This is a game created for Windows 95/98. How do I run it in Windows Vista?

can you emulate windows xp on your windows 7
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/10911/run-xp-mode-on-windows-7-machines-without-hardware-virtualization/

windows vista must not be supporting your game . try this game on windows xp

Well, try this, we call this "compatibility" mode, most programs can be run on windows 7 with this trick.
I assume your Cossacks II Napoleonic Wars icon is on the Desktop,
Right-click the Icon (game's icon), select "Properties" and click "Compatibility" tab, select "Run this program in compatibility mode for" click the "Windows 95..." and select "Windows Xp (Service pack 2)", click "Apply" > "Ok" and try again.

If even after doing this, the game can't be played, then there's no option. The fact is that, this game is made to run on system with Windows xp and earlier version, but somehow if fortunate, it's possible, not will all software, some may work, some may not.

Good luck.

Thanks for using FixYa.

If you are running Vista, before you consider downgrading to XP, find your privateer.exe file and right click it. Once the page is displayed, left click on compatibility. Then check the Run this program in compatability with... Click the button below and scroll until you find XP. Click it and then click Apply to save it. Then click ok. That should enable you to run the game on Vista. If it doesn't something is wrong with your operating system, not the computer.

That is your problem. If the game is not compatible with Windows Vista, It won't play it, or play it normally. What I mean is that the game is pretty old (in date created), and the software used to create it was not meant for Vista. Because Vista came afterwards (I think). And Vista has to downgrade while running the game. But it could only downgrade so much. And when it downgrades, it's actually working harder to play the game than having a whole bunch of stuff open at the same time. Vista playes it, but only for a while, because it's not going to downgrade any more.

Hope this helps.

P.S. If you want to play the game, I recomend you get a computer with XP.

why didnt you told me all these things before and by clicking thanks for trying you dropped my rating level. anyway lets solve your problem.
you said that game is 95,98,me or 2000.

1. right click on the game launcher and then go to properties
2. in the compatibility bar
   
3. click on run this game in compatibilty mode for:
4. try all except windows nt

if still it doesnt worked then the game cannot be started

To check the joystick isn't the problem, go into control panel game controls, then check that the joystick appears and you can move the cross-hair around on screen, most modern joysticks are
auto-calibrating, but you could try running the calibration.

To check the game isn't a problem, unplug the joystick, then use the arrow keys to fly the plane, if it doesn't crash when you bank then it isn't the game.

I assume the game is Combat Flight Simulator 3, as very old games that were written for Windows 95,98,ME series often won't run on Windows NT,2000,XP,Vista as they are completely different versions of Windows. If this is actually Flight Simulator 3, you may need to consider buying a later version of Flight Simulator (FSX is the latest version, but may not run on your laptop).

Other things to try are updating the graphics card driver.

Norton shouldn't need deactivating, although it could cause problems if you're playing online.

Also remember that laptop graphics cards are never as powerful as desktop graphics, and games very rarely specifically support laptop graphics.

Hope this helps.

It would take a week to list the differences. It's kind of like, the difference between your left shoe and your right glove.

What Brand is it and what Windows are you running 95,98,ME, 2000, XP or Vista? I work on the IBM ThinkPad Brands and all you would need to do is download a Driver other brands maybe the same way if they still support that model.

The problem may be that you have too much space (sounds dumb I know) Windows 95/98 originally did not support drives as big as we have now, resize your drive down to less than 2GB and retry the install, or create a partition for the Game that si smaller. If you are running XP/Vista, you may be able to resize with disk Management, otherwise there is third party software like Partition Magic...

I hope this helped.