Space Engineers 2 incorrectly detected Windows 10 as Windows 8 due to AppCompat WIN8RTM compatibilit

Description:

Space Engineers 2 would not start and displayed:

"Your system does not meet minimum requirements."

The game consistently failed during startup despite the system meeting requirements.

System:

- Windows 10 Pro 22H2

- OS Build 19045.6466

- AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

- NVIDIA RTX 2060

- 16 GB RAM

- DirectX 12

- Latest NVIDIA drivers installed

Symptoms:

- Splash screen appeared and game crashed.

- Later produced minimum requirements error.

- Game would not reach the main menu.

Log Findings:

Space Engineers 2 log reported:

RuntimeInformation.OSDescription: Microsoft Windows 6.2.9200

The game then reported:

DirectX 12 renderer not supported on Windows 8.1 and lower.

and

RenderException: Os version is deprecated

Process was tagged as:

MinRequirementsNotMet

Windows Verification:

The operating system was confirmed by:

- winver

- ver

- wmic os get version

- dxdiag

All reported Windows 10 correctly.

Troubleshooting Performed:

- Verified game files in Steam.

- Updated NVIDIA drivers.

- Rebooted.

- Disabled Steam Overlay.

- Disabled NVIDIA Overlay.

- Added -nosplash launch option.

- Deleted %AppData%\Roaming\SpaceEngineers2 folder.

- Ran SFC /SCANNOW.

- Ran DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.

- Verified .NET 9.0.18 runtime installed.

- Confirmed DirectX 12 available.

- Checked __COMPAT_LAYER user and system environment variables.

- Checked AppCompat registry entries.

Root Cause Found:

The following compatibility shim was present:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers2\Game2\SpaceEngineers2.exe = WIN8RTM

Steam also had:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Games\Steam\steam.exe = RUNASADMIN WIN8RTM

Additionally, Steam.exe Properties showed:

- Windows 8 compatibility mode enabled

- Run as administrator enabled

Resolution:

- Removed the WIN8RTM AppCompat registry entry for SpaceEngineers2.exe.

- Disabled Windows 8 compatibility mode on Steam.exe.

- Disabled Run As Administrator on Steam.exe.

- Rebooted system.

Result:

Space Engineers 2 launches and runs normally after removing the Windows 8 compatibility shims/settings.

Recommendation:

It may be useful to add additional logging or detection around AppCompat compatibility shims, as the game was detecting Windows as 6.2.9200 while Windows itself correctly reported Windows 10. This produced a minimum requirements failure that was difficult to diagnose.