• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 04:05
CEST 10:05
KST 17:05
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt2: News Flash8[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt1: New Chaos0Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy15ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT30Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book20
Community News
Weekly Cups (March 23-29): herO takes triple6Aligulac acquired by REPLAYMAN.com/Stego Research7Weekly Cups (March 16-22): herO doubles, Cure surprises3Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool49Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win4
StarCraft 2
General
Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy Aligulac acquired by REPLAYMAN.com/Stego Research Weekly Cups (March 23-29): herO takes triple What mix of new & old maps do you want in the next ladder pool? (SC2) herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL Season 4 announced for March-April StarCraft Evolution League (SC Evo Biweekly) WardiTV Mondays World University TeamLeague (500$+) | Signups Open
Strategy
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Frigid Storage Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026]
External Content
Mutation # 519 Inner Power The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 518 Radiation Zone Mutation # 517 Distant Threat
Brood War
General
ASL21 General Discussion Behind the scenes footage of ASL21 Group E BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Build Order Practice Maps
Tourneys
[ASL21] Ro24 Group F Azhi's Colosseum - Foreign KCM [ASL21] Ro24 Group E [ASL21] Ro24 Group D
Strategy
What's the deal with APM & what's its true value Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game General RTS Discussion Thread Darkest Dungeon
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The Games Industry And ATVI European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT] Tokyo Olympics 2021 Thread General nutrition recommendations
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
[G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Money Laundering In Video Ga…
TrAiDoS
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
FS++
Kraekkling
Shocked by a laser…
Spydermine0240
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 9231 users

Fix for wierd colors in Windows 7

Forum Index > BW General
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
oeN
Profile Joined May 2010
Norway8 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-08 23:31:33
June 08 2010 21:44 GMT
#1
Hello. I have the solution for the 256-colors problem which occurs on Windows 7. I have no clue if this is already solved, but I searched and found nothing.

Problem:
StarCraft BroodWar will run with only 256 colors, making the score screen look ugly and unreadable.
http://bayimg.com/iAnhGaaCC <- link to an image describing the problem.

Reason:
The reason for this is that dmw.exe, which is a Microsoft application, is messing with explorer, which makes it "overlay" starcraft. Now this is bad, because when overlayed StarCraft will be forced to run in 256 colors.

Solution:
Since we know its explorer.exe thats causing this problem, its simple enough to just start the game and alttabb to close explorer.exe in task manager. But thats harder than making a script which does all this automatically behind the scenes once you launch starcraft .

Once the script has been downloaded, and edited, it can be placed anywhere you want on your computer.
Protip: If you hide this file in a folder, and make a shortcut to this script, you can change its icon to look like starcraft


Script:
+ Show Spoiler +

REM This line shuts down explorer.exe
taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe

REM This line will launch StarCraft Broodwar
REM ###NOTE Edit this line to point to YOUR starcraft.exe.
"C:\program files\blizzard\starcraft\starcraft.exe"

REM This line will start explorer.exe automatically after starcraft.exe is closed
explorer.exe


REM Its this simple. Made by Neo for Team Liquids forum!
Now. I have uploaded the script so you don't have to copy-paste this and save it yourself. Makes. Note: You will still have to edit the script, to make it realize where starcraft is installed on your computer!

Link to downloadable script:
http://anyhub.net/file/starcraft.bat
or
http://www.easy-share.com/1910855885/starcraft.bat

Instructions:
Save the file to your Desktop
Edit the file in notepad
The line to edit is the one with the directions to where starcraft.exe is located.
Save the script (CTRL+S)
Exit notepad, and launch the script.
And when you have downloaded and edited the script, you are supposed to run the script, NOT starcraft.exe.
Just remember; its your suicide, have fun with it!
Kuzmorgo
Profile Joined May 2009
Hungary1058 Posts
June 08 2010 21:52 GMT
#2
I love you man thanks a lot!!!!!!!!4
YAAAAY no more wierd colors!!! (i didnt try it yet though, but i believe u! )
1 small thing:
Now I have written a script which closes explorer.exe when you click on the StarCraft 2 shortcut.


U mean StarCraft Broodwar shortcut obviously (Maybe u played too much Beta? :D)
"No, whine not! Play, or play not! There is no whine."
unit
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States2621 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-08 22:05:37
June 08 2010 21:54 GMT
#3
omg...upgrading to windows 7 NOW!!!! LOVE YOU!

edit: if this is legit it needs to be spotlighted for all win7 users
oeN
Profile Joined May 2010
Norway8 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-08 22:13:04
June 08 2010 21:54 GMT
#4
On June 09 2010 06:52 Kuzmorgo wrote:
I love you man thanks a lot!!!!!!!!4
1 small thing:
Show nested quote +
Now I have written a script which closes explorer.exe when you click on the StarCraft 2 shortcut.


U mean StarCraft Broodwar shortcut obviously (Maybe u played too much Beta? :D)

Yeah i wrote the script after i wrote the tutorial... I shall edit the tutorial to go along with the script since its harder to edit the script since its uploaded to multiple sites.


On June 09 2010 06:54 unit wrote:

edit: if this is legit it needs to be spotlighted for all win7 users

Well... it works for me, and my friends so its legit.
Just remember; its your suicide, have fun with it!
Nefra
Profile Joined May 2010
United Kingdom37 Posts
June 08 2010 21:56 GMT
#5
Excellent stuff, thanks a lot for this.
Tempest[OEC]
Profile Joined February 2010
United States417 Posts
June 08 2010 22:32 GMT
#6
To anyone thats tried this do you guys play in full screen or windowed?
fabiano
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Brazil4644 Posts
June 08 2010 22:43 GMT
#7
Didnt work for me. The colors are still messed up.
"When the geyser died, a probe came out" - SirJolt
scott desu
Profile Joined April 2010
United States34 Posts
June 08 2010 22:45 GMT
#8
I thought explorer was necessary for your desktop to run properly or something? I remember ending its process and my computer freaked out and couldn't do anything.

I'm pretty sure you guys are right and know exactly what your doing/talking about, I'm just curious as to what my experience was
('x.x)G-(._.Q)
fabiano
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Brazil4644 Posts
June 08 2010 22:49 GMT
#9
You can kill the explorer process just fine, at least when I do, since Win98 to todays Win7, nothing wrong happens.

Also, just tried killing my explorer by hand and launching BW it still had messed up colors :/

Im on Win7 64 bits.
"When the geyser died, a probe came out" - SirJolt
oeN
Profile Joined May 2010
Norway8 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-08 23:05:15
June 08 2010 22:52 GMT
#10
Ok. For those of you which this has failed, try ending "dwm.exe" manualy before launching BW.
Note: This did not work for me, if i change explorer.exe to dwm.exe I get wierd colors. But luckly it works perfect for me anyways

I am also curious to how you guys started brood war after you ended explorer.exe (One way to do that is to open CMD before closing explorer and launch BW from CMD).


On June 09 2010 07:45 scott desu wrote:
I thought explorer was necessary for your desktop to run properly or something? I remember ending its process and my computer freaked out and couldn't do anything.

I'm pretty sure you guys are right and know exactly what your doing/talking about, I'm just curious as to what my experience was

Press "CTRL + SHIFT + ESC" to open Task manager, now go close explorer.exe (Right click it and choose "End Process" in Processes-tab), then go to Applications-tab and press the button that say "New task". In the window that pops up, type "Explorer.exe" to start it again. This will return your desktop to normal.


Also. This is teh exact script which i run. It works flawlessly.
+ Show Spoiler +
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
"C:\windows.old\Program Files\StarCraft\starcraft.exe"
start explorer.exe
Just remember; its your suicide, have fun with it!
scott desu
Profile Joined April 2010
United States34 Posts
June 08 2010 23:07 GMT
#11
Press "CTRL + SHIFT + ESC" to open Task manager, now go close explorer.exe (Right click it and choose "End Process" in Processes-tab), then go to Applications-tab and press the button that say "New task". In the window that pops up, type "Explorer.exe" to start it again. This will return your desktop to normal.


Oh hey! It works, thanks
('x.x)G-(._.Q)
fabiano
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Brazil4644 Posts
June 08 2010 23:11 GMT
#12
On June 09 2010 07:52 oeN wrote:
I am also curious to how you guys started brood war after you ended explorer.exe (One way to do that is to open CMD before closing explorer and launch BW from CMD).


you can run it via task manager
"When the geyser died, a probe came out" - SirJolt
QuakerOats
Profile Joined April 2009
United States1024 Posts
June 08 2010 23:40 GMT
#13
I downloaded a similar script from here a while ago, and thought everyone else had it too. But I guess not, so good job reviving it. :p
oeN
Profile Joined May 2010
Norway8 Posts
June 08 2010 23:44 GMT
#14
I'll be throwing up another method for fixing this problem tomorrow. Same script, same files, just a little different and easier for the noobs.
Just remember; its your suicide, have fun with it!
Shiro)Tenshi
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
China214 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-09 00:29:14
June 09 2010 00:28 GMT
#15
wouldn't this mean your antihack would be disabled on iccup?? =/

Edit: Great job btw,
it works awesome =)
Kuzmorgo
Profile Joined May 2009
Hungary1058 Posts
June 09 2010 00:32 GMT
#16
On June 09 2010 09:28 Kryxia wrote:
wouldn't this mean your antihack would be disabled on iccup?? =/

Edit: Great job btw,
it works awesome =)


I guess you could just change it to start iccup launcher instead of starcraft.
"No, whine not! Play, or play not! There is no whine."
Dust14
Profile Joined March 2010
Belgium490 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-09 00:47:35
June 09 2010 00:47 GMT
#17
On June 09 2010 09:32 Kuzmorgo wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 09 2010 09:28 Kryxia wrote:
wouldn't this mean your antihack would be disabled on iccup?? =/

Edit: Great job btw,
it works awesome =)


I guess you could just change it to start iccup launcher instead of starcraft.

That may solve it yes, if it doesn't just go search for an other script there are a couple out there that may help you.

On June 09 2010 08:40 QuakerOats wrote:
I downloaded a similar script from here a while ago, and thought everyone else had it too. But I guess not, so good job reviving it. :p

I was wondering the same thing, all sort of similar scripts are to be found here and on iccup website. I guess google or using search was way too hard
Jibba
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
United States22883 Posts
June 09 2010 00:50 GMT
#18
Holy crap yes.
ModeratorNow I'm distant, dark in this anthrobeat
awu25
Profile Joined April 2010
United States2003 Posts
June 09 2010 00:50 GMT
#19
what i've always done for windows 7 is go to personalize, switch to windows classic theme
then right click desktop and click screen resolution
leave that screen resolution up and load starcraft
it always loads in regular colors
dhe95
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
United States1213 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-06-09 00:54:24
June 09 2010 00:53 GMT
#20
This is much better written than those ping 0.0.0.0 scripts

but I have windows 7 and all I do is check everything off in the compatibility tab + run it in compatibility mode for windows xp sp3 (i tried win98, worked too) and I have no problems at all.
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1h 55m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nina 94
StarCraft: Brood War
firebathero 1084
Shuttle 320
PianO 183
Killer 56
soO 35
Noble 35
ajuk12(nOOB) 18
Shinee 16
NaDa 4
NotJumperer 2
[ Show more ]
sorry 1
Dota 2
XcaliburYe147
NeuroSwarm94
League of Legends
JimRising 530
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K939
Other Games
summit1g9097
ceh9482
WinterStarcraft371
Happy227
ProTech112
Liquid`Ken21
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick836
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 71
lovetv 23
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH371
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• LUISG 0
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 3
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Stunt826
• Jankos448
• HappyZerGling122
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
1h 55m
OSC
15h 55m
RSL Revival
1d 1h
TriGGeR vs Cure
ByuN vs Rogue
Replay Cast
1d 15h
RSL Revival
2 days
Maru vs MaxPax
BSL
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
3 days
BSL
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
4 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-03-31
WardiTV Winter 2026
NationLESS Cup

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
CSL Elite League 2026
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 1
ASL Season 21
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 2
RSL Revival: Season 4
Nations Cup 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W1
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
StarCraft2 Community Team League 2026 Spring
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.