I looked it up and this game is from 1999, is that correct? If so I assume it's designed for Windows 9x? I'd look at all the files in the directory or directories that correspond to your desktop, maybe C:\Windows\Desktop if you're actually running 9x, or C:\Documents and Settings\BEEN_Nath_58\Desktop and C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop. Are there any files there with strange names - maybe they don't lack a name before ".lnk", but they have some non-ASCII characters that might confuse the game? Also, if you go into the properties for the shortcuts, I think you may be able to set a window title - not sure if that's only for DOS shortcuts - in which case maybe it doesn't like that being empty, but I think it's less likely that it cares about the content of the shortcut.

I'm just guessing here based on what the message says. I can't understand why the game would actually care!

doshea wrote on 2024-10-13, 02:39:

C:\Documents and Settings\BEEN_Nath_58\Desktop and C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop. Are there any files there with strange names - maybe they don't lack a name before ".lnk", but they have some non-ASCII characters that might confuse the game? Also, if you go into the properties for the shortcuts, I think you may be able to set a window title - not sure if that's only for DOS shortcuts - in which case maybe it doesn't like that being empty, but I think it's less likely that it cares about the content of the shortcut.

I'm just guessing here based on what the message says. I can't understand why the game would actually care!

I am on Windows 11, so I would navigate to C:\Users\... but still the game wouldn't be satisfied by moving away all the shortcuts from there, in the case of Public folder and the User folder.
No, for Windows app, we don't have the option (at least in the Properties tab) to set a window title.

The predecessor to this game actually had some DOS relations, but this game doesn't apparently is said to have one. Still I can't figure out what it is actually trying to do crashing explorer.exe

Might be looking for the 9x path and not recognising the spaces.

myne wrote on 2024-10-13, 06:36:

Might be looking for the 9x path and not recognising the spaces.

Could be but I am not sure how to resolve that. I can't delete "Desktop", right? The best I had was the EmulateCommandLine shim but that's not a solution

So none of the compatibility options were able to make it work?
BTW, if the game was programmed for Win9x, it should be able to handle spaces in files names and directories, as that was a very big thing. But on Win9x, programs were able to write their settings in Windows folder or in their own Program Files folder. The "Users" stuff wasn't there yet, and Win11's compatiblity options should "emulate" to the program what a Win9x setup was.

If compatibility doesn't work, maybe turn it off completely, and try to run the exe under the watch of SysInternal's ProcessMonitor, and see what files it is trying to access and is failing to. This sounds like it's going for a .lnk file.. which you don't typically do as an app developer, unless you are the nosey kind 😅

wbahnassi wrote on 2024-10-13, 10:45:

If compatibility doesn't work, maybe turn it off completely, and try to run the exe under the watch of SysInternal's ProcessMonitor, and see what files it is trying to access and is failing to. This sounds like it's going for a .lnk file.. which you don't typically do as an app developer, unless you are the nosey kind 😅

I would be delighted if you can give some steps on what to actually look at 😅

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2024-10-13, 10:21:

myne wrote on 2024-10-13, 06:36:

Might be looking for the 9x path and not recognising the spaces.

Could be but I am not sure how to resolve that. I can't delete "Desktop", right? The best I had was the EmulateCommandLine shim but that's not a solution

I forget exactly, but things like %systemroot%\desktop used to point to c\windows\desktop

It might be trying to find that folder and not being redirected - or it actually exists as a weird symlink

Yeah ProcessMonitor is a bit overwhelming. Start with this basic tutorial:
https://youtu.be/ojUFjE00prA

What you want is to toggle off all event types except file events (on the tool bar, ensure the registry icon and its neighbors are not pressed except the files drawer icon). Press the filter button (the funnel) and set up the filter to only include events from your EXE's name (e.g. Exclude all except process name is xxxx.exe).

Now clear the log (button with a page and an eraser on it) then run your exe up to the point it shows that dialog complaining about the missing file. Then press the Capture Events toggle button to toggle it off (magnifier button).

Now the data is available and you don't need the Exe anymore, so you can close it. Starting from end, browse up the file events to find one that is referring to a file matching the problematic path. I expect it would be a .lnk file.. but it could be something else that falls in a non-existing folder. If you find such event, look at the folder the file is under.. this would be the full path to the file the Exe is looking for to operate.

I'd guess it would be in a place that doesn't apply anymore to Win11. Once you identify it, you can see what options you have to emulate it.

Good luck hunting...

myne wrote on 2024-10-13, 11:02:

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2024-10-13, 10:21:

myne wrote on 2024-10-13, 06:36:

Might be looking for the 9x path and not recognising the spaces.

Could be but I am not sure how to resolve that. I can't delete "Desktop", right? The best I had was the EmulateCommandLine shim but that's not a solution

I forget exactly, but things like %systemroot%\desktop used to point to c\windows\desktop

It might be trying to find that folder and not being redirected - or it actually exists as a weird symlink

I created a Windows\Desktop folder manually but it still leads to nothing. I will try the ProcMon suggestion

I took a quick look at it, here's what I could find so far:
The game creates a file C:\icons.ini where it saves the position of all desktop icons. After exiting the game, that file gets deleted again. It's not allowed to write directly to C:, however that doesn't seem to be the cause. Even after changing the hardcoded pathnames with a hex editor, the message still appears and the icons.ini stays empty. To me it looks like the code snippet that gets all the names of the desktop icons and the position somehow fails in newer windows versions and therefore results in that error message.

wbahnassi wrote on 2024-10-13, 11:43:

Yeah ProcessMonitor is a bit overwhelming. Start with this basic tutorial: https://youtu.be/ojUFjE00prA […]
Show full quote

Yeah ProcessMonitor is a bit overwhelming. Start with this basic tutorial:
https://youtu.be/ojUFjE00prA

What you want is to toggle off all event types except file events (on the tool bar, ensure the registry icon and its neighbors are not pressed except the files drawer icon). Press the filter button (the funnel) and set up the filter to only include events from your EXE's name (e.g. Exclude all except process name is xxxx.exe).

Now clear the log (button with a page and an eraser on it) then run your exe up to the point it shows that dialog complaining about the missing file. Then press the Capture Events toggle button to toggle it off (magnifier button).

Now the data is available and you don't need the Exe anymore, so you can close it. Starting from end, browse up the file events to find one that is referring to a file matching the problematic path. I expect it would be a .lnk file.. but it could be something else that falls in a non-existing folder. If you find such event, look at the folder the file is under.. this would be the full path to the file the Exe is looking for to operate.

I'd guess it would be in a place that doesn't apply anymore to Win11. Once you identify it, you can see what options you have to emulate it.

Good luck hunting...

Kalle wrote on 2024-10-13, 15:47:

I took a quick look at it, here's what I could find so far:
The game creates a file C:\icons.ini where it saves the position of all desktop icons. After exiting the game, that file gets deleted again. It's not allowed to write directly to C:, however that doesn't seem to be the cause. Even after changing the hardcoded pathnames with a hex editor, the message still appears and the icons.ini stays empty. To me it looks like the code snippet that gets all the names of the desktop icons and the position somehow fails in newer windows versions and therefore results in that error message.

The icon error turned out to be a minor error, at least for now. With DxWnd somehow, the game manages to start. It then crashes when trying to start the games.

On Windows 7 Starter at least, setting Win9x compatibility modes on the Game folder executables runs the game, however on Win11 it seems to have no effect.

The difference seems to be an error coming from the CreateFileA APIregarding the file "result.dat" to be located as C:\result.dat

The game works in Windows 10, but not on 11. On Win11, it also pushes out an error regarding MCI.

On Win7, 10, one of the shims starting with E (only those of Win98 compatibility modes) except EmulateHeap (that's a relief) makes the game run. I will find out which one tomorrow, but likely it's a new Windows 11 bug.

Can anyone contribute in testing the game, so as to make sure it's not my computer bugging my testing?

Kalle wrote on 2024-10-13, 15:47:

The game creates a file C:\icons.ini where it saves the position of all desktop icons. After exiting the game, that file gets deleted again.

Wow, did it have a workaround for desktop icon positions being messed up after going full screen in a lower resolution than the desktop - it recorded their positions and then put them back later or something??

doshea wrote on 2024-10-13, 23:13:

Kalle wrote on 2024-10-13, 15:47:

The game creates a file C:\icons.ini where it saves the position of all desktop icons. After exiting the game, that file gets deleted again.

Wow, did it have a workaround for desktop icon positions being messed up after going full screen in a lower resolution than the desktop - it recorded their positions and then put them back later or something??

Looks like it:
https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/ge … 14/?page=1#e106