Honestly i don't see how that works...

Alright let's consider. All games today are built on a platform/framework (SDL, DirectX, OpenGL, etc). For windows it's usually DirectX. DirectX plugs into hardware drivers. Thus when you update your drivers, everything should still use the API of DirectX.

Only games that have specific features for specific cards might break (and yet you still have to use drivers/external API which simply just are ignored for hardware that it doesn't have). Logically it makes sense games and programs will do a hardware check that the hardware you have, supports said features, So if your hardware supports type X of AA, then it is enabled (if you had it set enabled). And if it doesn't, it is automatically disabled. It would also make sense that if such a huge change happened that features are no longer working that either A) you go into a safe-minimum mode, or B) you go with what works, but force the user into the configuration menu so they can update any changes as appropriate.

A number of games don't have the configuration in the game itself and uses a loader or secondary application to set the configuration, leaving it simple and fast to make changes rather than the location of the buttons are off screen and you have to work blindly. (That suck)

But that might just be crazy...

Warning! I remember the fact that some games go wonkey if not installed to C:\ but of course I cannot remember any specific titles (one of the bad things about growing old).

I think in those cases DOSBox can (and should be) configured to compensate this.

GOG DOSBox configs and game setups are often sub-optimal in terms of "best quality" (esp. regarding to music), but they are - at least in my experience - rock-solid for running the game.

The few games haven't got to work are Windows games. Ie. the first Black Mirror keeps crashing on me...

Yes, I think you are right that there are fairly easy ways around the problem but I encountered the problem before I had internet access so could not check for a solution and did not figure out on my own.

And how is that different from Steam? Is copying them over from a backup hdd + letting Steam update them any faster than just installing them again using a GOG installer?

Ok, I would have been stumped to, probably... But this was about GOG games not working... So I assume internet access available ;-)

I never said that it would be different from Steam. I just said that changing the hardware could - in this specific case - affect the registry as well. In fact I said above that I DOUBT Steam is really checking this every time the hardware or the OS was changed. Steam is checking the keys and redistributables on the FIRST launch ever and not anymore afterwards. At least that is the way I know it and it's not different from GOG at all.

In my situation it's this simple.

All my game are already installed on secondary hard drives.

I install a new OS

GOG .exe's crash

GOG Galaxy and Verify/Repair doesn't fix anything

Steam .exe's have a about a 5 minute first time launch setup and then the games run just fine.

I'm reporting this to help CD Projekt Red. This has very little effect on me as I have all the installers of all my GOG games backed up on multiple hard drives.
I'm a crazy nerd with a bunch or computers, home servers and 50TB worth of data hoarding.
You have to think about this from an end user perspective. Just that fact that GOG has an issue an Steam doesn't isn't good for GOG so GOG should fix the issue.
Even in my case I have family Members who us my systems. With steam, games just boot up again without a hitch, while with GOG, I literally have to transfer over game installers and then wait for the games to reinstall.
GOG basically requires more work to get things up and running and can be a time kill compared to Steam. I'm all about GOG so I hope they make improvements because I want GOG to be better then Steam in every-way.

If you are simply exchanging windows versions I highly doubt this. Most GOG games does not even need any registry keys. However it might be that for SOME games redistributables are required that weren't installed on the new OS.

That's inteersting. The "verify/repair" function SHOULD detect if files or redistributables are missing and reinstall them. If that does not work yes, something is wrong here imo.

Steam is afaik only doing this once on first launch of the game. Like Galaxy Steam client does not know if an installation is corrupt or not - you need to do the verify function as well.

Like I said - if the verify/repair function does not work the way it should I woud agree. Could you maybe give me some examples of games that crashed for you after changing your OS? I would love to try it out by myself when I find the time. IN addition to that you can also open up a support ticket (click support -> GOG Galaxy) and describe your problem. GOG Galaxy is far from perfect and if the verify/repair function does not work correctly it's something they should add to their list of things to fix. Normally using this function should reinstall everything that'S missing in the installation - including redistributables.

I'm surprised someone even keeps UAC on, it's the first thing I turn off after a fresh format, they couldn't have invented a more annoying and nagging feature.

As for the 'Online only LAN', that's not a GOG thing or fault, most devs choose to tie their multiplayer to a 3rd party service such as Steam or Galaxy itself. If I had it my way, all multiplayer games would have an LAN feature.

You are right. I played most of my gog games without actually installing them, by unpacking the installers. I believe only some DLCs are activated through registry entries, but I haven't played/tested any yet.


Maybe you lack DirectX 9 if using Windows 10.

What is this GOG.exe that you say is crashing? Which games contain it? I think I vaguely remember seeing such file in some older games/installers and I believe it was some kind of wrapper or configuration app, which you might not even need to run. Or maybe I confuse it with GOGLauncher.exe or GOGDOSConfig.exe.

I would persume he meant the exe files GOG is using (in comparision to the ones in Steam games) - so not necessary a GOG.exe but more like an exe distributed by GOG.

Yup, that could be too.

welp I goofed, I wasn't launching the proper .exe. My example is Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition. I tried Launching "Launch Divinity - Original Sin Enhanced Edition", which is a shortcut in the "Divinity - Original Sin Enhanced Edition" folder, but the real .exe is located in Divinity - Original Sin Enhanced Edition/Shipping/EoCapp.

Unfortunately I deleted my GOG folder so I can test if that works. In Steam I test Batman Arkham Origin. I only add library and ran the game. No verify stuff, just a first time start up then launched without an issue.

Really wish I didn't delete the GOG folders to test if that works. Probably does as GOG normally doesn't disappoint. I suppose I could test it when I install Centos on another PC run Linux Wine and see if the .exe files run, but I may need to run the installers for Linux Wine. Totally different ball game then Windows.