.
 
Well, I guess my main question at this point is, for people who are running Windows 7x64 on an ATI card and DVI monitor. Can you adjust flat panel scaling options at all or are all three options greyed out and un-selectable? On my other 3 Microsoft O.S.s they can be changed an used.
 
Vermillion said:
StarCraft runs just fine on my system. Catalyst 9.12 with Windows 7 Ultimate x64. HD4870s.

I get some weird color issues on the menus but the game itself is flawless. Videos are flawless as well.
Click to expand...

Same here. It isn't a bug with your ATi card Zoda, it's a Windows thing.
The artifacting happened every so often in Vista, but yo could alt tab out and it would usually fix itself. Windows 7 seems to do it almost every time. But like Vermillion said, the menus are borked, but the game seems to work flawlessly.
I am running a 5870 with win 7 and an acer 23" widescreen, works fine.
My old system, 8800gt with vista 32 on a Hanns G 19" widescreen, had same problem. Not card manufacturer specific....
 
CanesVenetici said:
Same here. It isn't a bug with your ATi card Zoda, it's a Windows thing.
The artifacting happened every so often in Vista, but yo could alt tab out and it would usually fix itself. Windows 7 seems to do it almost every time. But like Vermillion said, the menus are borked, but the game seems to work flawlessly.
I am running a 5870 with win 7 and an acer 23" widescreen, works fine.
My old system, 8800gt with vista 32 on a Hanns G 19" widescreen, had same problem. Not card manufacturer specific....
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I've never had artifacting with SC. But I know in Vista, and xp I could use fixed aspect radio scaling in starcraft, or any other game for that matter. Would screenshots better explain my issue? I can't select diddly squat scaling options in the CCC under windows 7 ans I really need help with this bizarre issue. If I can find the problem, wrether its the the O.S. or my monitor or whatever. I would love to eliminate the issue even if it means trying to return windows 7 and get my money back to return to xp32 cause it always works on it.
 
Maybe a screenshot would, I looked in my own CCC and can't find anything for aspect ratio, fixed or otherwise. Mind you I didn't look very hard.

Keep in mind that Blizzard is still supporting this game, even after 10 years. A patch may as yet be released to fix this. They wouldn't want to piss off South Korea or anything....
 
ZodaEX said:
I've never had artifacting with SC. But I know in Vista, and xp I could use fixed aspect radio scaling in starcraft, or any other game for that matter. Would screenshots better explain my issue? I can't select diddly squat scaling options in the CCC under windows 7 ans I really need help with this bizarre issue. If I can find the problem, wrether its the the O.S. or my monitor or whatever. I would love to eliminate the issue even if it means trying to return windows 7 and get my money back to return to xp32 cause it always works on it.
Click to expand...


Yeah. I lost the scaling options under Windows 7 as well. There doesn't seem to a stright answer out there as to why. Fortunately all my 4:3 games so far have been maintaing aspect ration so I'm not too peeved. My theory is that in Windows 7 they updated Aero to use DX 10(.1?) and perhaps my older 2600 is not compliant and having to use the fallback/emulation mode for DX 9
 
I seem to have problems too, the scaling of the gfx in windows 7 with ati card on a widescreen monitor. While the colours do bother me it's not a big deal. The scaling seems to be a big issue I will take some screen shots and post them here later. Basically the game seems really grainy compared to when I had my nvidia card. I found the scaling options but it seems like nothing I try works.I don't know what to do.
 
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