Select open in new window and it will open a new window mapped to that directory. Go to the window you saved on your file explorer, hover your mouse over your default download location for your browser of choice and right click. Please retain the game directory in your file explorer as is for now, you will need it later. Now your game is virtually playable without a CD, however you don't want to run it just yet as you will encounter visual artifacts and bugs in the textures related to the game's reliance on old graphical function calls that no longer exist. The *.exe is a drop in replacement and it will ask if you want to overwrite the file when you hit CTRL+V to Paste. Under the Target text box on the first page it displays, copy that file path, paste it into your file explorer's middle text box and press ENTER to navigate to the directory. To find this, simply find your shortcut to the game, right click and select properties.
First of all, extract the NoCD *.exe file from the archive (for your computer's safety, do a virus check on the archive before opening it.), cut it, and paste it in the Game Install Directory.
Now here comes the part you have all been waiting for, how to make the game work. Ouch! That is why this 3dfx Voodoo Wrapper is a powerful tool that not only corrects most glaring visual issues, but also allows for scaling the resolution of your game to your monitor's native resolution. Especially in Windows 8, this can get messy with mismapped textures and also many visual artifacts, rendering the game unplayable even though it boots to the title screen on some Windows 8 machines in compatibility mode. Because of this, Most games in the Harry Potter series have shader issues and textures sometimes render as solid objects because the archaic function calls that eliminated the extra junk are not there.
Also modern graphics drivers have dropped many "Legacy Support" options from that era and as such, most games of this period don't render properly with the drivers of your modern system alone. Unfortunately you have to be semi-pirates for these games and use a NoCD since Microsoft doesn't care about supporting games for older versions of it's own operating system. The native support for these checks were taken out by Windows Vista and would be added manually by this guide if there was a one stop solution for it. Windows 10 has some nasty issues with games that have disk checking DRM software such as what ships with the early Harry Potter Games.
The Elephant in the Room - An explanation of the Issues presented by Windows 10 and Modern Graphics Drivers: You can find the latest version (under "latest stable version") here: It also allows you to force the resolution of your games or at least stretch them to fit your screen.
It allows for the game to access outdated driver calls that were supported in that time period that are no longer present in modern video card drivers. dgVoodoo2: a wrapper that emulates the 3dfx Voodoo Cards of the late 90s and early 2000s. Note to admins and viewers on above NoCD requirement: I have not included a direct link to coincide with ModDB's terms of service and the related DMCA legal grey area, in this particular case, that the NoCD provides (an unsupported DRM software in Windows 10 embedded into this game and the fix that a "cracked" *.exe file of a 17 year old game provides to make the game playable on modern hardware and Operating Systems).ģ. I and ModDB will not be responsible for any damage to your computer as a result of not heeding this warning! Always make sure to run virus scans of the archive file before opening them up. Be extra cautious about NoCDs from other websites than the one suggested here as some from other websites include built in viruses or old spyware/adware or other malware that could still infect your modern machine. The NoCDs from I have checked and they do not have viruses, however please be sure to scan the archives with your antivirus/antimalware program before unpacking them to be safe.
A NoCD: It is a cracked *.exe of the game that bypasses the outdated DRM (Digital Rights Management) check that is not supported by Windows 10. A Fully Installed Retail Version of the Game: I don't condone piracy of any kind, plus the physical game on your shelf will be nostalgic for those of you who remember the good old days of putting a disk in a disk drive.Ģ. Have you ever wanted to dust off your old disc based copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and play it like you did in 2002, only to find out that Windows 10 does not let the game work? Well you're in luck because in this tutorial I will show you how to fix the game so that it will run without issues in Windows 10.ġ.