Age Of Empires III "color scheme" issue.

I recently re-purchased Age Of Empires III (Complete Collection) as I had lost the discs when moving house. I have a new gaming computer too, with Windows 7.

I installed AOE3 but am getting the message: "the color scheme has been changed to Windows 7 Basic..." message... then nothing, the game doesn't even start

It's very frustrating. What can I do? (Please don't reply if you don't actually know and you just want to copy and paste some standard answer )

Cheers!

Hi,
Try to run the game in Windows XP SP3 or SP2 compatibility mode.

(How you installed the game without discs?)

SlasherIT said:

@Dorado - Steam, he got it from Steam.

@OP - Run the game as an administrator and in Windows XP compatibility mode, if that doesn't work, post back.

I agree with you SlasherIT, Age of Empires wasn't originally built for Windows 7 so you just got to do a couple things to get it working. Happy gaming!

I never said I re-installed it without the discs. I said I had to purchase it again after losing the discs.

Thank you for the reply, I'll give it a try.

Alright, thank you for your reply.

MY Graphics Card is AMD Radeon HD 6900

Your answers didn't exactly help as I don't know how to Run the game as an administrator and in Windows XP compatibility mode.

Cheers!

Here's the answer I needed:

Running AOE 3 under Windows 7/Vista in compatibility mode.

1. Right-click the game's .exe file
   
   1. 64-bit location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires III
   2. 32-bit location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires III
   3. Read this if you don't know which Vista\Win 7 OS you have.
   
   
2. Select Properties.
3. Select the Compatibility tab.
4. Check box next to Run this Program in compatibility mode for.
5. Scroll the menu below this until you find Windows XP (Service Pack 3).
6. Click Apply and then OK.

Here and here are pictures to go with the explanation above.
As far as I know, most versions of Windows 7 include a compatibility tab. However, if yours doesn't then try this.
Make older programs run in this version of Windows

SlasherIT, thank you very much man

javidavi said:

SlasherIT, thank you very much man

This is 1 year ago post, please check before posting...

For future reference for anyone else having this prob, don't run the game through the games menu in the start menu, find the aoe3.exe file, c/program files/Microsoft games and right click it, then send to, then create shortcut in desktop, then use the shortcut on desktop to launch the game, win 7 will flick to basic colour and the game will launch, then on close it will flick back to aero, this done my head in thought why isn't it launching lol