Panzer Elite & XP Compatibility Mode

After an experience recently with a player having difficulty in running PE on a Windows XP system I decided to create this simple guide to using the compatibility mode in Windows XP. The spur for this was creating screen dumps of how to do this and then offering them via Kali so the player concerned could see what to look for and what to change. I have used screen dumps as much as I can as it cuts down the text. When PE was written XP and Win 2000 were not around so if a user is finding difficulty in running PE even with Patch 1.2 installed then its likely that using a Win’98 compatibility will give them back their game.

Compatibility Mode; this is one of the useful features of the XP system though not foolproof. Its purpose is to allow programs not written for XP to be run within it. A possible drawback to this is that programs run in this way can be slower than if run under the OS they were designed for. In XP it only allows programs written for Microsoft operating systems to function e.g. Win 95/98/Me etc.

To access this the user can follow two ways.

1. This is perhaps a simpler method than no.2 so I have put it first, as the results are the same but without a test run as part of the process. Right click on the PE icon, select properties and click on this. A Properties window will open and will show the following.

Click on the “Compatibility” tab to see the following.

Clicking in the check box directly below “Compatibility Mode” puts a tick there and allows the drop down menu below it to be used. For PE I would select Windows 98/Windows Me, after this click Apply at the bottom and OK. This sets the compatibility for the PE game menu and XP then runs the game as if it were Win’98/Me. I would not change the blank boxes in “Display Settings” as PE played without these needing tweaked.

2. This approach uses Microsoft’s “Wizard”. To access this follow

Start/All Programs/Accessories/Compatibility Wizard

The Wizard opens up like this.

Click “Next”

In the next window the user has three choices.

· I want to choose from a list of programs

· I want to use the program in the CD-ROM drive

· I want to locate the program manually

If the user selects the first option and then clicks “Next” a search is carried out and the list of programs displayed.

Click on the program you wish to use and then “Next”. The next screen again gives a list of options as follows.

• Microsoft Windows 95
• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5)
• Microsoft Windows 98 / Windows Me
• Microsoft Windows 2000
• Do not apply a compatibility mode

Again check the tick box for you’re choice and “Next”. The window which then follows concerns the display settings menu. In this one I would leave the options unchecked and continue with “Next”. This window gives the user the option of testing the settings chosen and I recommend this.

When selecting the test option PE will start up and you will see the game menu screen. Select instant scenario and run this, then exit it if it is ok. Close down PE and you should see the following screen (overleaf) still on your desktop.

When you now click “Next” the program saves all settings and that should be your PE up and running again.