[–] 2080876? 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
One thing that helps on many older games is to create a folder on your C: drive named Games and install them there instead of the Program Files folder. This is because many older games assume they can just do what they want inside their own folders but OS from Vista on protect anything in Program Files. But C:\Games is not protected and they can do what they want there. Try it and see if it helps with some of them. Just replace C:\Program Files\ in the path with C:\Games\
[–] SkepticalMartian 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
This is entirely correct, and it's surprising this answer is not being given the love it deserves. Post Windows XP systems do in fact have reduced privileges for program files and program files(x86). This is why modern games store save data and other things inside your user directories instead of where the game resides.
Some people opt to get around this by running the games with administrator privileges, but this is a very bad idea from a security perspective. No game should ever have to run with admin. Installing to a different location is the best way to go about it.
[–] WhyWasIHere 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I'd advise checking out PCGamingWiki, just in case. I recently got Metal Gear Solid 2 to work on Windows 8, which required some stupid workarounds I never would have thought of to try, but I've never been disappointed with their support and explanations. If that fails, though, I guess you should check another comment.
[–] Arotaes_Forgehammer 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
What's your main OS?
[–] Foul_Knave ago
any suggestions?
You can find a rig that plays XP-era games literally in a dumpster, and XP is laughably easy to crack.
I'd suggest using a third-party hypervisor, rather than Hyper-V, as there are only a few cards that are supported for direct passthrough with Hyper-V, and they're all expensive. I know that VirtualBox has some support for 3d graphics processing.
UPDATE: tried playing need for speed Porsche unleashed on an XP VM. Slightly laggy but definitely playable. http://imgur.com/PMWcgA8
[–] ChillyHellion 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
I'd give virtualization a try, since you can always fall back to dual-booting if using the VM doesn't work. It's much harder to undo a dual boot than it is to remove a virtual machine.
[–] Arkhound 3 points -3 points 0 points (+0|-3) ago
Hard to remove a virtual machine? You just delete it. It's harder to die from holding your breath than it is to remove a VM.
[–] ChillyHellion 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
Right, that's my point: