How to run Still Life under Windows 7/Vista Ultimate

July2

Still life is a pretty decent, albit a bit dark, adventure game from 2005. As all games it runs fine on XP and like most games it fails to run on Vista (who cares) and Windows 7.

NOTE: I’m running Win7 64bit. With any luck this will not matter for 32bit users.

Googling around will give you a bunch of forum posts, but the general consensus is that you should try the 98 compatibility mode and if not then run it in XP. The problem is that the game either wont start, start and never progress past a black screen, will throw and error or else will hang after you start talking to the cop in the first scene. Turns out there is a simple way to make the game run perfectly (I’ve finished it and it ran nice and smooth, without a hitch).

As windows still hasn’t fixed some of the issues with compatibility mode, you cant just right click stilllife.exe and change the settings there. For some retarded reason you need to create a shortcut first (nice Microsoft, real nice). After this you need to do the following:

Right click the shortcut, select the compatibility tab.
Change the program to run as WinNT 4.0 (not 98 or xp as these WON’T work).
Then check the box ‘disable visual themes’.
(Unnecessary?) Check the box ‘disable desktop composition’ (to ward off evil spirits).
Lastly check the box to run this program as an admin (since windows still doesn’t and probably never can have a decent security infrastructure that would allow you to run programs and games without running them with admin rights).
Apply and OK. Now you can run the game.

Have fun I’ll post an update if the same settings apply for Post Mortem (prequel) and Still Life 2.

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posted under Cool Stuff, Hacks

43 Comments to

“How to run Still Life under Windows 7/Vista Ultimate”

On October 26th, 2009 at 10:04 am D4rken Says:
Great man… this is only advice what work.. thanks
On November 20th, 2009 at 9:52 am gee Says:
hey—thanks. it worked on win7 home premium 32bit
On December 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 pm Rant Casey Says:
Thank you so much. I’ve been searching around the internet like crazy trying to find the answer. I’ve tried patches, unnecessary driver updates, and god knows what else. Happened to find this page and BOOM! The game finally works. Again, thanks a bunch.
On December 3rd, 2009 at 6:54 pm masayume Says:
Wow. I wasn’t sure i if there was any point posting that, but it turns out I’ve now helped 3 people (that i know of….). Thats pretty good to know. I’m glad i helped you guys out
On December 15th, 2009 at 8:35 am Maya Says:
Hey!

Have you perhaps tried Still life 2 as well? beacuse I tried everything you wrote for SL2 and it still doesn’t work (I got Win7 32bit)!

Thanks for your help!
On December 16th, 2009 at 1:51 pm Lucas Says:
Yeah….Still Life 2 is not working with this. Does anyone know how to do it ? I have a Win 7 64bits
On December 16th, 2009 at 10:54 pm masayume Says:
I have got still life 2 running fine under Win7 64bit. I look into how i got this to run latter on today and i’ll get back to you
On December 18th, 2009 at 4:57 am masayume Says:
Right. I’m running Win7 64bit and i can run still life 2 no problem. Install the game as normal, create a shortcut and set it to run as administrator. Thats it. It works fine for me.
On December 28th, 2009 at 10:57 pm hez Says:
Thank you, Alex! Your posting was very helpful to me
On January 20th, 2010 at 12:04 am Random Says:
Thank you for posting this solution to running still life on win 7 64bit.
On February 1st, 2010 at 1:15 am Kristi Says:
thank you, this worked! I just bought the game today and thought I threw away $10 because I got the black screen and ‘troubleshoot compatibility’ didn’t work. But your instructions did the trick. Running Win 7 64 bit.
On February 3rd, 2010 at 12:18 am CM Says:
Great work! Thanks for the help!
On February 10th, 2010 at 3:02 pm starblo Says:
Hi, your instructions didn’t work (partially), yeah it has to happen someday. However, I think the CD was the one causing the problem, since the starforce protection isn’t compatible with windows 7. I got a NO-CD patch and then followed your instructions for the shortcut setup and it works fine. I got passed the first scene and nothing crashed, hopefully it won’t crash elsewhere!

Thanks
On February 17th, 2010 at 5:59 pm thomas Says:
works perfectly ! THANK YOU!
On March 5th, 2010 at 4:14 pm Still life Problem techniczny - Strona 2 Says:
[...] [...]
On March 7th, 2010 at 7:01 pm Eric Says:
Didnt work here =/
Shortcut ok
Compatibility to NT ok
Both checkboxes checked ok
Run as admin ok

But still life doesnt work yet =(
A messenge came in to say that the game is not compatible.
PS: Win 7 64 bits Home Premium
On March 7th, 2010 at 7:29 pm masayume Says:
Hmm….Odd. The compatability layer should have taken care of that (else it would have asked you if you wanted to run compatability).

It MAY be due to home premium being a really limited version of windows. Microsoft likes to cut stuff like this between versions. I have ultimate and professional and it works for both.
On May 2nd, 2010 at 9:57 am zaphirex Says:
Thank you!!!:) It’s working!!
On May 3rd, 2010 at 7:24 pm Still Life 2 a Windows 7 - Strona 2 Says:
[...] [...]
On May 3rd, 2010 at 7:36 pm Mizia Says:
Problems with Still Life 2 under Windows 7 Home Premium. Not working;/ I’ve tried change resolution of screen to 1024×768, set compatibility to Windows NT and XP, I also checked boxes “disable visual themes” and “disable desktop composition”, run as administrator and still nothing. Could anyone help me? I’m so sad about this problem, I really wanna play this game …
On May 4th, 2010 at 7:48 pm masayume Says:
@Miza – I havnt really had a chance to play around with Still Life 2. At the time i was busy and now i have exams I have ultimate and some other copy of windows 7 so i’ll try it in a few weeks when i’m free and post an update
On May 5th, 2010 at 6:06 pm Shawn Says:
Perfect, Still Life is running on my Windows 7 64-bit computer. Thanks!
On May 19th, 2010 at 4:59 am Rea Says:
ahhh, thank you SOOOO much!! i love this game and was so bummed it wasn’t working (since i upgraded to x64). i was sitting here for like a half hour trying to get it to work – then i decided to google some help, and i went here. this was PERFECT, you made my night! wooo!
On May 21st, 2010 at 10:49 pm Clark Says:
K, so i was trying this out.. and it says:

This application is not compatible with the installed operation system.
Please upgrade to Windows 98SE, Windows 2000 or better.

Considering how I’m running Windows 7 x64.
so now I’m in ultra pondering stage..
On May 28th, 2010 at 2:23 pm harry Says:
i can’t get this to work at all, followed all the steps and it just says “the application can be launched with ..only etc”
i’m running windows7 64bit…any advice?
On May 28th, 2010 at 2:25 pm harry Says:
got this info on the problem if it helps:
Dear User!

This file contains detailed information on the problem occurred.
Save the file and forward it to your product Customer Support.

—————————— Information ——————————

[Error Information]
3.4.65.11; 3002

[Protected Product Information]
CompanyName = MC2
ProductName = Still Life
BuildSignature = 3.04.065.011, 03.02.05
ProductGuid = {099f4bd1-b362-f4d3-a94e-576e878f3a9d}
BuildGuid = {da3b5b6f-525c-4401-a35f-3ebdc2e91290}

[Report Information]
ReportDateTime = 28 May 2010 15:24
ClientTimeZone = GMT Standard Time
ClientTimeBias = 0

[System Information]
System Information was not obtained because of “msinfo32″ execution error.
On May 29th, 2010 at 12:29 pm masayume Says:
@Clark – Errm…….odd. Try reinstalling the game, the patch and repeating the process. Try running it with a shortcut that has compatability applied and directly from the exe in the game folder with compatability applied
On May 29th, 2010 at 12:33 pm masayume Says:
@Harry – Just out of curiosity (since there seem to be some people with w7x64 that have problems while most people dont), which version of win7 are you using? home, premium, crappy, extra crappy, no reason but to make money cut down version for 3rd world edition etc…. Microsoft has an annoying tendency to fuck with features simply to milk money out of people. The compatability layer seems to be one of the things they like fucking with (to get people to pay more money for an upgrade).
On May 30th, 2010 at 9:26 am harry Says:
masayume, it’s windows 7 home premium…

what was that about installing a patch? i didn’t do that, could that be the problem?

i’m really fucked off that i cant play still life, been wanting to play it for ages and i finally get hold of a copy and it doesnt work! dam you microsoft
On May 30th, 2010 at 10:45 am masayume Says:
Errm ns about a patch, from what i remember there is an unofficial vista patch, but it’s french (search for it on filefront via google).

There is an official game patch from the release version 1.0 to 1.03. I’d recommend searching for that and updating the game to see if that fixes your problem.

I’m ns what else to recommend….. If the game is copied then you’ll need a no-cd patch you can grab off gamecopyworld

Let me know if that makes it work.
On May 30th, 2010 at 11:27 am harry Says:
i have an official copy of still life, no pirate..
hmm..i’m looking everywhere for this official 1.03 patch, can’t seem to find it…any ideas? i’m not too computer literate, so i appriciate the help masayume
On June 1st, 2010 at 4:18 pm harry Says:
ok, i’ve tried turning my virus protection which allowed the game to install, and i saved the files into my user file instead of program files, and changed all the preferences as advised by this thread, but i still get this error message when i try to load it:

Dear User!

This file contains detailed information on the problem occurred.
Save the file and forward it to your product Customer Support.

—————————— Information ——————————

[Error Information]
3.4.65.11; 3002

[Protected Product Information]
CompanyName = MC2
ProductName = Still Life
BuildSignature = 3.04.065.011, 03.02.05
ProductGuid = {099f4bd1-b362-f4d3-a94e-576e878f3a9d}
BuildGuid = {da3b5b6f-525c-4401-a35f-3ebdc2e91290}

[Report Information]
ReportDateTime = 01 June 2010 17:15
ClientTimeZone = GMT Standard Time
ClientTimeBias = 0

[System Information]
System Information was not obtained because of “msinfo32″ execution error.

whats msinfo32? and please can anyone help me solve this? it’s driving me mad, i want to play the game so much.
On June 1st, 2010 at 4:46 pm masayume Says:
msinfo32 is a library that handles system information. Your getting the error for whatever reason your machine cant seem to output details about your system. The above error report as it is pretty useless since it just outputs information about the program that isnt running (still life), the date and what would have been details about your machine – os type, cpu type, memory etc… etc…

I really am clueless why the game wont run for you – your setup seems to be more or less the same as mine. Off the top of my head it could be a graphics driver problem – make sure you have the latest drivers and directX versions installed. Also that the game is patched to the latest version 1.03. You could always try downloading the no-cd patch from gamecopyworld since the cracked exe might fix/bypass whatever is causing the problem (which is the only differentiating factor between me and you i can think of).

Last ditch effort i can only recommend you install a light clean copy of xp in a VM and run your game through that – http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ is free and it’s pretty simple. You just create a new VM, specify the cd drive as either your physical drive or an ISO image of an XP disk and start it – it will behave just like you would expect a physical computer to were you to stick an XP disk in there and run it. If you want an easy way out then you can download preconfigured XP vm images and just open/start them and it will boot straight to a working copy of XP, but from a legal stand point that isnt technically … well legal If you care that is. ThePirateBay has some nice images customised specifically for gaming (most of the crap has been removed to optimise the machine so it isnt really suitable for anything else).

Sorry, but im at as much a loss as you are im afraid
On June 1st, 2010 at 8:57 pm harry Says:
hey man, thanks alot for replying. i tried downloading the directx updates, the 1.0 and 1.03 patches, still nothing. just that same message saying that it only runs on windows 98/xp etc.
i’m really close to giving up but i sincerely thank you for helping me out.
the only other thing i can think of is to create an xp partition, so maybe i’ll give that a go.
thanks again, and better luck to everyone else who is trying to get this to work
On July 23rd, 2010 at 3:59 am Alexei Says:
Thanks… from México.

It works on my Win 7 32

I did the first and last step and works now im happy =D

Thanks man
On July 30th, 2010 at 9:10 pm Daniel Says:
This doesn’t work for me; I still can’t get past the “This program will only run in Windows ME, XP, 2000, etc.” and I can’t find the 1.03 patch (or any patch, for that matter) anywhere. Links, anyone?
On August 4th, 2010 at 12:48 pm markus Says:
Thanks so much man. I really appreciate your help. Works great!!
On August 16th, 2010 at 5:08 pm World_Noir Says:
It has actually worked!!!! Damn, you rock! People like you make the world a little better! Thank you so f*cking much!
On August 16th, 2010 at 8:33 pm Alexandrita Says:
Thank you sooooo much. Got Win 7 64 and your tip worked! You’re the best!
:-*
On August 25th, 2010 at 9:07 pm zar Says:
The message: “This program will only run in Windows ME, XP, 2000, etc.”
is generated by the star force protection system, not by the game (as you can see in the window title). Look here http://www.star-force.com/support/users/windows7

If you have the original game (old versions) you MUST crack it in order to play it. Paradosso.
On August 26th, 2010 at 10:14 am Enippeas Says:
Thank you! I was sooooooo disappointed and sure that there is no solution to this! I wish you prosperity and everlasting happiness!
On August 29th, 2010 at 3:09 am Patricia Says:
Thank you SOOO MUTCH you’re now my new hero! Take care
On August 29th, 2010 at 3:09 am Patricia Says:
Thank you SOOO MUCH you’re now my new hero! Take care