I am using Windows XP on the admin account, bought, installed and downloaded the game a few days ago. After applying the patch 1.03 which was says it fixed some compatibility issues i tried to run the game. I ended up having to go through each .exe file and disabling the compatibility mode that was on by default to launch the game without the flashy graphics issues. After that i found that only the d3dpoptb.exe was working correctly. I figured it is not a big deal so went on playing.

Now a few days later the d3dpoptb.exe has started giving the graphics flashing making that unusable, so i checked to see if the compatibility had been turned back on somehow. It has, and apparently i cannot disable the compatibility mode for that d3dpoptb.exe now. I can go in to change it, hit apply, then close the window but the thing is set right back on. It was working fine previously and there has been no hardware or software change on this computer.

To make things stranger the poptb.exe is now suddenly working correctly (and unlike the d3dpoptb.exe i can turn compatibility mode on or off on this one and correctly saves). I could go on playing with whichever .exe chooses to work each day, but it gets old having to go tot he folder and create new shortcuts to place on my desktop when one stops working. I know i could keep a shortcut to both poptb.exe and d3dpoptb.exe on the desktop but i would rather cut the clutter down by finding a fix for this.

So i guess my question is why would one .exe not correctly save changes such as the compatibility mode while the other does, and how can i fix this issue?

The flashing graphics happens on many of the older games GOG has (eg Pharaoh). It clears up for me just by restarting my PC.

Also, protip: upgrade to Windows 7, as support for Windows XP has now ended.

Hi smeggy,

I'm having the exact same problem. However it happened to me right after installation.

poptb.exe working normally
d3dpoptb.exe flashing making it unusable. it also has compatibility enabled and no apparent way to turn it off.

What I did manage to do is find a way to turn off compatibiliy.

This method inolves registry editing. Make sure you are comfortable doing it, because messing up registry can makey your system completely unstable!

Open registry editor.
Find a folder called AppCompatFlags. You can do this by selecting Edit and Find from the menu
The folder should be located somewhere in Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion. But there could be several of them one in HK Local Machine, another in Current User... etc. Make sure you repeat the steps for all.
Inside the folder, you should see a folder called Layers
Inside the Layers folder you will see some entries. Among them should be the ones which run Populous in Win95 compat mode. Delete these entries.
Close registry editor.

The files should now have compatibility disabled.

Unfortunately for me, this didn't fix the flashing graphics issue.

If you find a method that works, please let me know.

I'm going to try using old graphics drivers.