unable to play game disc on my pc after updates

Hi michael draper,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

I know how frustrating it is when a classic game disc stops working in Windows 11. Many older titles (including some Heroes of Might & Magic releases) use SafeDisc/SecuROM, which newer Windows blocks for security reasons. You can reconfirm this:

1. Press Win + R > enter services.msc > look for SecuROM or SafeDisc > if missing, Windows has disabled them
2. Try inserting the disc > if nothing launches or Windows shows a protection error, that confirms it.

Windows 11 cannot re-enable these drivers because they are deprecated for security. But still, in case that everything appears normally or/and you still want to try out some workarounds, let's see if they can help (no guarantee):

1 - Install the game manually if autoplay no longer works

• Confirm whether the disc is still readable:
  • Open File Explorer > check if the disc shows up as a drive in This PC.
  • If it doesn’t appear, try cleaning the disc or testing with another PC/DVD drive.
• If it appears, open the disc and directly run setup.exe or install.exe (basically the game .exe)

2 - Try running the installer or game in compatibility mode

• Right‑click the game’s setup.exe or game .exe > select Properties
• Compatibility tab > Enable Run this program in compatibility mode for:
• Choose Windows XP or Windows 7 > Check Run as administrator > Try again.

If none of that help, the only path is to install a digital version that does not use old DRM, e.g. Steam and GOG editions can run on Windows 11 without needing the original disc. In some cases, you can even redeem old disc keys for several Ubisoft-era titles.

If you want, tell me which exact Heroes of Might and Magic version you have, and I can look deeper for more information about that edition.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.