Wouldn't it be enough that Safedisc is not used in any new games anymore, not that the old games should be retroactively made non-working?

It wasn't considered "DRM" back when Age of Empires 2 or those other games were released, it was just generic copy protection, There was no mention about the form of copy protection anywhere on the game box, nor agreement to sign about Safedisc. So I think it is a bit silly from you to say "people should have understood this blaa blaa blaa,,,".

Do you say the same to people who bought Flatout from GOG.com? Apparently it doesn't work either for this same reason.

I personally don't feel the main issue is that it doesn't work in some new Windows version, like Windows 10. But it is quite another thing that Microsoft disables this retroactively also on older Windows versions, breaking backwards compatibility ever since Vista.

Yeah yeah, security and all... but Microsoft itself also used SafeDisc in many of its retail games. Is Microsoft now saying they were intentionally injecting malware to people's PCs with their games?

Anyway, LUCKILY there is that workaround for pre-Windows 10 versions. So this is more of a nuisance to me than getting all riled up. And one more reason to postpone upgrading to Windows 10.

Are you sure that works? After all, this seems to affect also the GOG version of e.g. Flatout (maybe even some other games?), which I presume is cracked already as it doesn't need a CD in the drive.

Then again, I am unsure if this really affects all SafeDisc games, or whether it depends on the SafeDisc version or something. For instance, Carmageddon 2 retail version apparently also used SafeDisc, and the GOG version is at least now supposed to work on Windows 10. Incidentally, Carmageddon 2 GOG had some issues before with Windows 10, the installation wouldn't finish completely. I got an impression somewhere though that this was some issue with and old innosetup installer that had issues with Windows 10, not necessarily the (inert) copy protection.

Yes, but that means going through some dodgy sites to get the cracks, and your more likely than not to end up with some system damaging file that way. Your also in breach of license there.

So what would be the answer then. Are the publishers going to give us new versions of games we have purchased in the past without the DRM? I don't think so. So I am left with a collection of which half of it can't be used. I do not support DRM, hence no Steam/Origin and such like, however there are always things that catch you out. Take GTA4 for instance, I hadn't even realized that it would have DRM on it, never crossed my mind, but it did and only recently got to play it. Perhaps I should just chuck the thousands of boxed games, DVD games etc. and hope they appear on GOG at some point?

That, and quite often it is a pain in the ass, or even impossible, to find the right crack for your version, or language variant, of the game. Quite often the noCD cracks offered of dodgy pr0n sites are for version 1.0.

Allow me a big LOL.
Thank God for Gog XD

Hence why this practice is especially malicious and falls under definitino of "scam". Especially malicious because some of that DRM was physically damagging hardware (most notably CD Drives), tainting registry (causing to reinstall system short time after), replacing vital dlls and doing other sabotage activity. Stealth injection of malware doesn't become more righteous jsut because it is stealthy. It makes it more malicious. And if you read any gaming magazines/internet at that time, you saw vraious reports on this malware, and various cracks, and virtual cd drives becoming very popular.
This is just another example of why DRM is bad. I am not familiar with Flatout case, but I assume it had to do with malware being injected too deep in the code.
So they broke support for this malware stuff? Sooner or later it had to happen. You should be thankful that it happened like this, unlucky explosion of disc in CD drive can cause sudden death for motherboard and everything on it. You really feel like playing with this malware being active in background and doing stuff it shouldn't do?

i don't have flatout, but the fact that you have to start the safedisc service by hand to get it started makes me think it is not properly cracked?
If the copy protection is properly removed i don't see why it shouldn't work. I never had problems.
Though i don't know in detail what MS has changed. It very well might affect games regardless of the copy protection.

I don't boot windows very often these days, as most of the games work under linux (where you need the no-crack as well usually). So maybe I just don't notice some of the issues under windows.

Frankly, you are making less and less sense with each message. "Éxplosion of disc in CD drive", what the heck are you talking about? :D In such a case it would probably just mean a broken DVD drive (which you can replace even on laptops), not a broken motherboard. Then again I've never experienced a CD or DVD explosion in the drive for some reason.

If I was afraid of what a retail game Safedisc does in the background, then I wouldn't simply install and use that game. As simple as that.

Awyway, as said, there is apparently the workaround, so that alleviates the problem a lot. Too bad for the poor Windows 10 users though.

The only thing I agree with you is that DRM and copy protection are bad practices from the user's point of view, and I prefer getting my games without. Too bad apparently even a GOG game was affected by this case.

Safedisks, Secoroms, StarForces, they all tended to do nasty things. I personally had CD explosion from StarForce, and tainted hard-drive from some DRM rootkit. Perhaps when something similarly bad will happen with your PC, you will understand why all this DRM is so much hated. I gave up on gaming industry entirely because of all that DRM -madness until I found out about GOG.

And exactly as you said, buyer isn't made aware what kind of crap he gets with game disc. He takes quite a risk with buying game. And many people got fed-up with this legalized malware.

It is especially sad when people start defending DRM. NO. Let's celebrate the death of SafeDisk. It won't be missed.

The GOG version of Flatout really doesn't work anymore since this update. It always asks for admin rights, even if you start it as admin. I've contacted support about it. Let's see what solution they come up with (I hope it won't be "manually start the Safedisc service every time you want to play Flatout").

Thanks. I think it's good I posted, might be easier to see.

Anyway, isn't the point of buying a game on GOG that it won't suddenly break because of something like this?

There is a GOG game that is affected by this as well and maybe more will be reported later once they are found out.

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/help_suddenly_cant_play_games_due_to_adminstrator/post2

no, you buy here because you know that GOG will work to try and fix the problem. Like they already did with a few other games that broke on windows 10.
There is always the chance that software will suddenly break because of an update. It's unavoidable.

Because of what? Windows disables some Windows service that the GOG executable depended on? Microsoft might just as well remove the ability of running DirectX 9.0 or OpenGL games on Windows, and then lots of GOG games would cease to work as well.

Anyway, for non-Windows 10 users, I consider this mostly a non issue now. Flatout wouldn't work at all for me, but using these instructions made it work fine.

So I guess I will just make a bat file that enables the service before it runs Flatout, and on exit it will disable the service again. I guess GOG could make a similar change to their Flatout launcher to make it work on Windows Vista/7/8.1. No idea how big a security risk it is that that service is temporarily enabled, just as long as you play the game.

As for Windows 10 users... I guess GOG needs to find a way to get completely rid of the inert copy protection to make it work in Windows 10. Maybe it is doable, considering there does seem to be other Safedisc games on GOG that apparently work on Windows 10.

Hopefully GOG will fix all of this, since apparently the workaround puts you at risk and (of course) isn't available for Windows 10 users.