Yeah, that's a good point.

Also, I don't automatically download anything. Especially since most of the recent updates are for cloud saving functionality, which I absolutely do not need nor want, but mainly because I have downloaded most of my purchases already and they work (either because the did or I have patched them: whatever) and so my precious download cap can be kept for the remainder of my purchases not yet actualized.

Thanks for this. I purposely bought my current machine last year in order to continue using Win7 as long as possible, as there are still a bunch of known compatibility issues between some of my favorite older games and Win10.

Thank you very much for pointing to this.
I was also having this exact issues with certain games. And GOG's technical staff couldn't fix the issues.

Now, thanks to this tip those games run fine. Thanks, again. :)

Good point, still GOG supports Windows XP for older games. Why would they drop support for Windows 7 games next year in this case?

Foreign-shaming? *grins*

I don't get how this is a GOG-specific problem?
Try running a Steam copy of Gothic. I assure you it will be the same problem.

Komisch wie die Zeiten sich geaendert haben. Ich weiss noch wie meine Freunde und ich schon als 10 Jaehrige games gefixed haben die nicht sofort funktionierten. Ja, manchmal wurden wir ziemlich wuetend, aber... Komm schon, es dauert echt nicht lang mal kurz was zu googlen. Ich mein, es ist okay wenn das zu viel fuer dich ist, nur ich glaub dann echt du brauchst eher eine Spiel Konsole.

Mit dem mindset glaub ich wird es schwerer fuer dich sein Gothic durchzuspielen als es zum laufen zu kriegen :D

vicarious embarrassment
second-hand embarrassment

ROFL, I like this one!

Are you saying this same issue will raise its head for Win10 users as well? I presumed the reason why Windows 10 is not affected by this (closing of those servers) is because there is no such service at all in Windows 10; no registry setting to fix etc.

I don't consider it a high priority fix because it apparently affects only Windows 7 which is is about to be phased out, can be quite easily fixed, and IIRC it won't show on Windows 7 either in case there is no internet connection. I will probably keep Windows 7 on this PC after January, but I will disable internet connection for security reasons. I have Linux Mint on the same PC in case I need to go online with this PC; and of course I have also another PC (laptop) with Windows 10 anyway. So basically this will become yet another retro-gaming Windows PC for me, same as my older Windows XP machines which are also totally offline now.

I am unsure though if Windows 7 will become inoperative at some point, due to expiring Windows license or something? Like that it starts reporting being "not validated" a year or two from now, and then stop functioning altogether at some point?

Yeah, it is an interesting question whether they should list a game supporting Windows 7 if it has this issue. Two workarounds:

1. They release a .reg file with the affected games that one must run if one wishes to run the game on Windows 7.

2. They state on the gamecards that on Windows 7 the game is functional only if the PC is totally offline. IIRC this problem will not appear (without the aforementioned fix) if the Windows 7 system has its internet connection disabled? I haven't tested that though.

AFAIK, Windows 7 has no phone home DRM requirement....

I just recall sometime reading in this forum that there would be some kind of time trigger for the license or something similar, some license becoming inoperative at some point... but maybe I remember wrong.

I guess for a fresh installation in the future, one would have to use some kind of cracked Windows 7 if the validation servers are offline, but then I think Windows XP was similar already?

But you do need to activate it.

Seeing as you need to activate XP and Vista and both still work I think you will be fine for the foreseeable future. Its only when things dramatically change that they might close the activation servers, but by then hopefully they will have released an update that removes the need to activate.

Edit:

XP and Vista can still be activated. XP's update servers were just disabled so you cannot get Windows Updates on XP anymore at all though Windows or Microsoft Update.

I don't know for sure, but the reason GOG should fix the problem is because it's partly GOG's decision to unnecessarily link GOG games to GameUX in the first place. A search in my root game folder for GameuxInstallHelper.dll comes up with literally dozens of hits that also appear to link to included goggame.dll. The same games owned on retail disc (eg, Deus Ex GOTY) are missing these and appear to have fewer problems, eg, when a game starts instantly instead of a 1-2 second delay that's indicative that it isn't calling any Game Explorer server because it wasn't registered in the GameUX registry keys GOG-style.

Now even if GOG can't / don't want to replace the service location URL with 127.0.0.1 (as mentioned in that fix), new GOG installers can at least not add a load of GOG games to the now defunct HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameUX\Games key that could potentially avoid triggering the whole issue in the first place, cut down on support calls, reduce refund requests, angry forum posts, etc, all of which are in GOG's interest. And if W10 doesn't use GameUX, then that's all the more reason to remove GameUX registry entries anyway given they are dead and useless on all OS's and just cause more registry clutter for everyone.

This problem is only "easily fixed" for those actually aware of the fix, ie, the small percentage of GOG users who hang round the forums. Most people don't know about this thread, they see the new game they just bought doesn't work, blame GOG and ask for a refund. Even though it was caused by Microsoft, GOG really need to step up and be a little more pro-active to avoid giving new users bad "first sale" impressions to avoid losing the next 99x sales to same person.

Comments like : "I was also having this exact issues with certain games. And GOG's technical staff couldn't fix the issues. Now, thanks to this tip those games run fine" are basically an admission that nothing at all is done. GOG could at least create a .reg workaround that's included with the game with a note saying "If you have issues on older OS's, try this". As for W7, whether Microsoft / GOG likes it or not, W7 is here to stay for quite a while in terms of user-base regardless of End of Life support date next year (for the same reason users carried on using XP past April 14th 2009).

I don't think W7 has kill-switch issues. It was after all the last version of Windows where the consumer versions could be permanently activated offline (pre-activated BIOS SLIC's for OEM PC's). And there are "ways around that" if it ever came to that.

I agree, I was obviously simply venting. While your edits were highly amusing to me, please still free to delete this thread.

While I realize now that the root of the problem really lies with Microsoft rather than GOG, I'm still glad to have been able to at least shine some light on what seems to be a systemic issue with GOG insisting on still using GamesUX for older games and hope that a solution to this issue can be found.

At the very least I would suggest sticky-ing this highly helpful thread that resolved my issue, which is sure to affect many other users:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/old_games_not_launching_and_eating_100_of_the_cpu_on_windows_7/page1