title: Allegro 4.2.4 in palette mode on Windows7 corruption
body: <p>I have problem with Allegro 4.2.4 running palette mode (256 colors) in Windows 7. I found over Internet solution of killing explorer and it's working indeed, however it would be ridiculous to expect that end user will kill explorer when trying to play game.</p>
  
  <p>Then I found solution to replace DDraw.dll with hacked version, but it doesn't work either - DDHack just results in no screen being shown at all after application launch.</p>
  
  <p>Then I found solution of adding registry hack:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  ;This file has been created with DirectDraw Compatibility Tool (http://crappybitter.livejournal.com/tag/ddc_tool)
  
  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\MyApp]
  "Name"="MyApp.exe"
  "ID"=dword:4E7B8A88
  "Flags"=hex:00,08,00,00
  
  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\MyApp]
  "Name"="MyApp.exe"
  "ID"=dword:4E7B8A88
  "Flags"=hex:00,08,00,00
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But sadly it won't work either, the palette keeps flickering with all rainbow colors.</p>
  
  <p>Do I have any other solution other than porting entire application to different programming lib? Is it possible to fix DDraw problem on Vista/W7 without touching palettes? If not, what library will give me palette programming (I am doing game that requires palettes) without such problems on Vista/W7?</p>
  
  <p>I know of one more solution - I can compile Allegro 4.2.4 application as DOS application and run in DosBox. Sadly, but that's all I can think of now...</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance for other solutions!</p>