Red Alert 2 Windows 8 Fix

41 Replies

Overview

The famous RTS game Command & Conquer – Red Alert 2 by Westwood Studios was released on October 2000 but there are still many who consider this game a must.
Westwood Studios was bought by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1998, and closed by EA in 2003.
With the release of Microsoft Windows 8 the game Red Alert 2 stopped working.
Follow these next few steps to Fix Red Alert 2 on Windows 8 x32 and x64 bit.


The following instructions were tested on Red Alert 2 Yuri’s Revenge with the official 1.001 Patch

Red Alert 2 Windows 8 Fix

INI Files

  • Open RA2.INI, RA2MD.INI with any text editor and go to the [Video] block.
  • Add ‘VideoBackBuffer=no’
  • Set the ScreenWidth, ScreenHeight to your resolution.

For example a 1920×1080 HD Resolution:

[Video]
ScreenWidth=1920
ScreenHeight=1080
StretchMovies=no
VideoBackBuffer=no

Compatibility Mode

  • Right click gamemd.exe and go to the “Compatibility” tab.
  • Click “Change Settings for all users”
  • Mark the Compatibility Mode and set to WinXP SP3
  • Mark Reduced color mode and set to 16bit
  • Mark “Run this program as an administrator”

Red Alert 2 Windows 8 Fix

Red Alert 2 Windows 8 Fix

Run the Game.

NPatch

If you still have issues with the game then you might need to install NPatch.
Download the first file and install it.
Repeat the Compatibility Mode settings from the previous step.

Enjoy.

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41 thoughts on “Red Alert 2 Windows 8 Fix”

    2. hemi

      i have followed all ur steps the game starts working but…. the special instructions’ panel for the units in the down of the screen is now vanish and also “BACK’ option in the pause window is vanished too… kindly suggest a way to bring it back.

      Reply ↓
  2. Robert C.

    After endless hours of searching for a cure, I finally got it to work right using the steps above. You are a savior. For all you people out there that believe we should all throw away our old games that we like, forget you. Yuri’s revenge is a timeless game that is still enjoyed by many even to this date,

    Reply ↓
  5. Hakan

    COMPUTER DEFEATED YOU ARE VICTORIOUS!

    It looks problem solved, thank you 😉

    Best wishes from Istanbul.

    Reply ↓
    1. River

      Vi har alla sett det inlägget.Vän till vän som kommenterade pÃ¥ TV4′s FB-sida. Sedan gick det viralt.Jag orkar inte bläddra igenom min feed. GÃ¥ in pÃ¥ TV4′s facebooksida sÃ¥ hittar du själv, om det inte är raal.dtrOtroeigt korkat av henne att inte förstÃ¥ att en stor del av oss läst precis samma inlägg pÃ¥ FB som hon själv. Inga situationstecken använde hon heller.

      Reply ↓
    2. car and home owners nsurance quotes in Hilo, Hawaii

      so outright), but because their kids were such good friends with us – because the families were so tight overall – the individual frictions were kind of overlooked or ignored or something. But on the other hand, I do think they were always fun to be around; and people who are fun to be around can also drive you up a tree. Maybe that’s the test, even.

      Reply ↓
  7. Krystian

    mhm… after some time my ra2 stops ; p So… VirtualBox + xp and every thing works perfectly :]

    Greetings from Poland! 😀

    Reply ↓
  11. firdaus82

    thanks bro.. i can play this game.. but how about play on LAN.. i can`t play bro.. please help

    Reply ↓
  14. Khaqan

    Dear Adam,
    I used all your steps and game started but when i started skirmish mission, everything went boom and game was over.
    I tried several plays. Same thing happened always. Kindly if you can assist in that I shall really appreciate it thanks.

    Plus im trying to install from a setup of RA2 and the setup doesnt work on my win 8. Says it doesn’t support.
    Help me there too.
    Thank You

    Reply ↓
    1. BIGSHF

      Hello Khaqan

      It seems red alert made this boom thing to check for cd existence.
      Try mounting the game cd in a virtual cd-rom like alcohol or daemon tools or whatever suits you.
      It worled for me.
      hope that helps.

      BIGSHF

      Reply ↓
  15. TwistedMonkey

    Well…. it doesn’t work foe me, I got ra2 and yuri’s revenge but every time I klick on them I can chose but if I klick on ra2 or yuri’s revenge they don’t start…. please help me

    Reply ↓
  17. ORO

    fucking worked man, thank you, me and my 2 frnds are fucking each other on lan thanks to you mate

    Reply ↓
  18. JW

    The game starts without messages now. The sound (music) works fine without chopping, but the screen stays black.
    So still unplayable.
    I put the lines in the appropriate INI-files (using 1024×768 for the resolution, no 1920×1080), set the compatibility settings and even ran the patcher.
    I am using an Pipo W2f tablet with an Intel Atom 3735F with on chip GPU. What to do next?

    Reply ↓
  19. Conor

    Good job I googled this the first time it happened. To the person who said they spent hours looking for the fix I really do not know how it took hours to find this lol google “red alert 2 keeps freezing windows 8” and it took me here !! this works a charm thank you!

    Reply ↓
  21. OO

    First of all, great post and thank you. I initially had some trouble with this fix because once I got it running my buildings kept exploding (Red Alert 2, NOT yuris revenge). I would just like to add one small piece of advice, all the changes that Adam Mallul made, must be made to both .exe files (i.e. RA2.exe and game.exe). After I did that, the game seems to be working flawlessly (or as good as RA usually works 😉 ). Hope that helps!

    OO

    Reply ↓
  22. Jhon

    Downloaded Yuri from Origin. I can change the resolution for base game but I can’t can’t change it for Yuri. Changed resolution in both INI files. Any idea?

    Reply ↓
  26. Joe

    Your a genius bro! Spend two days trying to fix that damn freezing and stumbled apon your solution which worked worked flawlessly! THANK YOU! =) Have sent links to many others in need of this solution.

    Reply ↓
  27. Archie

    Thank you for this! I have a long break from work so I have a lot of time to play old games on my laptop. Now, I’m really enjoying playing Yuri’s Revenge hassle free. Thanks again my friend!

    Reply ↓
  31. trevor

    Mine works until the I click install, then something comes up to make changes to the computer and then I click yes and nothing happens. Do you know what this issue is?

    Reply ↓
  33. kat

    i have downloaded 3 different red alert`s.none of the files are labeled “.ini” and my laptop is not giving me the option to open the game icon with any text editor.any sugestions would be greatly appreciated.

    Reply ↓

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