Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete under Windows 7

With great trepidation, I embarked on what I figured would be a painful journey trying to get my favorite game working under Windows 7. I thought I would be clever and install it under the “Windows XP Mode” virtual machine. It installed, but crashed when I ran it.

Next I tried to install it native directly on my 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate desktop. It installed without a hitch. When I ran the game, the opening video looked awful, took long pauses, appeared pixelated, and suffered from trash left on the screen left over from previous screens.

Once the opening video played, the game started and has run FLAWLESSLY with no patches, settings, or other complications. I am running the 3DO Version 4.0 Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete.

Woo hoo! Another 5 years of time wasted to come!

Update:

Four years have passed since I published this article and I’ve upgraded my laptop to Windows 8.1. HMM3 plays great on it.

About Kevin

Just an old guy with opinions that I like to bounce off other people.
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42 Responses to Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete under Windows 7

  1. Heather says:

    Dusted this game off and tried to install on new laptop with windows 8 and it just says failed down the list and wont finish install. Is there a patch or something that will get around this? I’m computer illiterate so use small words. Thank you for any help provided.

  2. Kevin says:

    Thanks for reporting this problem. It is now fixed.

  3. Greg says:

    Your contact page is also broken. I get the error message.

    Contact Us

    Warning: stripslashes() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in /home/…/blogordie.com/wp-content/plugins/enhanced-wordpress-contactform/wp-contactform.php on line 124

    Fatal error: Call to undefined function akismet_http_post() in /home/…/blogordie.com/wp-content/plugins/enhanced-wordpress-contactform/wp-contactform.php on line 125

    I’ll be sure to check back here though.

  4. Greg says:

    Can anyone help me please.

    I’m trying to get this game to run in Windowed Mode on Windows 8. I’ve tested all the versions of Windows in compatibility mode with 16bit color mode and still it refuses to allow me to play in Windowed Mode. I’ve even tried 16bit color mode compatibility with Windows 8.

    I’ve tried all version with 16bit color mode as Run as Administrator. I still get this problem.

    I don’t know what else to do. 🙁

  5. TheAndi says:

    I have Windows 7 on my Laptop and Desktop Computer. Not working in Multiplayer TCP/IP mode. Can anyone help me? My e-mail is: tzurbu@yahoo.com. Thanks,

  6. Kevin says:

    Pressing F4 in the game makes it run on the desktop, but the desktop has to be running in 64K color mode.

  7. Kevin says:

    It’s a funny thing, but I get crashes every time I installed Heroes 3 Complete on any system, XP, Vista, or Windows 7. After playing a few times, the crashes mostly go away.

  8. Kevin says:

    I upgraded a Windows 7 computer with HMM 3 on it to Windows 8. It’s working fine. So there’s hope.

  9. TimiBoy says:

    Trying to run Heroes 3 Complete on Windows 8. Had it running on Windows 7. AAAARRRGGGHHHH!

  10. Zach says:

    I was able to install HoMM 3 complete with no problem, but whenever i try and run it i get an error message saying “a problem has occured that made the program stop working”
    I have windows 7 home premium and have tried every compatability mode and no dice, any advice?

  11. Adam says:

    Ofir, can you provide a valid linkt for this patch / modified exe?

    I’m also suffering from ‘blank screen’ issue, but as a the link gives me ‘file does not exist’ I cannot do anything with it :/

    Waiting for your reply.

  12. Kevin says:

    It’s been a long time since I played HMM3 over the network, but I seem to recall that one of the two options IPX or TCP-IP was unreliable. Try the other.

  13. Alison says:

    Hi Brian, did you get a solution for playing HMM3 with your wife? I have spent all day trying to play it with my husband over an ethernet cable. After about five minutes of play, one of us gets kicked from the game. Any advice would be appreciated if you have found an answer to this problem.

    Thanks
    Alison.

  14. Iflon says:

    If trying to install from the DvD collection edition with 1-5 on it id recommend
    1. Open the dvd
    2. go to folder named “_setup”
    3. use the Setup.exe (Might need to run as adminstrator i didnt tho)

    Now the install should begin i hope it help

  15. JP says:

    Do you have the patch on a page in English cause all I get is a page in Hebrew?
    Thx 🙂
    JP

  16. Alex says:

    ty, after installtion the game on c drive, worked good

  17. Anonymous says:

    after installing the game go to 3DO folder and delete the EXE file, then copy the patch and run it, its worked perfectly to me on the complete version

  18. f says:

    didn’t help although i’m surprised this is a few days old. havent found any solutions for making h3 work

  19. ofir says:

    Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete WIN 7 64 bit
    I finally found a solution to run heroes 3 (HOMM3) on Windows 7 64-bit
    I have a patch to replace the exe file and run it in compatibility mode for xp sp3
    Link to download the file
    http://www.upf.co.il/file/26468580.html
    Copy the file to the folder C: \ Program Files (x86) \ 3DO \ Heroes 3 Complete
    Instead of the existing executable Play and enjoy

  20. John says:

    I had the same issue with attempting to install HOMM3 Complete from the discs on my new Alienware Aurora R3 with Windows 7 Ultimate (^4bit). So since I had installed the WOG mod to my HOMM3 Complete install on my older Windows 7 machine, I just copied the entire 3DO folder from the C drive and pasted it into the same area of the C drive for the new Windows 7 machine. I then just selected the WOG executable and was able to play HOMM3 WOG without actually installing the HOMM3 complete from the discs.

  21. Oli says:

    Would autorun or run setup but closed Firefox and it popped up straight away

  22. Ammon says:

    can anione help me ? heroes 3 is not working on my pc whit windows 7 home premion… it instaled normaly but wen I click on te icon to play it open the first image in full scream but apears a mesage of error an the game wont load (nor works).
    Do anyone now how i do to play it??????? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

  23. Mark says:

    Hi,

    Can anyone help me??
    I have downloaded Heroes M&M 3 but through the installation everything passes except the directx, so I cancelled everything and updated my directx to the latest edition.. It still shows this problem but I ignored it and it still downloaded..

    When I go to play the game my keyboard and mouse freezes up (I can’t press esc to cancel the 3do startup screen).. I let it play through and when It reaches the menu screen I still can’t move the mouse or anything..
    Does anyone know what thsi problem is and how it an be fixed!

    I am on Windows 7 Home edition.
    Thank you… HELP

    Mark

  24. Kevin says:

    Alex:
    Also, sometimes now the autorun won’t even show up! I’ve tried pretty much everything… When I try running it, when Windows asks me if the “unknown publisher” Can make changes on my computer, I say yes, and then nothing happens.

    I have found that if certain other programs are running, that HMM3 will not start. I had SOMETHING that auto-started that I had to remove (forget what it was). Try shutting down everything you can get your hands on.

  25. Zach says:

    I have windows 7 home premium and i cant get my HoMM 3 or 2 to work, can anyone help?

  26. Alex says:

    Also, sometimes now the autorun won’t even show up! I’ve tried pretty much everything… When I try running it, when Windows asks me if the “unknown publisher” Can make changes on my computer, I say yes, and then nothing happens.

  27. Alex says:

    I just got a laptop for christmas, with Windows7 Home Premium, and it has the 64-bit thingy. I bought HMMIII A while ago, like, 2005? And it has the classic problem of the buttons on the auto-run window not working. I don’t know hwo to install it on to 64-bit, and the setup.exe file in the \setup folder seems to have disappeared. Familiar simptons? Help me out, please!

  28. Andrew says:

    I just installed heroes 3 yesterday on Windows 7 64-bit. Haven’t had any problems at all. The installer comes up with a large number of absurd warning messages (e.g. “requires 32 Mb of memory to run. Your computer only has 2 Gb. Would you like to install anyway?”), but one can safely ignore them.

    (What’s with that anyway? I could understand if it was unable to tell how much memory a modern computer had, but to correctly work out and report how much memory I had, and then somehow fail to realise that 2048 > 32 is just ridiculous.)

    By the way, I don’t have the complete edition, just the base game.

  29. Evan says:

    hi there,

    The first time i played heroes i was 5 and i have played ever since. i do have a question though that hope sombedy can answer for me… my computer died and i now only have heroes three which is my fav and the best by far. If i buy the heroes 3 complete set is that all i will have to install for it to work and run properly on my new mac computer?

  30. Ohlund says:

    to A : I had the same problem with autoron and setup, neither of them works. My solution was safe mode, just run windows in safe mode and try autorun again.
    sry for my english.

  31. Steve says:

    I’m having a problem AFTER installation. I can get the program to install and run without any issue at all using Windows XP SP2 compatibility. However, when running the game, after the initial “3DO” screen/voice output, it will turn to the “New World Computing” screens and then to the title menu. In those screens there is no audio or speech at all, including any in-game screens as well. Has anyone encountered this problem? If so, how would I fix the audio?

  32. tom says:

    i also love heroesIII i have the complete version but i cant install hom&m3 on my laptop help

  33. Marc says:

    I can’t seem to get Heroes III complete working on my Windows XP desktop. When I insert disc 1 no install window pops up and when I click auto run I get the hour glass and then nothing. Any idea what’s going on? It’s my favorite game as well and I’m saddened not playing it!

  34. Brian says:

    Hey all

    My wife just got a new laptop with W7.
    I just copied the whole game folder with everything from our normal PC to her Laptop (so no real installing – just copying the files)
    And it works like a charm…almost

    We normally play multiplayer tcp/ip, with me on the normal PC and her on the Laptop.
    But she keeps getting “thrown off” all the time.

    I tried everything!
    Uninstalled antivirus. Switched off firewall. Changed channel on our wireless connection to the router. Even plugged in network cabel to the router instead of using wireless

    Nothing works – she keeps getting disconnected from the games we play…
    Anyone can help with this?

    Thanks in advance!

  35. Matt says:

    yea i am havin the same problem, i love heroes 3 n wnt to install it on my laptop but it has windows 7. my prtoblem is that i can completely install it but when i go to load it up it freezes and i have to use tha power button to turn it off… ne suggestions on how i can play it on my laptop with out it freezing when i try to start it

  36. Petra says:

    Hi,
    so far I´m trying to install this game for a few days :-(. I solved two of three problems, but still I there is a problem with DirectX. It doesn´t take the version I have, so I tried to install the version 7.0a, but still it says that I have unknown version…
    Any suggestions, please?
    thx Petra

  37. stEndEc says:

    game runs on win 7, but crashes too often

  38. Rose says:

    Kevin is absolutely correct! I loaded it yesterday and just hit yes to all of the boxes that mentioned incompatability and loaded it anyway. After the opening scenes it runs like a champ.

    Thanks Kevin!!

  39. Kevin says:

    I’m running under XP SP2 compatibility mode. After my first flawless day, there were some annoying crashes. However, they have gone away entirely. I think the fix was updated audio drivers. With Windows 7, you’re dealing with new hardware probably and new software and drivers. This is a critical time to get updates to drivers.

  40. dean says:

    all i can tell you ‘a’ is to turn off all antiirus programs running and aswell as installing as admin and running in 95 comp mode when u play the game do same.

  41. A says:

    Hi,

    I have just gotten a replacement laptop with Windows 7 on it and would like to install HMM III, however I can’t get autorun.exe to do anything, either as is (no surprise), as an administrator, or under XP compatibility mode.

    Any suggestions? I only have W7 Home Premium 32 bit.

    Thx. A

  42. dean says:

    Iv just bought a new pc with windows 7 ultimate and so glad to have found your message about the game working final after initial dodgyness. im off to waste my life away again now.

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