Windows 10: InitDirectDraw Error when launching games

Hi, I'm not sure this is the right place to post, but I'm hoping someone can help me.I have a series of Nancy Drew PC games that I was able to play on a previous device that ran Windows 10 I think. I'm trying to play them now but the older games from the early-late 2000s won't run. I've purchased some games on steam and some on bigfishgames. They install fine, but when I attempt to launch them I get an error message "InitDirectDraw - We're sorry - your system cannot play the correct display mode for this game. Game shutting down".

:)

 

Launching games

Hi Wesley,

Windows 10 is gamer-friendly by design. If an issue like being unable to launch a game happens, it can be caused by outdated display driver or other factors that cause conflict when launching the app. For us to better assist you, we'd like to ask for additional
information. Please answer the following:

• What build and version of Windows 10 are you using?
• Are you getting an error message when launching the game?
• Have you made any changes to the settings or installed updates prior to this issue?
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?
• What specific games are you having issues with?

We will wait for your response.

 

Trying to launch game, receiving error code: 0xc000007b

Hi,

There are a lot of possible reasons why you are getting this error code: 0xc000007b when launching a game. One of which is having a corrupted game file. To help you resolve this concern, we need to collect more information. Kindly answer the questions below:

• Are you experiencing the issue with your other games?
• Have you made any changes on your computer prior to this concern?
• What are the troubleshooting steps you have done so far?
• Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the affected game?

Meanwhile, we suggest that you run the troubleshooter for Windows apps. This can help remove problems with an app from Microsoft Store. To do this, kindly refer to the link below:

Click here

 

Games won't launch and run in background.

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community, we appreciate your interest in Windows 10.

Please do let us know with the following information for better assistance:

• What exactly do you mean by games does not run in the background?
• Which are the games you are trying to launch?
• Were you able to see any error code/ error notification while trying to launch the game?
• Have you tried any troubleshooting steps?

I would like to inform that the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable x86,
usually occupy 1 GB of the storage space.

I suggest you to run disk cleanup to free the memory: Free up drive space in Windows 10
and check.

Hope it helps. Reply to the post with an updated status of this issue and required information, we will be happy to assist you further.