This Morning All my Combat Mission Games Quit Working

[Probus]

I went to play CMCW this morning and it wouldn't load. In fact, none of my CM games would work. Hadn't touched a thing from last night, but I did notice my computer had rebooted.
 

So I'd click on the CMCW shortcut and the main menu screen would flash up on the screen but then it would go back to the desktop. I knew Microsoft must have pushed an update to Windows 10 last night. Sure enough, they had. Three in fact.
 

So I fixed this in two different ways:
 

1) I ran the game in compatibility mode for Windows 8. Loaded right up. 

2) Uninstalled the latest windows update (Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5005031) to be exact).  Everything started working again.

Hope this helps! And if anyone has an idea on why this broke the games, please let me know. 

[George MC]

4 minutes ago, Probus said:

I went to play CMCW this morning and it wouldn't load. In fact, none of my CM games would work. Hadn't touched a thing from last night, but I did notice my computer had rebooted.
 

So I'd click on the CMCW shortcut and the main menu screen would flash up on the screen but then it would go back to the desktop. I knew Microsoft must have pushed an update to Windows 10 last night. Sure enough, they had. Three in fact.
 

So I fixed this in two different ways:
 

1) I ran the game in compatibility mode for Windows 8. Loaded right up. 

2) Uninstalled the latest windows update (Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5005031) to be exact).  Everything started working again.

Hope this helps! And if anyone has an idea on why this broke the games, please let me know. 

@BFCElvis might have some insight?

[Lucky_Strike]

1 hour ago, Probus said:

I went to play CMCW this morning and it wouldn't load. In fact, none of my CM games would work. Hadn't touched a thing from last night, but I did notice my computer had rebooted.
 

So I'd click on the CMCW shortcut and the main menu screen would flash up on the screen but then it would go back to the desktop. I knew Microsoft must have pushed an update to Windows 10 last night. Sure enough, they had. Three in fact.
 

So I fixed this in two different ways:
 

1) I ran the game in compatibility mode for Windows 8. Loaded right up. 

2) Uninstalled the latest windows update (Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5005031) to be exact).  Everything started working again.

Hope this helps! And if anyone has an idea on why this broke the games, please let me know. 

Thanks for the heads up Probus. MS have been pushing some pretty flakey updates lately, so much so that I have disabled auto updates entirely as I have the luxury of being able to isolate my gaming rig since it's only ever used for CM, kinda freeze-dried in time now. Might try Windows 11 when it's out of beta, otherwise no more updates for me for now.

[Schrullenhaft]

Windows Update causes some mysterious issues sometimes. The KB5005031 update applies to Windows 10 Enterprise v. 1909. I have the Windows 10 Pro v. 21H1 equivalent (KB5005033) installed and I didn't run into this issue myself with the CM games not running. This fix primarily addresses a vulnerability in a particular print management system, requiring elevated permissions to install drivers/printers - something seemingly totally unrelated to the running of a game. However there are probably other little security fixes that may inadvertently affect other programs/functions.

Were any of the games launched with 'Run as administrator' (typically requiring an 'acknowledgement dialog' before running the game) ? So with the update installed, using the 'Compatibility Mode' for Windows 8 allowed it to run, and then uninstalling the update allowed CM games to run without the compatibility mode setting, correct ?

[Probus]

26 minutes ago, Schrullenhaft said:

Were any of the games launched with 'Run as administrator' (typically requiring an 'acknowledgement dialog' before running the game) ?

None were run in admin mode.

27 minutes ago, Schrullenhaft said:

So with the update installed, using the 'Compatibility Mode' for Windows 8 allowed it to run, and then uninstalling the update allowed CM games to run without the compatibility mode setting, correct ?

Yes. That is correct.

[BFCElvis]

1 hour ago, Probus said:

I went to play CMCW this morning and it wouldn't load. In fact, none of my CM games would work. Hadn't touched a thing from last night, but I did notice my computer had rebooted.
 

So I'd click on the CMCW shortcut and the main menu screen would flash up on the screen but then it would go back to the desktop. I knew Microsoft must have pushed an update to Windows 10 last night. Sure enough, they had. Three in fact.
 

So I fixed this in two different ways:
 

1) I ran the game in compatibility mode for Windows 8. Loaded right up. 

2) Uninstalled the latest windows update (Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5005031) to be exact).  Everything started working again.

Hope this helps! And if anyone has an idea on why this broke the games, please let me know. 

Thanks. I will keep those workarounds in mind if someone opens a ticket.

If you had contacted me first, the first fix that comes to mind may have worked as well. When a game is activated a match is created between the game and the computer that it is on. If something big changes a mis-match is detected and the anti-piracy software is triggered. The system isn't nearly as sensitive as it was a few years ago and a Windows update will usually not do it. But an accumulation of things can cause a Windows update to be the final straw. I have a tool that I send people when that happens that clears it up.

[Centurian52]

@ProbusYikes! Thanks for the heads up. I know updates are critically important for security, but given how important it is to me to be able to run CM I wonder if I should disable them for the time being. Or if a future patch or the tool mentioned by @BFCElviswill make that unnecessary.

edit: Come to think of it, if I might have to start running my CM games in compatibility mode in Windows anyway, I have been thinking of switching to Ubuntu, with the main thing holding me back being concerns of running my Windows games. Has anyone had any luck running CM in a Linux environment?

Edited August 12, 2021 by Centurian52

[Probus]

That's good to know @BFCElvis. I have been having a lot of problems on my computers with updates doing strange things. The previous update would not let my wife move the mouse to her second screen. Bizarre. The only thing that changed was the Windows Update.

It seems to me like Microsoft is pushing these updates out not fully tested or not tested on legacy systems/software. They then get customer feedback to find the bugs with their update. Then push another update with the bug fixes. Pure speculation on my part. That doesn't work too well in the avionics flight software world, as was proven with Boeing's last test of the Starliner. 

[Erwin]

Fortunately, the trusty Win 7 machines I still have seem unaffected.  But, yes, have been having all sorts of problems with Win 10.  

[PIATpunk]

My win10 x64 21H1 machines updated to KB5005033 yesterday, no issues to report with CMx2 games.

[Lucky_Strike]

6 hours ago, Centurian52 said:

edit: Come to think of it, if I might have to start running my CM games in compatibility mode in Windows anyway, I have been thinking of switching to Ubuntu, with the main thing holding me back being concerns of running my Windows games. Has anyone had any luck running CM in a Linux environment?

I did have CMBN running in Wine on MacOS a while back, isn't that also on Linux? I have also had it running under VMWare, again on MacOS. The biggest issue with emulation in the past has been the graphics drivers, but these have definitely improved over that last few years. Advantage of emulation is one can create a static, safe environment just to run a very specific programme.

[Probus]

1 hour ago, PIATpunk said:

My win10 x64 21H1 machines updated to KB5005033 yesterday, no issues to report with CMx2 games.

It was an i9-9900K with a GTX-1060 GPU on an ASUS B365-F MB.

[Vanir Ausf B]

I had a similar issue this morning. It disabled my Nvidia card driver, so I was running on the default windows video driver. It did the same to my Razor mouse driver.

I uninstalled KB5005033 and everything works again.

[chuckdyke]

20 hours ago, BFCElvis said:

the anti-piracy software is triggered.

I think that is the case. I went to my antivirus software and made CM a trusted program. I have never encountered any problems like that. 

[Erwin]

Who of you are depending on Windows 10 Defender?  When I started having similar problem with my new Win 10 machine last year, Tech Support here thought that may be the problem and needs to be disabled and use something like AVG instead.  Unfortunately that didn't help in my case.  But, perhaps it may help others(?)

[Probus]

23 hours ago, Erwin said:

Who of you are depending on Windows 10 Defender?  When I started having similar problem with my new Win 10 machine last year, Tech Support here thought that may be the problem and needs to be disabled and use something like AVG instead.  Unfortunately that didn't help in my case.  But, perhaps it may help others(?)

I'm just using defender, but I have a lot of the functions turned off.  Sometimes the updates that Microsoft pushes out turn aspects of Windows Defender back on.

[chuckdyke]

1 hour ago, Probus said:

Who of you are depending on Windows 10 Defender? 

I do and no problems. Had an update today and CM runs as usual. 

[Grey_Fox]

On 8/13/2021 at 2:17 PM, Erwin said:

Who of you are depending on Windows 10 Defender?  When I started having similar problem with my new Win 10 machine last year, Tech Support here thought that may be the problem and needs to be disabled and use something like AVG instead.  Unfortunately that didn't help in my case.  But, perhaps it may help others(?)

Windows Defender/Security is probably the best antivirus software to use, since the third party software just interferes with the OS in potentially undesirable fashions and increase the threat surface area. Additionally it is frequently updated and plugs holes which third party producers may not even be aware of.

15-20 years ago it might have been advisable to use third-party antivirus software for your home PC, but not today, and not for at least the last decade.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Grey_Fox

[Erwin]

17 minutes ago, Grey_Fox said:

Windows Defender/Security is probably the best antivirus software to use

Agreed.  However, CM2 - perhaps cos it is so old - seems to have problems with some Defender Installations (like mine) - or at least that is what Tech Support is suggesting.  I also hired my own IT guy to troubleshoot, and he couldn't figure out why my new Win 10 machine will not run any CM2 game either.  (So am still using my 10 year old upgraded Win 7 machine.)

[Probus]

This is just a rant, only mildly related, but some ‘legit’ install programs act like viruses. I installed Autodesk’s AutoCAD and Inventor. I can’t seem to get it completely uninstalled now, off of one of my Windows 10 machines.

The uninstall seemed to crash during the process and now, no matter what I find and delete, or which processes I disable and kill, parts of it keep showing up in my task manager.

Anyone know of an app that can find and cleanly uninstall these pesky parasitic programs?

[Lethaface]

CCleaner does a resonable job and can sometimes get the uninstall done (and you can always disable the startup processes so that they won't be started automatically anymore). It can also clean up registry items, but if the uninstall process crashed and corrupted the install files it will be difficult to 'neatly' remove the software. You could try reinstalling it and than uninstalling it again, hoping that the uninstall process doesn't crash.

There are various other programs but some require quite a bit of knowledge and I forgot the names. 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Lethaface

[chuckdyke]

I uninstalled RT3 and installed the updated RT&FR with no problems using the standard Windows Apps. I think it is the third party bloatware causing the problems nowadays. I am not 100% IT saffy however I use the same IT people in the neighbourhood to fix my stuff. 

[ZPB II]

On 9/1/2021 at 7:26 PM, Probus said:

This is just a rant, only mildly related, but some ‘legit’ install programs act like viruses.

Anyone know of an app that can find and cleanly uninstall these pesky parasitic programs?

I know this comment will sound just like pedantic pontification and not be very useful, but there isn't that much technical difference between malware and legit software. The main difference comes from intent and malice. Like, a certain antivirus software was supposed to protect one's data and it turned out they were the ones selling your data. Even a cleaning software recommended in this thread has been accused of collecting and selling data.

If you want to get rid of all, depending on point of view, parasitically functioning software on your computer the list of usable legit software will be rather small. It's a somewhat laborous task to try to keep a computer clean while routinely using proprietary software. Saying "build your own tools" is a ludicrous proposition and it's not an answer to the problem, but the fact that it comes up sort of highlights the required effort necessary to attempt to stay clean and pure in this world we've built.

[chuckdyke]

16 minutes ago, ZPBII said:

Even a cleaning software recommended in this thread has been accused of collecting and selling data.

True and 'Free Anti Virus' software. I just use the standard stuff. No problems so far.