Is there a way to make Windows XP compatible games to be compatible with Windows Vista?

Answer 1

Most games that are compatible with XP should be with Vista. The only difference might be how they utilize the new directX 10. I know I had the Release candidate version of vista and all my xp games worked with vista. However some of the older games may not work as well. Also, you might want to check your machines graphics hardware. To run vista fully with all of the GUI functions requires a pretty hefty machine. If you have a lower end card then Vista itself might be using all of the hardware's resources and not allowing any for the game(especially the more intenense ones). My machine has an ATI radeon 256 MB card and it does well. Of course this card is in the mediocre range but it does ok.

Answer 2

Although it depends mostly on the game itself, for the most part, it's a no. For example, on Halo 3 for PC, it is Vista-only. Does it work on XP? No. This is because Vista is Microsoft's first operating system in which Microsoft completely rewrote the code from Windows XP (hence the long wait for the release). This makes it more secure, but as a result, it also it presents a whole new set of problems and compatibiility issues with Windows XP. Ironically however, running and XP game for Vista usually works, just right-click on the installer program and go to Properties>Compatibility. And then just change the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" to Windows XP SP2.

It really does depend more on the game... the answer should be 'It depends' not a yes or a no. There are several websites on how to run the vista games on xp, and I actually have all but one of my vista 64 home prem. games on my XP SP3 .. But at the same time, I have a ton of old games (xp & older, and only two of them did work on vista)..

These two btw, were the two oldest games I have, one is even from Windows 3.1 and the other was obtained during Win95. So it depends. In some cases in past, all I had to do was add vb*.dll's to the proper location and games would run...I havent tried that with Vista since most are failing per my being 64bit.

Also doing the compatibility thing can work on some, but not on others. So again, it depends, try it, and do copy relievant files as needed..

Answer 3

Now that Vista has been around for a while and had many of its compatibility problems ironed out there are generally few issues involving incompatible programs. Many recent games made before the release of Vista have had patches released which solves many of the compatibility problems, or fixes are known on game forums. Vista, as suggested below, can run games in a compatibilty mode for XP, which 99% of the time will solve any issues, however many newer games are specifically designed to run with Vista, and either XP fixes have not been created, or a unavailable due to significant advances in technology. It is almost impossible to get a game designed for Windows 95 or 2000 to work on Windows Vista, because of the differences in technology, and in a few years the same will be true of games designed to run on XP, you will need an XP machine in order to run them.

In summary, it is still possible to use games designed for XP, on Vista, 99% of the time, however a few will require the download of additional patches or fixes.

Once you have installed a game that's been designed on XP, the best way to ensuer XP support for the game is to right click on the .exe that runs the game. Select properties and choose "Run in XP Compatability Mode". Fingers crossed this should work, if not refere to manufacturers website or troubleshooting helplines.

Answer 4

Not all of them, usually if games don't run under vista production companies release updates which make the games compatible with vista. Some games, however, are compatible with vista in principle.

Answer 5

You can play games made for Windows XP on Windows 7-upgraded/Windows 7-installed PCs and notebooks depending on whether or not the game meets the same requirements as the edition of Windows 7 you currently have does.

Answer 6

Depends. Newer games can run faster on Vista, but that's a minority, while most games will run better on XP.

Answer 7

yep