There was recently a security update by Microsoft implemented for Windows 7 and 8 that breaks native compatibility with a very large handful of old CD-based games, namely anything with SafeDisc or SecuROM write protection built in. This security modification is built in to Windows 10 and cannot be worked around. The following is a highly abbreviated list of potentially affected games:
- Age of Empires 2
- American McGee's Alice
- Battlefield 1942
- Civilization III and IV
- Command & Conquer series
- Crysis
- Diablo II
- Empire Earth series
- Far Cry (1 & 2)
- Grand Theft Auto series
- Halo
- LEGO games
- Might & Magic series
- Need for Speed series
- Rainbow Six series
- Star Wars games (including KOTOR)
- The Sims (1 & 2)
- Total War series
The solution for this problem is actually pretty simple (Windows 7 and 8 only). Simply re-enable the driver service disabled by the security update and start the service. To do this, open a command prompt as an administrator:
Windows button -> cmd.exe -> right-click -> Run as administrator
Run this command (with the exact spaces) to reenable the driver's service:
sc config secdrv start= demand
You should get a [SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS
message. Then run this command to start the service:
sc start secdrv
Then open the game and it should work! To be "safe," you can stop the service by restarting your computer or using the command:
sc stop secdrv
If you don't want to have to start this service every time you turn on your computer, you can set the configuration to auto
instead of demand
. According to the security update, this may potentially leave your computer at risk for some virus attacks though, so use caution while this service is enabled.