Here's what another user sent me:
I would like to let you know that I HAVE managed to get Deep Island to work on Windows 8, after much trial and error. Basically, what I did was to first get it installed and running on a Windows 7 O.S.; then, after having applied the Uru Launcher and downloaded all the user-created ages, etc. and actually getting online, I copied the folder containing my Deep Island to an external hard drive. I made sure to set Deep Island to RUN AS if on Windows XP, Service Pack 2, and that it had ADMINISTRATOR privileges.
In Windows 7, I set Deep Island to run on Windows XP, Service Pack 2, then was able to log on, have all the updates downloaded and log onto the Shard. Once I was satisfied that it was running properly, I copied the folder containing Myst Uru Complete Chronicles (now converted to run as Deep Island) to an external hard drive.
Now I went back to running my Windows 8 Professional, 64-bit operating system, connected my external hard drive containing my working copy of Deep Island to my PC, then opened the Myst Uru Complete Chronicles folder containing all the files, selected them all - including all hidden files - and copied them to an identically-named empty folder (Myst Uru Complete Chronicles) in my Windows 8 OS located in Users/ UserName/ Saved Games. Once this was done, I was able to start and run Deep Island on Windows 8.
Hope this helps anyone else who wants to have Deep Island installed on Windows 8 PCs. It was a bit of an effort to get it all to work - AND, it is IMPORTANT to note that Win 8 INSISTS that all such games be SAVED TO - their folders located in - USERS / USERNAME / SAVED GAMES - or it will not run!!
However, I fear that the next time I update an age on the server, it's broken again - the problem sounds as if downloading updates is the cause of the issue. The updater has been an issue on Windows 7, as well, but setting compatbility mode to "Windows 7" fixed it for that OS.