Solved StarCraft fix holy cow!

[madve2]

So these fixes don't work for me. However, someone mentioned in passing on another forum that 8-bit (256 color) games don't work full-screen in Win7 because the taskbar is "always on top" and that it is what messes up the colors:



This works for me, except that it freezes at "Loading" until I alt+tab out and back in. Weird.

Oh my! I was searching for a working solution for so long (I've tried everything mentioned in this thread... and many more) that I almost gave it up... and this one actually works! Unbelieveable! Thank you soooo much!

Btw, cut out the "pause" command if you want to make it work more seamlessly (it won't ask you to "press any key" on exit then - it will simply close the command line window and restore explorer.exe before you'd notice it's gone =)), like this:

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
C:\"Program Files\StarCraft"\"StarCraft.exe"
start explorer.exe

 

[Izual]

Thanks alot! This last fix really works, and not only for starcraft^^

 

[andrewwilly]

Thank you.

So there I was, stuck playing starcraft in crappy colors yet again, as it has always been during my beta testing of windows 7. For what ever reason, I decided to leave screen resolution dialog box open and what do you know- starcraft runs with its beautiful original colors.

I registered on this site just to thank you. This works.

 

[cornel001]

For me it works when checking the first two compatibility settings (1.16.1). No Screen Res needed. C&C 95 - same problems. Depending on version, need Screen Res opened along with all settings checked.

But another big annoying problem : even if I start them clean, desktop slide show corrupts them again when in-game, when it change the wallpaper (both in 7100rc and 7260). Did anyone experienced this too ? Please specify if clean install or upgrade.

 

[aminalshmu]

i registered just to say thanks as well! and that out of all the things in this thread the only one that works is the batch file to kill explorer and get rid of the taskbar, and i have to leave "pause" in there otherwise it starts back up while starcraft is running and the colors get screwy again... anyone know of a way to just make it wait until starcraft is closed before starting explorer? without having to "press any key to continue..."?

happy correctly colored crushing and crafting!!!

edit: i'm using this for diablo II as well. now i don't have to boot into linux to get the colors to work right on blizzard games! also for those who don't know about it:

StarCraft – Resolution Expander v5.1 | Crest-Network
Resolution Expander 5.1 - BattleHacks

i think you have to register at both sites, but i can't find this anywhere else. awesome resolution hack for starcraft - works on battle.net! i play at 1680x1050... amazing!

and multires for D2:

[Single Player] D2MultiRes

 

[CougarDan]

Resolution expander sounds great..... couldn't get it to work though.

 

[Artanis]

Oh my! I was searching for a working solution for so long (I've tried everything mentioned in this thread... and many more) that I almost gave it up... and this one actually works! Unbelieveable! Thank you soooo much!

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
C:\"Program Files\StarCraft"\"StarCraft.exe"
start explorer.exe

I'm using the 7100 build and this fix was the simplest for me.

Just copy the lines in the quote (with your SC directory) into Notepad and save it as *.bat file to use to run Starcraft with normals colours

 

[gostro]

Re:Neucleon's fix

Tried your fix Neucleon. It worked fine for me. Checking all boxes did the trick. Thanks!

 

[fsuatlnso]

Almost every fix listed in these 4 pages have worked for me, when Fixing the Color Issues

However I cant seem to get through a game of starcraft without it freezing my screen. The music still plays, however nothing can get you out of the screen that is frozen (ctrl+alt+del, Alt f4, esc, etc.). The only way is to do a hard reboot of the computer.

Any help with this. I have tried running it with WinXP (SP3) and normally. Im using win7 64 Build 7100. any suggestions.

next time ill play ill run GameBooster in the background to see if that helps.

Also has anyone been able to install it to XP in Virtual XP. I get a message about color issues everytime and it wont play

 

[specialbuddy]

I've tried everything too and I still can't find a stable way of running this program. I tried Windows 95(made for windows 95 is on the disc) and that didn't work. I've tried wine under linux using virtual box and wine still sucks for playing starcraft. I've tried the Windows Virtual PC XP mode and that doesn't work because of the direct draw error. I know it's beta but I don't see the point of virtual xp. It would be cool if it worked like it's own OS but it doesn't. I just wish SCII would come out already.

 

[ancient]

Same problem... only thing working for me is leaving the res. box open. LOL funny how stupid things work. Thanks MS for another OS bug!

 

[NurthinAziz]

Just for the record:

For me it runs great with Build 7100

• right-click starcraft.exe and open "properties"
• go to compatibility
• select run in compatibility mode for WindowsXP SP3
• check ALL the checkboxes under Settings

Hit Ok - and you're all set
No open "display settings" required for me (as mentioned in previous posts).


greetz Jim

Backing this method up. It works for me, running on a 47" Sharp HDTV.

[edit] still has some problems, whenever the desktop background would change the color becomes defective again.

 

[keypox]

Oh my! I was searching for a working solution for so

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
C:\"Program Files\StarCraft"\"StarCraft.exe"
start explorer.exe

this works for me, but gotta change the starcraft.exe location. Actually just make bat file in starcraft dir and just use

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
StarCraft.exe
start explorer.exe

 

[jtw7]

this works for me, but gotta change the starcraft.exe location. Actually just make bat file in starcraft dir and just use

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
StarCraft.exe
start explorer.exe

Change the second line to:
start /w Starcraft.exe

if you want to wait until Starcraft exits before you restart explorer.

-JT

 

[johnathanamber]

I can also confirm this... an actually I was about to post this as well.

Some ppl might not like exiting and entering explorer but if it will work each time, when it will work.

I've tried the 'Screen Resolution' window and it works only half the time.

But also then I was having issues where the game would freeze the system, with the music still playing, and I'd have to do a hard shutdown. Then even after that I might have to reinstall my video drivers... so this solution works for me.

The one I used was this:

[FONT=Courier New]taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe[/FONT]
 [FONT=Courier New]D:\"Program Files\StarCraft"\"StarCraft.exe"[/FONT]
 [FONT=Courier New]start explorer.exe

Works each time with nothing setup for compatibility.

God bless,
Johnathan
[/FONT]

 

[diffrent264]

I found another solution to this problem. Before playing, right click the shortcut or the actuall .exe file, go to properties and select compatibility tab. then check all boxes under settings, including run as admin. your game will now run perfectly.

 

[johnathanamber]

Actually, I've already tried that.... at least for me it doesn't work... and the 'keeping the screen resolutions window open before playing' it only works half the time.

It does seem to be an issue with the Aero theme.

 

[jimboberlin]

Working fine with the Final release

I just finished upgrading from the RC1 to the Final release (Build 7600.16385.090713-1255) and I'm happy to report that I could start Starcraft without special precautions.

No Compatibility mode, open resolution windows or closed windows-explorer-windows needed - just install and run

I hope this will be the case for all of you guys having trouble with the RC1 as well.

see u on iccup
Greetz
Jim

 

[diffrent264]

I am using RTM/7600, and my solution works 6 out of 10 times. I think the problem is that Windows 7 uses DirectX 11. When I wrote to the Blizzard guys, fist they responded with the troubleshooting options for Vista and XP, but when I said I use Windows 7, I never got a response. But what I am sure is a failproof way of solving this, is installing Windows 2000 on something like VMWare workstation and running it from there. Although with many people soon upgrading to 7, I would recommend that Blizzard comes up with a new update, something like 1.17, because people aren't gonna be happy about this. I am going to let you know about the WIndows 2000 idea.

 

[jtw7]

I am also running the RTM version and if I don't kill explorer.exe, it doesn't work. Not only do I have to kill it, but I have to use the /w switch, as in "start /w starcraft", to have it work reliably. For some really stupid reason, when you start CMD you have to "Run as administrator" to have the /w switch have an effect. I can kill a task as a basic user, but I have to be an administrator to wait for a task to complete. Anyone want to try to explain that ridiculous behavior?

Edit: I take it back. I can only kill the task if I run the CMD prompt as administrator. I could have sworn I didn't have to do that before, but I just tried it and had to be an administrator. I was right about the /w switch - it only works if you run as administrator.

-JT