Dragon Oath Play on Vista Guide

Dragon Oath Play on Vista Guide by shallower

Introduction

When trying to launch Dragon Oath on Vista, many people will face errors such as:

This guide is to tell you how to solve it and the reasons behind it, so that if the same thing happens to any other games, you can get it to launch as well!

Vista is a very complicated OS that have been constantly upgraded to increase its security system. The reason is because Windows is compatible to so many programs out there that it even includes viruses. One of the many security functions that help us avoid these viruses is the Data Execution Prevention system, also simply known as the DEP.

“Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature that helps prevent damage from viruses and other security threats by monitoring your programs to make sure they use system memory safely.” – Windows Help and Support

DEP is a system that is used to terminate the activation of viruses that comes from virus inflicted executable applications, or also known as the .exe file. Unfortunately, because games in CBT/PCBT are in a process of bug fixing, unglitching, and etc., so it tends to have abnormalities in their script. As a result the system will automatically shut down the .exe file before it can be executed.

Another system that is established is the User Account Control System, also known as the UAC system. This system prevents the correction or writing of data on your computer from outside sources. In other word it prevents various spyware and malware.

“User Account Control (UAC) is a feature in Windows that can help prevent unauthorized changes to your computer. UAC can help prevent malicious software (malware) and spyware from installing or making changes to your computer without permission.” – Windows Help and Support
I do not know why a game will be considered as a spyware except due to the use of anti-hacking programs as well as cookie registry and so on. However apparently this could also be the root of the problem when you can’t launch a game.

After the launch of Vista, Microsoft noticed that due to the complex nature of Vista’s registry and other programming “stuff”, a lot of people find making programs compatible to Vista to be somewhat of a problem. Also after the launch of Vista, many programs are still at a transitional stage where barely anyone released a Vista version of their own programs. As a result Microsoft released and update where Vista users can run older programs or non-Vista compatible programs through the activation of program compatibility mode.

There are many free online games that need this feature. The main reason for that is because they are free. They have no obligation to make any of their games Vista compatible what so ever. As a result, some games tend to crash if this mode is not on.

The Method

The method is really a guess and test method. We will try to fix the problem through doing each of the above steps in the order of probability, meaning that, in the order of the most possible reason for the error to the least.

Step 1: Making the program bypass UAC
There is an extreme way of doing this as well as a medium and easy, but annoying way to do this. In the first step we do not need to make the program bypass UAC in the extreme way, because the need to do that is very rare and it can easily expose your computer to virus if you do not have a good anti-virus program. Therefore we will do this the easy way and the medium way. The difference is that, by doing it the easy way you have to go through the steps every time you launch the game, but through the medium way you will only have to do it once. Because we have to launch Dragon Oath through a patcher the easy way is not even possible, because the command have to be set directly on the .exe that is the actual game itself, however for the sake of example I will still show you how to do it.

The Easy Way:

Step 1.1.1: Right Click on the .exe file that need to be open.
Step 1.1.2: On the drop down menu click on “Run as Administrator”

Like I said, this will not work for Dragon Oath since you have to open the game through a patcher, but this step can be used if you have problems with patching.

Here is a picture for example:

The Medium Difficulty way:
This will make sure the game always run as administrator.
Step 1.2.1: go to the game’s .exe file. Since this works for Dragon Oath so I will use Dragon Oath as the example from now on. For Dragon Oath the game’s .exe file should be at C:dragon oathBin or whatever directory you installed the game into. The .exe file for Dragon Oath is named Game, so the file is Game.exe

Step 1.2.2: right click on Game.exe and press “Properties” on the drop down menu.

Step 1.2.3: the “game properties” menu will pop up. Click on the “Compatibility” tab and under “Privilege Level” check the box “Run this program as an administrator” and click “Ok”.

The Extreme Way:

Since I want to keep the guide organized I will right the steps to do it here. However, do not try to do this until you have tried all other steps mentioned in this guide.

Warning: By doing this WILL get you a VIRUS if you don’t have a good ANTI-VIRUS program.

Step 1.3.1: Go to the “start up” menu and open “Control Panel”. In “Control Panel” double click on “User Accounts and Family Safety”.

Step 1.3.2: Press on “User Accounts”. Click on “Turn User Account Control On or Off”

Step 1.3.3: Uncheck the box “Use User Account Control to protect your computer” and press “Ok”

Step 1.3.4: To get the changes to work, Vista will tell you to restart your computer, so restart and try to launch the game again.

Step 2: Running the Program on Compatibility Mode

Sometimes the problem has nothing to do with the UAC; it has to do with the fact that the program is not compatible to Windows Vista. Since this is the second highest possibility I will teach you how to turn on XP compatibility mode. This method can also make the Vista compatible with many other Window OS.

Step 2.1.1 through 2.1.3 is the same as 1.2.1 through 1.2.3, except now instead of checking the “Run this program as an administrator” you check the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and in the drop down menu by default should be Windows XP, you can change the OS if the program runs on Windows 98 instead of XP.

Step 2.1.4: Try and Launch the game again. If it doesn’t work please go to the next step.

Step 3: Making Program Bypass DEP

Apparently this is the real problem that prevents many people from playing Dragon Oath.

Step 3.1.1: Open “Control Panel” press “System and Maintenance”, and then go into “System”. So, on the browser command it should be: Control PanelSystem and MaintenanceSystem

Step 3.1.2: Press on “Advanced System Settings” on the left hand side.

Step 3.1.3: This will open the System Properties Window. By default it should be opened to the “Advanced” tab. If somehow it isn’t, change it now. Under the title “Performance” Click “Settings”.

Step 3.1.4: Go to the “Data Execution Prevention” tab. Click on “Turn on DEP for all Programs and Services except those I select”.

Step 2.1.5: Press add and look for Game.exe, which should be at C:dragon oathBin or any other drive you saved it at and Open.

Step 2.1.6: Check “天龙八步” and press Ok.

Step 2.1.7: Relaunch the game. It should work now, if it doesn’t than do the extreme UAC. If that doesn’t work either please contact game support.

Please post comments and replies so this post will be bumped up.

Yeah I know the pictures are too big, but I’m too lazy to edit the size. Plus if its any smaller you probably can’t see the pictures clearly.