Just a heads up regarding the Windows Insider program. Since I joined it, I have experienced a lot of issues with older games. Ok, it's just one issue: they make Windows crash right after launching them and I get this screen in either green or blue:
and the games then disappear from the "installed games" list in Steam (even though they're still installed).
I found some stuff when googling this issue which doesn't make me feel optimistic:
Windows 10 bug alert: The upcoming "stable" April 2019 Update will cause BSODs in some PC games. That GSOD bug hasn't been completely fixed, and Microsoft has confirmed it won't be.
www.howtogeek.com
Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18941 (20H1) to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. IMPORTANT: As is normal with builds early in the development cycle, these builds may contain bugs that might be painful for some. If you take this flight, you won’t...
blogs.windows.com
My take-away here is that MS won't look into fixing any of these issues and expects developers to release patches for their games. Which is quite unlikely in case of older games. Games which made Windows crash (all Steam versions and up-to-date):
- Risen
- Rakuen
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
- KotoR 2
I was able to play Risen after I used the recovery option to go back to a previous Windows 10 build. But that's not an option anymore since too much time has passed since I installed the Insider build.
The only thing that seems a bit off is that the articles I linked talk about anti-cheat software while the games I tested are all single-player games. Not sure what's up with that. But the common denominator seems to be the Insider build.
Any other ideas on what I might try would be appreciated. I could reinstall an older build manually but I want to avoid that if possible.