Set Application Compatibility through the registry, across a network

Here’s how to control Window’s Application Compatibility settings through the registry. This is normally controlled by right-clicking on an executable, clicking on the Compatibility tab, and making a selection in the Compatibility mode area. However, you can easily control Application Compatibility for all computers in a domain or network environment through the registry.

The registry key is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags

The For the Windows 2000 mode, the value name is the path to the executable in question, and value data is the compatibility mode. For Windows 2000 mode, that’s WIN2000. This is a String value.

So, set one computer how you need it to be, export that registry branch, and apply the registry settings to all computers that need it. You can use a login script or a more advanced management tool. We are using Numara Asset Management Platform and it works well.