I used to be that guy... when I was 12.

*Fremdschäm*

Boycotting GOG because one game didn't work on your PC is an over reaction, I think...

PC gaming is what it is, and you can always tell the ones not used to it.

So.... you're fucking pissed over this travesty that you couldn't engage in your specific entertainment of choice...?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Talk about first world problems.

All that's left to say can be summed up in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNyG-xu-7SQ

Remember when GOG bundled Galaxy with the offline installers, claiming "most users aren't savvy enough to install it on their own"? lol

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

Probably the fastest and easiest way is prostitution.

Trust me, it works. Just to remind though that what works on one PC does not necessarily work exactly the same on another. There are so many moving parts in why some game works or doesn't work. The Windows version (e.g. Win10) is only one of them.

Anyway, if the problem is display problems, I'd usually try using dgvoodoo2 with the game.

As for Gothic, I finished the GOG version on this Windows 7 PC a year ago. I am not 100% sure if I had to use any compatibility fixes to get the game running, or did it work fine out of the box (the GOG version, that is).

EDIT: What the heck, I'll install it again and see how it goes. Wish me luck. If you don't hear from me after this, then probably Gothic blew on my face and I am on the greener gaming pastures playing Half-life 3 with angels singing in the background.

Since I am (still) also using Windows 7, I just tried installing and playing Gothic (I don't use Galaxy, I installed the game with the offline installer). I didn't install any third-party compatibility mods or change any compatibility settings for the game.

First try: the game simply does not start. I don't see it in the process list or anything, as if I had not even started the game.

Then I remembered this:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/old_games_not_launching_and_eating_100_of_the_cpu_on_windows_7/page1

I did the registry change as suggested in that first message, and voila, Gothic starts and runs fine in Windows 7. So, this problem is due to Microsoft closing some stupid gaming service servers, which affect lots of older Windows games on Windows 7 (Windows 10 seems to be unaffected). Fortunately there is that fix.

If you are not familiar with using regedit in Windows, I suggest you use this way of making the registry change (you need to apply this fix only once, it fixes all affected games, even those you are going to install in the future):

Entitled inept user apart, why doesn't GOG enable the compatibility settings (and the GameUX above) automatically?
It seems they're just registry keys to set..

Because it would mean updating all affected GOG game installers for one fix, for a Windows version that Microsoft is phasing out in a couple of months. This problem does not seem to affect e.g. Windows 10, and at this point GOG's main focus is probably making sure the games work on Windows 10.

I recall you are using gogrepo to download your GOG games, so would you like to see gogrepo reporting it needs to redownload e.g. 70% of all your GOG game installers, just for this small fix that was added to so many GOG game installers?

Nah, I think it is better just to keep this in the limelight, as in "If you still intend to use Windows 7 for gaming even though Microsoft will not support it anymore in January 2020, apply this small registry fix once to fix all your affected games (GOG or not)".

Setting the compatibility settings is a tricky one because to me it appears different machine configurations etc. quite often need different compatibility settings. So no matter how you set them in the installer, many people will have to fiddle with them anyway. E.g. for me, I didn't need to set any compatibility settings with Gothic, as long as I did that GameUX registry fix. That was the culprit, at least for me.

EDIT: Also I am ready to give some slack to the original poster, considering that:

a) I didn't recall this issue at first either.

b) People who gave help to the original poster gave instructions that are more relevant to Windows 10. Not sure if anyone else mentioned this Game Explorer issue either, understandably they didn't remember it especially if they are not using Windows 7 anymore.

c) This is a shitty issue if you don't know about it, rendering lots of older Windows games non-functional on Windows 7, even though they worked before. Frustration is understandable if you keep hitting your head on the brick wall.

Luckily, the fix is pretty simply and is needed to apply only once. Just do it, now (in case you are still on Windows 7). This issue kinda reminds me of having to disable DEP before many games will work...

I think you've earned his emotional suffering payments. :o

this