Problems Playing Stronghold 2 on Windows 7

[J_hoff]

Hi-
So I bought Stronghold 2, thinking it would work fine on windows 7...
I installed the game on Windows 7 and attempted to run, it cam up with the following message from Windows: "Stronghold2.exe has stopped working... A problem has caused the problem... notify you if a solution is available."

Next, since this is an older game, I went into compatibility mode for Windows XP (I remember playing on XP) I tried this on all avaliable XP service pack compatibility modes, this did not work and it the same promp came up saying Stronghold2.exe has stopped working...
I also tried Disabling visual themes under the compatibility tab, while running in Windows XP compatibility modes, this did not work.

Next, I went to the Stronghold support site and it said that the problem might be caused by DirectX. It needs DirectX 9 while windows 7 has 11. I followed the recommend links to downgrade/install DirectX 9 and both links provided basically said that a newer version is already installed and DirectX 9 is not needed.

Next I tried Installing Windows Virtual PC and WIndows XP in that program. I installed Stronghold 2 in Windows XP itself, but It came up with the error: "A required security module can not be activated. This program can not be executed" I googled this and came to the conclusion that Stronghold 2 can not be running while virtual software is also running.

I am out of ideas on this one
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Have you tried running the game as Administrator in compatibility mode. In XP SP2 mode, tick the box for run as administrator and see if that works.

Did you install any game updates? I've seen several forum threads that indicate the game won't play on Win7 if you update the game. Just another possibility.