According to Blizzard website, its already compatible.
 
See http://www.blizzard.com/war3/ for latest patches.
 

patches are no use, it won't even install, actually its probably to do with winxp not liking its dos based install program????
 
 
and sorry i meant warcraft II, III already works fine.

I've tried virtually everything to run warcraft 2 and ultima underworld 1 and 2 in windows xp over a year ago. The result was a very big zero! Tried all the patches i could find on the internet, suggestions, configs, EVERYTHING.
 
There is one simple solution. Find a very old HDD (1-2GB!) install win98SE and have it for the game only! Wish there is another straight solution but...
 
 

I've tried virtually everything to run warcraft 2 and ultima underworld 1 and 2 in windows xp over a year ago. The result was a very big zero! Tried all the patches i could find on the internet, suggestions, configs, EVERYTHING.
 
There is one simple solution. Find a very old HDD (1-2GB!) install win98SE and have it for the game only! Wish there is another straight solution but...
 
 

thanks anyway, i might just give up on windows i think, or maybe go back to 98, i'm sick of all xp's problems, why can't microsoft just right something more reliable for a change!

Well you can't accuse MS for warcraft 2. The game was made for windows 95-98 and it's quite reasonable that it will have problems playing in a non-dos environment like XP. Blizzard could make a patch but don't forget that all software companies stop support their software after new versions come out. It's a bit more complicated than that...

try Clicking on properties at the ROOT of the games install files(C:\Warcraft.exe) and change the compatibility to Windows 98 and see if that will work.

Hi
I Have Warcaft2 Dark portal and it works fine under windows 2000 but Without sound!
 
The other thing is that old programs for DOS, Win 95 and 98 sometimes dont work because of the kind of partition you use under windows NT 2K XP.
Some programes dont work on a NTFS formated hard disk this is maybe the problem with your warcraft 2.
 
If you want to make warcraft 2 work completly you ll have to have a Harddisk formated in FAT starting with windows 9x or DOS with your soundcard drivers installed, i think warcarft 2 is a DOS game but i am not sure anymore.
 
I found some evidence that warcraft is working on Windows 2000 like i sayd here:
http://www.blackviper.com/WIN2K/games.htm
 
I hope i could help
; )
Atlix

To run ANY MS-DOS based game under Windows XP/2000 just use DOSBOX ( http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1 ).
It emulates a perfect "old" MS-DOS environment with extended and conventional memory, DOS sounblaster and all the stuff.
Remember that Win 2000 or XP doesn't have a MS-DOS operating system running under the GUI and the built-in emulated DOS compatibiliy is very limited. If you want to run advanced MS-DOS games under WIN XP with sound and good performance, the only way is using DOSBOX.