Windows 8.1 issues?

Windows 8.1 Upgrade Assistant informs me that all Civ 4 games are not compatible. Has anyone had any Win 8.1 upgrade issues with Civ 4? Does compatibility mode work or are there other workarounds? I'd hate to upgrade and lose the only game I still play.

Then don't play games.

Not really helpful there LF. Kaph, check over in the tech forums, you might find the answer.. Or you could even post your question there. I know that civ works with win8 (runs on wife's lappy just fine), but don't know about the update.

Little Faith said:

Then don't play games.

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Thanx for nuthin-

Drakarska said:

Not really helpful there LF. Kaph, check over in the tech forums, you might find the answer.. Or you could even post your question there. I know that civ works with win8 (runs on wife's lappy just fine), but don't know about the update.

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Thanks. That's where I am, Win 8 Pro and no problems playing Civ BTS, i think 3.18, playing GEM. I guess it's early with the game being older and the OS just out, but I know there will be some diehards like me with the same questions.

latest update is 3.19 for BTS I believe. You may want to double check.

Yep, 3.19 (the previous patch that I know of was 3.17)

Playing on Windows 8 too no problem but haven't updated to 8.1 yet

Vanilla and Bts 3.19 work fine for me in 8.1.
If you have some display problems just try to change the compatibility status to "Windows 8" by right clicking on the BtS.exe - properties>compatibility.
(This is what I did with BtS. The vanilla worked well without any action)

Absolution said:

Vanilla and Bts 3.19 work fine for me in 8.1.
If you have some display problems just try to change the compatibility status to "Windows 8" by right clicking on the BtS.exe - properties>compatibility.
(This is what I did with BtS. The vanilla worked well without any action)

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pomthom said:

Yep, 3.19 (the previous patch that I know of was 3.17)

Playing on Windows 8 too no problem but haven't updated to 8.1 yet

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Drakarska said:

latest update is 3.19 for BTS I believe. You may want to double check.

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Thanx- My mistake, I'm playing 3.19. I'm encouraged that compatibility mode should work. I'll do the upgrade in the next few days and post my results.

Just reporting that Civ IV works as it should on Windows 8.1 Pro.

But I do not run it with SecureBoot enabled. Do you know if you do? If that's the case, it may stop programs not white-listed from running... (I presume, haven't tried SecureBoot myself, so I cannot say with 100% certainty).


Yours Sincerely
Kjotleik of Norway

I bought CIV IV on PC DVD over the weekend (the "vanilla" version), and have been having frustrating issues with it. I have laptops that run Windows 7 and 8.1. I initially tried installing on my 8.1 machine. The installation process went fine, but upon trying to play the game, it started initially telling me there were compatibility issues, which there were no solutions for, before telling me I needed to log in as an Administrator (which I am) to run the game. Clicking "run as administrator" did nothing at all. I tried all the different compatibility settings through the Properties tab to no avail, uninstalling and re-installing under safe mode using "run as administrator", with no luck either. I even disabled Secure Boot and tried, but still nothing. I also updated DirectX, patched the game to it's latest version - everything barring building the game myself from scratch!! No word of a lie, I've gained three new grey hairs since yesterday!

The Windows 7 deal was even weirder. It came up with the same messages regarding compatibility, but when I chose to run it anyway, it worked! Well, last night it worked.... today, after shutting down my laptop last night, the exact problems as the ones on my Win8.1 machine occurred, and I can no longer play the game. Somebody please help!! Thank you

Try uninstalling and reinstalling it in a folder not in "program files" like C:\GAMES instead.

Please see this thread on the issue.

edit - A Microsoft patch for the operating system causes the problem. Reinstalling will not help, the link above will explain it for you.

Thanks Leif. The fix for Win7 through the link you gave worked straight away, and I'm now able to play for the moment on that machine. So the purchase wasn't a complete waste of money. Hooray! Problem is, the Win7 machine I own is dying a death, and I'm still looking for a fix for my 8.1 issues to play the game on my healthy laptop. I already had a go at saving to a different directory like you recommend, Pob, but that gave me no luck either. Any other options you guys know of I can try? Many thanks to you both, by the way

Okay. When trying the fix through the link, I used Ctrl-Shift-Enter for the command prompt on Win8.1, and access was denied. I went back and opened the command prompt as an administrator, and hey presto! It now works! Thank you so much, Leif!! I was really losing hope there. No time to waste - I have a civilization to build hehe

...I feel another grey hair sprouting, and also sense my hastiness with my last reply. The game now loads fine in Win8.1, but when I try and start a game, I get to the loading screen, but no "Play Game" tab appears like on the game playing through Win7 - I just see a starry sky picture (none of the other ones it usually shows, and get to listen to the guy talk about the dawn of life. Any idea what where I go from here?