Hiow to Play 'Age Of Kings' (AoE II) under Windows 7 ?

[Dumb_Question]

After trying out several things I got Age Of Empires II (Age Of Kings) to install on one of my Windows 7 Systems (Windows 7 Professional, HP Pavillion dm4-1164tx laptop, core i5-450M, 8GB RAM, built-in Intel graphics [HD 2500 ?]).

I could get it to run initially by setting compatibility mode to XP3. No other boxes checked on that tab (I have found that so far, checking res box 640x480 or disable themes box makes any difference).

With compatibility mode set to XP3, the game opens as far as single player>random map setup screen but when I start playing, some screen menus are not completed (those at the bottom of the screen; those at the top are ok). The colours do not seem to affected (except once, on the "play" screen menus). I can also see the "minimap" (at the bottom R of the screen). This shows me why the main screen is blacked out - it simply showing the unexplored area where the minimap cursor is - this cursor inexorably drifts to top of the minimap (the minimap is in the shape of diamond with points at N, E, S, and W: the cursor drifts to the north point.) [I'd post a screen shot of the "play" screen if I could]
There (anywhere in fact) the mouse is unable to move the cursor on the main screen: rather the cursor can be controlled as expected, but it does not move around the map). Clicking on the next villager near the minimap momentarily returns the cursors (the on-screen and minimap) to my village but it instantly starts drifting away ending up at the north point.

So the issue is now why is the "play" screen not working ? why does the cursor drift away from wehere it is placed ? why aren't the bottom menus/information screens complete ? How do I fix it ?

Dumb_Question
5.September.2019

[BC_Programmer]

it's related to certain background software, though there isn't a definitive list, motherboard software and "monitor" software usually does it.

There is an community patch which claims to fix the problem. It might only work with the Conquerors expansion, though.

There are no menus at the bottom of the screen unless a Unit or Building is selected so I'm not sure what you are referring to.

[Dumb_Question]

Thank you for your helpful reply, BC Programmer.

I have seen this patch and applied it to get the Conquerors to work under Windows 10 IIRC.

When you say 'background software'  could that be that I have I quite of a lot of programs open just at present, browsers with many tabs mostly, Opera, Firefox and IE11 ?
I did think that maybe I should restart my computer.
Or were you referring to 'background software' as what I would call system software ?  I am using an external monitor and wireless keyboard.  My monitor consistently gives me the message about optimal res. being 1080 x 1920 but then my laptop default is 1366 x 768

If you could tell me how do a screenshot I'm sure it would help everyone see what was going on.  I've tried PrtScrn>Exit Game>paste into paint and it gives me a black area in paint

Dumb_Question
5.September.2019

[BC_Programmer]

You can use F12 in the game to capture a screenshot. I'm not sure specifically where it saves- I'd guess it saves in a folder within the current users Documents folder, though it might be part of the AOE2 install.

by background software I mean software that sits in the background. A lot of people like to run temperature monitoring utilities for example. Audio devices and video cards driver software will often install their own sets of software that runs in the background for "Control panels" or whatever.

the Microsoft "Zune" software is one example, which I didn't mention because it's doubtful anybody nowadays uses it. the background "Mouse" utilities like Logitech SetPoint and Microsoft Intellipoint can cause this too.

[Dumb_Question]

What a strange thing coincidence is.
I run CoreTemp because in the past my computer's CPU used to get very hot cf it's max, and this caused it to stop, and I wondered why.
Also, for unknown reasons "Zune" is installed and the launcher is running as a process.  (I inherited this computer)
Nothing I can do about the m/b or graphics software.
Once again thank you for your help.

Dumb_Question
5.September.2019

[2x3i5x]

https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/81tfxe/running_original_age_of_empires_2_on_windows_7/ --> in case it helps

[Dumb_Question]

->2i3i5x
I figured out where the refit posts had gone - I'm not signed up to reddit so most references appear blacked out and I have search manually for them.  As to using VMs, I tried it once, to play SimCity but it was just awkward although it worked.

But I HAVE A NEW PROBLEM (related).  I thought I'd try running AoK in W7 Safe mode, but as I wasn't prepared to take down this computer I installed Age of Kings on a similar one (again, an HP Pavilion dm4 8GB RAM and core i5-450M but with a different ver of W7 and probably differently set up.).  Installation was OK except with one disc that these machines have problems with (always, at some point in installation it says "...write error...check your HD is not full or that the file is not in use" neither of which can possibly be the case).  But I couldn't get the game to start at all.  Even using the batch file to turn off explorer.exe (see the reddit post on this - https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe2/comments/81tfxe/running_original_age_of_empires_2_on_windows_7/).  The batch file file runs, but the game still doesn't open.  No compatibility options work.  Even running in safe mode the game doesn't work.  Not a hint on this machine (I think it's a dm4-1100sa ?).  There must be something I have forgotten to set up - can anyone spot it ?

Dumb_Question
7.September.2019