Posted to save some folk heartache and wasted time. Seemed like valuable information to me .
"More importantly, XP mode isolates the graphics drivers completely and doesn't allow 3D rendering at all. It is, in other words, completely unsuitable to improving games compatibility.
So, we didn't use it at all, and even if it were suitable for the task, it wouldn't be helpful information to all readers as it's not included in Home Premium anyway. Instead, when we talk about running in XP compatibility mode we're referring to the compatibility mode made accessible through troubleshooting an application; by right-clicking on it. This method, which also existed in Windows XP and Windows Vista, works on all hardware and does allow 3D rendering, but doesn't necessarily work for all applications.
Below you can see our first batch of results, which we've broken down over a few pages to make them easier to sort through. The games are listed alphabetically (A-Z) and further discussion of notable errors are available at the bottom of the page. It's also worth noting that the version of Windows 7 we are using is a 64-bit edition, which also creates some of its own errors with older games, but we feel 64-bit is what most people will be upgrading to."
"That's not to say that the XP Compatibility mode is useless though as
Call of Duty 2 can only be successfully installed and run with this setting. Without it it's impossible to install
Call of Duty 2 without getting a string of errors which claim useful thinks like
Read error 000 and
Lib not registered. It's worth clarifying that the game needs to run in Windows XP compatibility mode specifically too we tried it in Windows 98 mode and got no joy. ""