Win 10 updates breaks all games

[Erwin]

Here is a puzzler:  I got back from a foreign trip with my Win 10 laptop that is easily powerful enuff to run all the CM2 games.  But, for some reason it suddenly was very, very slow to startup and if I started the Win 7 shell it froze and I had to use Task Manager to reboot.  (In TM nothing was running more than "very low".)

Gave it to tech who updated everything and made it start up as fast as before  But, now none of the games will run (nor will the Win 7 shell).  I get error messages that it cannot run the resolution required by the games (something like 1368x768??).  This makes no sense to me as I used to run the games at much higher res. 

Am worried that the MS updates have messed everything up.  

Any ideas...?  

[A Canadian Cat]

That error sounded vaguely familiar. I have not seen it but I was sure I read it. This might help:

 

[Erwin]

Yes, the error message I get:  "Could not initialize graphics display. REQUIRED: 1024 x 768, 32-bit color."' is exactly what I see.

But for some reason I cannot access the BF knowledge base that covers this item:  This Knowledgebase article on 'Error message: "Could not initialize graphics display. REQUIRED: 1024 x 768, 32-bit color."' will tell you of using the 'Compatibility' settings in Windows to address this problem.

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Erwin

[Redwolf]

Just plow the NVidia graphics drivers over the install again. 

[George MC]

11 hours ago, Erwin said:

Yes, the error message I get:  "Could not initialize graphics display. REQUIRED: 1024 x 768, 32-bit color."' is exactly what I see.

But for some reason I cannot access the BF knowledge base that covers this item:  This Knowledgebase article on 'Error message: "Could not initialize graphics display. REQUIRED: 1024 x 768, 32-bit color."' will tell you of using the 'Compatibility' settings in Windows to address this problem.

 

Error message: "Could not initialize graphics display. REQUIRED: 1024 x 768, 32-bit color."

Problem: When you launch CMBN you get an error message of "Could not initialize graphics display. REQUIRED: 1024 x 768, 32-bit color."

Solution: Right-click on the launching shortcut for CMBN and select "Properties" from the popup menu. In here go to the "Compatibility" tab and there will be a section in the middle of the tab labeled "Settings". At the bottom of of this section checkmark the box next to the text that says "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings". Click 'Apply' and then 'OK'. Hopefully this should now allow the game to run.

[Erwin]

Thanks George.  Laptop is with tech, so will pass message on when they get in... at 10am - lazy bastids.

[George MC]

1 minute ago, Erwin said:

Thanks George.  Laptop is with tech, so will pass message on when they get in... at 10am - lazy bastids.

Nae worries  Hope it helps.

[Erwin]

Question:  On my desktop, I tried your suggestion, but "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" box is not checked - and the games all run fine.  Why would that be an issue with the laptop after Win 10 updates?

[A Canadian Cat]

But are your fonts scaled on your desktop? That setting turns it off for the selected app. If the app doesn't handle it properly then it can cause problems. But if the machine does not have scaling applied then it will not matter.

MS could have changed some scaling code in an update.