The following solution is the work of myself, Poxnor and Dajukka.
 
1. Install the March 2001 Compatibility Update for Windows 2000 (reboot)
Get it here
2. Download and install the Windows 2000 Compatibility Pack 1.5 (Thank you DosFreak for the suggestion!! And thanks to Wolf87 for the link!)
Get it here
3. Enable Compatibility Mode Technology:
- Go to Start -> Run...
- Type the following: regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll
(Many thanks again! See http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q279/7/92.ASP for more details)
4. Install Final Fantasy VII (reboot)
5. Run QFixApp from the ToolKit
- Use the browse button to select ff7.exe as the program to run
- Under Layers, choose Win2000
- Under Fixes, check the boxes: EmulateWriteFile, Shrinker, VirtualRegistry
- Finally, hit "Run..." and see if it works!
6. If this works then you can make it so that you don't have to use QFixApp every time you want to play FF7:
- After inputting your settings as in point 5, click "Advanced"
- Click both the checkboxes: File Size, File CheckSum
- Click "Create Fix Support," and choose Yes to install it.
- Close QFixApp (~NOT~ by clicking cancel. Use the X in the upper right hand corner.)
Now, each time you run FF7.exe, the fix will be in place.
 
IMPORTANT
Do not enable NVidia mode even if you have an NVidia card. In order to get hardware acceleration working in Windows 2000 with a GeForce card, install DirectX 8a. With older NVidia cards (such as the Riva TNT) there is currently no known way of getting hardware acceleration to work under Windows 2000.
 
Please note also that the above fix does not make FF7 work perfectly. Entering a chocobo race causes the game to exit and there is no known fix.
 
 
Anyway, hope this helps.

Nope, I can't get it to work either.
 
I've followed the instructions by Xiven and others, but the game crashes after the first battle(direct 3d-mode) or when the first battle starts(software mode).
 
I think the reason might be my Detonator drivers, which are the latest available from nvidia.com.
 
I hope you/we will work up a solution

The problem seems to be that the compatibility mode doen't always work. Generally people who have succeeded in getting ff7 to work have done so by randomly uninstalling and reinstalling the Application Compatibility Update and the Application Compatibility toolkit until it finally decides to work. Sadly I haven't been able to pin it down to any one thing that causes it to happen (I tried a clean build of Win2k on a 2nd partition, and no matter what I tried, I couldn't get FF7 to work, yet it works just fine on the other Win2k partition - never figured it out)

Quote:
The problem seems to be that the compatibility mode doen't always work. Generally people who have succeeded in getting ff7 to work have done so by randomly uninstalling and reinstalling the Application Compatibility Update and the Application Compatibility toolkit until it finally decides to work. Sadly I haven't been able to pin it down to any one thing that causes it to happen (I tried a clean build of Win2k on a 2nd partition, and no matter what I tried, I couldn't get FF7 to work, yet it works just fine on the other Win2k partition - never figured it out)

Could this have something to do with the filesystem? My FF7 is currently installed on a NTFS partition. I don't think it will make any difference, but I'll try to run it from a FAT32 partition and see if it works..

Whoa!
I'm not sure what I did right, but now it works!
 
I installed FF7 on a FAT32 partition with standard install instead of maximum install. Then I started the game with Whistler Application Compatibility Toolkit(thanks, DosFreak!).
 
*whistles a ff7 fanfare*

Hmmmm, It's highly doubtful that the filesystem had anything to do with it. I wish I had the game so I could test it out. Right now I have FF7 for PSX that I copied with CloneCD from my roomie. Works fine on EPSX! Although I can't understand how console users use these crappy controls and ancient graphics.
 
Oh, and don't use that hacked together Whistler Application Compatibility Toolkit I put together either! I put that together waaaaaaaayyy before Microsoft's Whistler Application Compatibility toolkit came out and it's waaaayyy outdated. The Compatibility updates included in that package are from Beta 2 and the tools are old.
 
The Windows 2000 Application Compatibility Toolkit 1.5 should work fine for anything that you want to do. Although I have noticed that the Whislter Application Compatibility Toolkit includes a dozen or so more options. I'm still debating on making another pack or not. (I'll definetly keep everyone updated on moving the Compatibility Updates from Whistler to Windows 2000)

Quote:
Hmmmm, It's highly doubtful that the filesystem had anything to do with it.


I think so too. I didn't patch the game after I installed it, so that might be the reason.. Or maybe not..

Yes, the fact that you didn't patch FF7 (with, say, the TNT patch) on your second attempt would be the reason that it "works" now (note that the chocobo races still won't work). Using the TNT patch screws everything over. Even if you don't enable nVidia mode from FF7Config, even just using the patch shoots everything to heck
 
The filesystem has nothing to do with it. When I was involved in creating the horrendously-complicated set of instructions posted by Xiven as above, I was running on the NTFS filesystem, with an FF7-maximum-install. So neither of those changes (going to FAT32 or doing a minimum install) were what allowed the game to work for you.

Lo again Poxnor
 
The annoying thing though is that mine worked fine when patched.
 
Oh, and both my partitions were NTFS.

Oh <blink...>
 
Hehe, well, there goes that theory of mine

Hi..
 
I did managed to get the game going by following the instruction here (thanks)... but only in software mode. Everytime I tried hardware, the graphic gets corrupted. The battle scene however, is fine.Any ideas?
 
Win2k SP2
Directx 8a
Geforce2 Ultra
SBlive
 
PS. Maybe we should bug Squaresoft to release a patch so it works with newer hardware/os... make run it under 1024x768 instead of 640x480!

Quote:
Hi..

I did managed to get the game going by following the instruction here (thanks)... but only in software mode. Everytime I tried hardware, the graphic gets corrupted. The battle scene however, is fine.Any ideas?

Getting it to work in hardware is even harder than getting it to work at all. I think I was lucky the first time cos since I've reinstalled Windows I cannot get it to work in Direct3D at all. Might try some different NVidia drivers at some point...

Quote:PS. Maybe we should bug Squaresoft to release a patch so it works with newer hardware/os... make run it under 1024x768 instead of 640x480!

You're very welcome to try