Legacy 16 Bit App Automatically Changes XP Color Depth

[rayen99]

I have a problem with an old 16 bit application where everytime I run the app it sets my color depth to 8 bits. After the app is launched I'm able to change the color depth back to 32, however sometimes when the legacy app draws a new window my color depth will revert back to 8 bits. I've tried running the app as a non-privliged user, but it still changes my color depth. I've also tried using regmon and filemon to try to find out how Windows sets color depth but unfortunantly it seems to only make changes in memory which are then flushed to the registry at logff.

I was thinking too that maybe there's a setting in one of the ini files that would handle color depth. Something in maybe win.ini, control.ini, system.ini, etc. I poked around on a Win 95 computer to try and find any settings in these files related to color depth but found nothing. Nothing found on a google search either. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[wolluf]

Does the app need to run in 8 bit mode? Does it run in full screen mode?

Have you tried the compatibility tab. You can set the display mode yourself in there - then hopefully XP will manage the display while its running.

 

[rayen99]

Hmm... Well I don't believe the app needs to run in 8bit color mode since it will run just fine after I change the color depth back to 32. It's not a full screen app, just a normal windowed one. The compatibility tab your talking about -- where is it? Are you thinking of a .pif shortcut? Perhaps this is the way to go. I didn't think of that. With .pif however isn't that a MS-DOS only thing? Thanks for the response Wolluf.

 

[BadFrog]

To get to the compatability tab right click on the .exe of the app you are running and select properties, you will then see the compatability tab.

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