hi what do you mean "play off the desk top?" do you mean play single player off of voobly?
have you tried these settings: [You must login to view link]

I meant when i click the age of conqourors icon on the desktop, it opens the game, plays the opening cinematics then goes to the game menu where you select conqouror campaigns, aok campaigns, custom game, multiplayer, options etc. When I play the game this way, the glitch still happens, but say I host a game in voobly against an ai, and quit the game, it works like its supposed to. I mean play single player off of voobly yes

Yes, those are the settings I have, on voobly at least, dont know if they carry off into the other way, that is playing off the desktop as I say above, cause I downloaded a simple graphic mod on voobly and that doesnt apply to the desktop version, so maybe the settings also arent?

hi
ok think im with you.
when you play from the icon,before the game loads, you should get a box pop up with various patches of the game. select the latest patch, UPv1.5 Beta R7. then the game loads. to use a mod off of voobly you can see if this works: [You must login to view link]
enter a lobby, open a game room. from the tabs at the top, select, single player. the mods you have installed should now work as you play against the A1.
to stop the cinematics loading follow this as to how to alter the properties of the desk top icon:
[You must login to view link]
try campaigns in single player. see if works ok on voobly.

I dont get any pop up when I open the game. It just starts

I dont have the steam version or hd version, i have the disks, as in i bought the game at a salvation army store for $5

hi
enter a game lobby and get UP version beta7 auto installed or install from this link and then see:
https://www.voobly.com/gamemods/mod/631/v15-Beta-R7

Ok installed it, but when I go to host a game so I can set the options, it has 1.4 RC instead of v1.5 Beta 6 Build 5525. And under 1.4 RC it only has one option: Extended Hotkeys and I have that checked

hi
enter a lobby and open a game room. click "settings", then click "patch" and set it to UP v1.5 beta7.
[You must login to view link]

its UP v1.5 beta7. not any other version.

Ok I fixed that, I have it so it has the 1.5 instead of the 1.4 and have the extended hot keys checked, but when I click to launch the game from the desktop I still don't get a box pop up, it just goes straight to the cinematics

Hi,

Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Age of Empires II\age2_x1
Right click on age2_x1.exe (one with the blue helmet icon) and select Properties
Switch to the compatibility tab and check the box 'Run this program as an administrator'

The only blue helmet icons i have in there are: age2_x1.0c age2_x1 and AOCCONFIG

Age2_x1 is the one we are talking about.

Also delete your desktop shortcut and create a shortcut for age2_x1 file on your desktop.

It seems you are launching the 1.0c file when you run the desktop shortcut.

Ok i think im getting there. I did that and now I get the pop up box, i select the 1.5 one and I get an error message that says: Could not initialize graphics system. Make sure that your video card and driver are compatible with DirectDraw.

Alright, start the game from Voobly in Single player mode [You must login to view link]

Then set the ingame resolution to 800 x 600. launch the game and then exit the game.

Now come back to the desktop shortcut and try again.

If it works, you can now change the display resolution to the maximum supported natively by your desktop