Age of Mythology Not Starting In Windows 10 Issue

Age of Mythology is a popular real time strategy game that was first released in 2002. Back then Windows XP was the most popular operating system and is the most compatible operating system of the game. Players who still love this game today are experiencing issues with it on their Windows 10 computer. We will be helping you with this as we tackle the Age of Mythology not starting in windows 10 issue.

Fix Age of Mythology won’t start in Windows 10

Before performing any of the recommended troubleshooting steps listed below it’s best to restart your computer first. This action refreshes the operating system and removes any corrupt temporary data that could be causing the problem.

Run the game in compatibility mode

Since this game is designed to run on Windows XP / Windows 2000 then you should try running it first in compatibility mode.

Right-click on the Age of Mythology shortcut and open Properties.
Choose the Compatibility tab.
Check the “Run this program in compatibility mode for” box and select Windows XP SP2 from the drop-down menu.
Now, check the “Run this program as an administrator” box and confirm changes
Run the game.

Check if AoM won’t start in Windows 10 issue still occurs.

Make sure your computer have the latest graphics drivers installed

It’s best to make sure that your computer is using the latest graphics drivers as this minimizes the possibility of compatibility issues when running games.

If you have an NVIDIA graphics card then follow the steps listed below.

Press Win+R (Windows logo key and R key) at the same time to invoke the Run box.
Type msconfig and click OK. Then the System Configurations will open.
When System Configuration opens, click the Boot tab. Under Boot options, check Safe boot then click OK.
When you’re prompted to restart your computer to apply these changes, click Restart then you will boot into Safe Mode.
Go to your local hard disk by clicking on This PC then Local Disk C. You should be able to see the NVIDIA folder right there. Right-click on it and choose Delete.
Click Start and type Run. Select Run, the Run dialog box will appear.
Type “devmgmt.msc” in the run box and click the OK button which should open the Device Manager Window.
Expand the “Display Adapters” field. This will list all network adapters that the machine has installed. Right click on the Nvidia adapter you want to uninstall and select “Uninstall”.
Click “OK” when prompted to uninstall the device. This will remove the adapter from the list and uninstall the driver.
Press Win+R (Windows logo key and R key) at the same time to invoke the Run box.
Type msconfig and click OK. Then the System Configurations will open.
When System Configuration opens, click the Boot tab. Under Boot options, uncheck Safe boot then click OK.
When you’re prompted to restart your computer to apply these changes, click Restart.
Download the latest NVIDIA driver for your computer from here https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx.
Run the setup file and follow the instructions which appear on screen. Choose the Custom installation option and check all the boxes in the custom install options windows. Also check the box which states “perform clean install”.
Restart your computer

If you have an AMD graphics card then follow the steps listed below.

Download the AMD Cleanup Utility from here https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601.
Locate the file where it was saved and double-click on the “AMDCleanupUtility.exe’ file.
A dialogue box should appear stating AMD Cleanup Utility has detected the system is not in safe mode and provide an option to reboot the system to run the Utility in safe mode:
Click “Yes” the system will be rebooted and AMD Cleanup Utility will run in safe mode.
The next dialogue box provides a warning message stating that the AMD Cleanup Utility will remove all AMD driver and application components.
Click “OK” to continue
After clicking “OK” the Utility will be minimized to the notification area (system tray) and the progress will be displayed as a tool tip.
The cleanup process will continue to run in the background. To check the progress, hover the mouse over the AMD icon in the notification area.
Once the cleanup process is finished, a message is displayed stating it has successfully completed. Click “View Report” to see the list of components that were uninstalled, otherwise click “Finish” to exit the Utility.
Reboot your computer.

Once the drivers have been uninstalled it’s time to install the latest driver update. You can do this with the help of the AMD Driver Auto-detect tool which you can download from https://www.amd.com/en/support.

Visit the AMD Driver and Support page and see section Auto-Detect and Install Radeon Graphics Drivers for Windows.
Click the DOWNLOAD NOW button to begin downloading the executable file for the tool.
Once download is complete, run the File to launch the Installer.
Click Install to extract the needed files.
After file extraction is complete the tool should automatically launch.
Review the End User License Agreement and information about the User Experience Improvement Program.
Click Accept and Install to continue or close the window to exit the AMD Driver Auto-detect tool.
After clicking Accept and Install, the tool will attempt to detect the installed AMD graphics product and operating system.
Upon successful detection of your system configuration, the tool will display the latest Recommended and Optional driver packages that are compatible with your graphics product, as well as the currently installed driver version
Select the desired version and choose Express installation.
After the driver package has been downloaded, installation should begin automatically.

If you have an integrated graphics (Intel)

Press the Windows Logo key + R to launch a Run
Type devmgmt.msc into the Run dialog and press Enter to launch the Device Manager.
In the Device Manager, expand the Display adapters
Right-click on your graphics drivers, click on Uninstall and then go through the uninstallation wizard to uninstall the drivers.
Restart your computer. Once your computer boots up, it should automatically reinstall the same version of the graphics drivers.

Check if the Age of Mythology doesn’t start in Windows 10 issue still occurs.

Enable DirectPlay

Older games will require certain features that are currently disabled in Windows 10. One such feature that is required by AoM is DirectPlay. Make sure that this is enabled in your computer.

In the Windows Search bar, type “Turn Windows” and open “Turn Windows features on or off” from the list of results.
Navigate down and expand Legacy Components.
Check the “DirectPlay” box and confirm changes.
Restart your computer.

Check if the Age of Mythology not starting issue still occurs.

Use a lower resolution

Sometimes this problem can occur because the default resolution of your computer is set to a high value which the game can’t support.

Right-click on the Age of Mythology desktop shortcut and open Properties.
Under the Shortcut tab, look for the Target line.
Copy-paste the following line at the end of the current entry: xres=640 yres=480
Save changes and Start the game.