Temporary fix for Windows 7 players to run the game

[Tayo]

========
FEBRUARY 24 UPDATE: The workaround is no longer needed, the public beta version of the game has this issue fixed. To opt for playing on this version go to Library, right click Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition, select Properties, select Betas, select
pub_feb beta from the first drop down menu, wait for the game to update and hit play.

I've left the main post as it is for contextual and historical purposes. Big thank you to the developers for helping us out even though they were under no company-imposed obligation to do so.
========

This issue cannot be fixed by us, only the developers. The game is trying to make a call to kernel32.dll that only exists in the Windows 8 and up variants of kernel32.dll, so they need to change that. And if you're thinking of replacing your kernel32.dll with Windows 8/10/11 variants, don't. It's a critical system file that is OS specific and you'd just be guaranteeing system failure.

Some guy in a reddit thread said that the call should be CreateFileW instead of CreateFile2 so that it calls the Windows 7 dll but I wouldn't presume to know if this is true and we can't do anything with this information either.

The only option we Windows 7 users have is to continue to ask the developers to fix it. Contact them in any way you can and let them know. Forums are full of Windows 7 users who cannot play for no reason other than devs (very likely unintentionally) breaking compatibility.

They can easily fix this with a proper update to the .exe. There was never any technical reason for AOE2DE to be Windows 10 specific in the past, nor is there now as the game does not really require anything unique to Windows 10+ systems. It's all simply artificial / arbitrary induced incompatibility.

I have since obtained and am sharing the executable for the previous version of the game, specifically version 73885 (December Patch). Simply copy this file to your "'\Steam\steamapps\common\AoE2DE" folder and press play in Steam. Make sure you back up the AoE2DE_s.exe you're going to replace by copying it somewhere else or renaming it to something like AoE2DE_s.bkp or whatever. I have done so and I can load my saves and play singleplayer with no apparent issues so far.

Note that multiplayer will either not work at all, have problems/crashes, or only allow you to play with others that have this game version, I have not started playing multiplayer in this game yet and I cannot predict outcomes with accuracy or provide solutions to this or any other problems that may arise, test for yourselves.

Edit: new download link + file hash check:

https://anonfiles.com/S4E4mcZ0ya
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/ece912b64c6d9a0f96bdeb21ddcc7f3f0185bfb18e0c5efc2c15a730479548ec/detection
SHA256: ECE912B64C6D9A0F96BDEB21DDCC7F3F0185BFB18E0C5EFC2C15A730479548EC

This is the exe I currently use to play the game.

There was another band-aid floating around here that lead people to play an old buggy beta build that had poor performance, I don't recommend that.

And again I must specify, this is just a band-aid until the developers actually help us with a properly fixed patch so that multiplayer folks aren't stuck outside in the rain.

[AustrAlien2010]

That's really helpful if they can just replace a file to fix it for thousands of people. Why doesn't the developer does this?

You'd almost expect a billion dollar company to fix it within hours, or offer a solution, if people can fix it so easily. It makes you wonder why it had to be updated in the first place, if the old version was fine and worked for everyone.
Why not perform a rollback to the old version, if there's so many issues with the new version?

I suppose there hasn't been any official communication about this, and nobody said a word?

[Tayo]

This is not a true fix, you are replacing the latest updated executable with last patch's executable. The fact that this works is merely because the game has not had major changes in runtime requirements between these two versions, it was just circumstantial luck more or less.

And even in this case, this makes playing multiplayer with others with the latest patch impossible because players must have the same version of the game to connect to each other for many reasons.

I provided this solution as a stopgap so that people can play their game for a while but ultimately if patches keep coming without true compatibility fixes, even this will stop working.

However, there is no logical reason as to why the devs wouldn't help us, the only barriers for not supporting Definitive Editions running on Windows 7 were always artificial, not because of any real technical issues, but because Microsoft wanted to push their horrible store only at the expense of Steam players and new OS at the time, which thankfully and rightfully backfired in their face severely. Once the marketing clowns were overruled, the developers fixed their games to run on Windows 7 as they should've run from the start.

This is just another case of artificial incompatibility with no real basis in technical requirements, as can be seen from the game running near flawlessly last patch on Windows 7, with only very rare crashes that in fact from what I've seen Windows 10 users had more of on average haha.

I don't think this was malicious, more than likely this was due to neglect or ignorance. However, it is indeed frustrating that such an easily fixed problem was not addressed yet and our only solution is to continue to make ourselves heard so that we are not treated like second rate customers. Windows 7 still commands a significant portion of the market share and as can be seen from the many threads in Steam and on Reddit, this is affecting a large portion of the playerbase.

As for official communication, nothing so far sadly.

[AustrAlien2010]

Thanks a lot for writing all of that. That is really informative.

I found the related topic on their website:
https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/cannot-launch-aoe2-through-steam-since-console-update/223778

The developer is also tracking it from there apparently. They consider Windows 10, but Windows 10 is already running towards it's end of life, and may not work with all hardware. And people barely have 2 more years of running Windows 10 before it's dead.

[Tayo]

Windows 10 will most likely receive much extended support just like Windows 7 did. Extended security updates for Windows 7 ended this January for instance. I have been daily driving Windows 7 and have essentially ignored Windows 10 since its launch with 0 issues and I expect that even more people will do the same with Windows 10 for the next decade.

[AustrAlien2010]

It sure is a waste to trash all those good computer parts with no issues. They should be thinking about the environment.

[AustrAlien2010]

People may get to see a whole bunch of internet porn by going to that website though.

But this is indeed a "functional" alternative to running it with the (enhanced logging) beta access code: 4YH2SkfG7CK5yanvrXE9qj8b

Multiplayer will probably not work though. And I think you're correct, in the sense that it may stop working at some point in the future.

[Tayo]

I was unaware. People should not be browsing the internet without ublock origin and noscript at the very least nowadays. Filters out all the filth, and I don't mean just advertisements.

[Kane]

Just update your OS... sry but it is very unsecure and kind of stubborn to use such an old OS... I am also not immediately updating when a new OS is released but it is over 13 years old...

[Tayo]

I'm sorry but you're wrong. Please educate yourself before spreading this misinformation.

[Kane]

Originally posted by RaidoDaRaitoningu:

I'm sorry but you're wrong. Please educate yourself before spreading this misinformation.

Store Page AOEII DE ... minimum requirements Win10...
Release date Win7 2009 end of support ( microsoft hp 2020 )

Help me out how to educate myself so I can apologize...

[Tayo]

First it was the OS was insecure and then you moved the goalpost to you getting stuck on what it says on the store page. I'll help you out anyway.

Extended security updates have been available for Windows 7 users up until January this year. In fact, Windows 7 has been more secure than Windows 10 for this entire time due to having much fewer attack vectors such as:

1. Microsoft-introduced spyware, telemetry and other data-collection mechanisms which have been abused by malicious third parties in the past.
2. Unsecured and poorly coded features and other additions that have crashed and damaged systems and components and have led to data loss.
3. Forced updates with similar consequences.
4. Poorly-coded drivers with similar consequences.
5. Other edge cases I don't care to explain as it would take forever.

Microsoft fired their entire programmatic testing group, a huge part of their quality assurance and beta testing team months prior to launching Windows 10 and boy did it show.

For more than 8 years now, Windows 10 users have been guinea pigs for an unstable, insecure OS environment that offered virtually no benefits in terms of gaming performance while serving as a data-collection and advertisement platform filled with intentionally introduced backdoors.

Directx12 is a failure in terms of market adoption. It has not delivered on any of its promises and the result can be seen in today's games that still offer choices between Dx11 and Dx12 APIs in their settings, often with Dx11 beating Dx12 performance wise.

Benchmarks for gaming titles have consistently shown near-0 (statistical insignificance/margin of error) fps differences in performance between 7 and 10, with a properly configured Windows 7 system very often beating a similar 10 system's benchmarks.

All these issues without me even mentioning the mountain of compatibility problems with older titles and even intentional backwards-compatibility removal.

Specifically for Age of Empires 2 Definitive I'll just copy paste what I said above:
"...the only barriers for not supporting Definitive Editions running on Windows 7 were always artificial, not because of any real technical issues or requirements, but because Microsoft wanted to push their horrible store (at the expense of Steam players) and their new 10 OS (at the time), which thankfully and rightfully backfired in their face severely. Once the marketing clowns were overruled, the developers fixed their games to run on Windows 7 as they should've run from the start."

Just because a company says something on its store page doesn't mean you have to take it at face value. As I have said, AOE2DE does in fact run flawlessly on my Windows 7 system and has been doing so since one of its very early patches back in 2020 when Microsoft realized their mistake and released it on Steam (after losing millions because of them botching the release of AOE1DE and AOE2DE).

[Kayaza]

Hey RaidoDaRaitoningu
Since you seem very knowledgeable on the matter, do you think the devs will patch the issue or is it over for win7 users ?

[Frozone]

I had this issue with the most updated windows. This is how I had to manual fix it. I hope it works for all of you.

Basically it's an issue with Microsoft C++. To resolve go here - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170 and download and install these:

https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe

https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

[Tayo]

Originally posted by ddewey05:

I had this issue with the most updated windows. This is how I had to manual fix it. I hope it works for all of you.
Basically it's an issue with Microsoft C++.

While this most definitely was ONE of the issues that some users faced, you did not have the specific issue that I am talking about here. If you had read the first post you would've known this. Additionally, Microsoft themselves pushed a VC++ hotfix a few days ago that should've fixed that issue.

Originally posted by Kayaza:

Hey RaidoDaRaitoningu
Since you seem very knowledgeable on the matter, do you think the devs will patch the issue or is it over for Win7 users ?

While I can't speak in absolutes or for the developers, my strongest indication is that they will be fixing this issue sooner or later, and probably sooner since the latest patch introduced a multitude of issues, not just the game failing to run for either Win7 or Win10 users but also crashing in different circumstances and multiplayer lobby issues.

A few hickups were to be expected given that this was supposed to the xbox release's compatibility patch, but it was much worse than expected so I'm thinking they're panicking and fixing as fast as they can. They definitely know about this issue since they stated they were tracking it and I see no reason why they wouldn't fix it.

https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/cannot-launch-aoe2-through-steam-since-console-update/223778

[Kayaza]

Thanks for the quick reply, fingers crossed.
I really hope it wasn't intentional.