Cannot open Civilization 4 after installing on Windows 8.1

[ScoopJohn]

Hi guys, i have a Windows 8.1 laptop i got last christmas and today i decided to try this game from a friend of mine, but after installing it and tried running it it says compatibility problem and it can't run, i tried reinstalling in windows 7 compatibility and it still doesn't work.... HELP!!!!!!

 

[s.bernbaum]

MIcrosoft did us all a big favor in September with a patch for Windows 7 that prevents access to copy protected discs using the method they recommended back when CIV was released. As a result, the patch prevents accessing the CIV disc. Look in the thread titled "Please login with administrator privileges and try again" in this forum for a discussion and a couple of ways to bypass the patch and gain access to your disc. You will encounter this same problem with any other discs that use the same copy protection method.