I recently installed my gog copy of Settlers 3 on my Windows 10 laptop. When I click to launch the game the computer things for a minute then stops. The program does not launch. I can see it still thinking away in the task manager, but no matter how long I wait it does not launch.

I have attempted Settlers 3 setup, Single.exe and Settlers3.exe. I have disabled Windows Protector. Nothing has worked so far. Help?

It is a problem for quite a few games in Windows 10. Check this for a possible workaround:
http://www.gog.com/forum/the_settlers_series/settlers_3_ultimate_collection_not_launching_justing_eating_up_cpu_memory/post7


NOTE: The file mentioned in the post above is the one in the Settlers folder, NOT the one in the Windows system folder!

Thank you for posting this. I found the winmm.dll in my system32 folder but Windows will not allow me to rename it... says I need permission from "trusted installer" whatever that means...

1. Check that there isn't any winmm.dll file in the Setters 3 folder, and rename that one instead.

2. If not:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-trustedinstaller-and-why-does-it-keep-me-from-renaming-files/
Scroll down to "Taking Ownership of Files". You'll have to take ownership of the file and then you can rename it.
(And do be careful when doing this).

Wrong one. You want the one in the game folder.

Oh man... you are not going to believe what happened to me.

So I found out how to bypass the security in the system32 folder and renamed the winmm.dll file. Nothing bad happened at first and Settlers 3 still didn't work. Then I spied the correct winmm.dll file and renamed it but Settlers 3 still didn't work. Actually, nothing was working except for basic open / close folders.

"Oh shoot," I thought to myself, "the system32 winmm.dll must have been important to run Windows! I better go and change it back."

So I went back to rename the file but it wouldn't rename.

"That's strange," I thought to myself again, "I wonder if it will change if I take it out of the system32 folder."

So I took it out and was able to rename it. Hurray! Except now it wouldn't go back into the system32 folder and I kept noticing new Windows functions that weren't working anymore. I was able to find a video explaining how to get control of the system32 folder which may have helped me fix things but the video went black and my computer died.

Restart?

Nope, Windows launching crashed into a dead black screen.

Use F8 or Shift+F8 for diagnostics mode?

Nope, Windows 10 boots too fast for that.

Phone Windows Help desk?

Nope, 2 hour wait time.

Use boot discs?

Nope, lost them...

Eventually I found an answer. Create a Windows 10 boot media with a zip drive on my wife's computer and use it to reset Windows on mine. The reset got me started again and then four hours after I attempted Microsoft help desk they called me back (read: 2 hours after the 2 hour estimated wait time) to see what I needed. Lost all my software and it's taken me two days to get most of it back.



But yes, now that Windows is reset I employed the renaming fix for the correct winmm.dll file and the game works well. Miss the music though.

Glad it worked, and sorry about the music. And sorry about all the work you had to do with system32 folder, but next time check point 1 before point 2 ;)

Heh... I had actually blown my computer up before you posted that... found a different article on how to bypass trustedinstaller.

For me renaming the .DLL file works however the game keeps asking for a serial code even after restarting the game.
It gives me some error containing a e:\drive.

Someone any clue what the solution could be?

Never ever rename any DLL files in C:\Windows...
The file that needs to be renamed in this case is to be found in the game's folder. Start the game as administrator - or install the aLobby (https://lobby.siedler3.net).

OK, I've edited my post to make sure it's clear which file was meant in the original post.