I heard by setting the game settings to run like Windows XP helps for some games. How would I go about doing this? Does this settings change apply for everything else, or just the game?
You don't really need VM (virtual machine) to run the game (that's a bit overkill)
You can try running the game in Windows XP compatibility mode using the following method:
- open windows explorer (either pinned to the taskbar or start/all programs/accessories/windows explorer)
- navigate to the location where you have SimCity installed, open the directory
- right-click the SimCity executable
- select properties
- select "compatibility" tab
- check the box "Run this program in compatibility mode for: "
- select Windows XP SP3 (or SP2) from the drop-down list
- on the same tab further down, check box (select option) "disable visual themes" (this disables aero which may conflict with certain software and/or games)
- on the same tab at the bottom, check the box "Run this program as an administrator"
- hit "Apply" & run the game
This method will allow you to execute the program (SimCity) in Windows XP compatibility mode.
By applying these settings to the SimCity executable, only that program will run in XP compatibility mode and the rest of your installed programs, indeed Windows 7 itself, will remain unaffected by the change.
Keep in mind there are no guarantees that the game will perform like it should though. Like I mentioned, I've tried this and numerous other methods to run the game but so far not much luck getting to run stable. Rather strange.
Hope this helps.