How to Play Fallout 3 on Windows 10

Fallout 3 is a popular action role-playing open-ended game based on the post-apocalyptic time. Launched by Bethseda Game studios in 2008, the game is still famous for its genre even after a decade.

Gamers from the whole world look up to the Fallout Franchise till today. Due to its immense success, the software company also launched Fallout 4; however, it wasn’t as impactful as the third one.

The reason the game is still being played is obviously its major popularity. The developers actually made the game for old computers. Needless to say that this doesn’t stop the gamers from playing the game in more advanced versions of OS such as windows 7,8,9,10.

fallout-3-on-windows-10

Players face some difficulty smoothly running Fallout 3 on windows 10, as it is the most updated Windows OS. Most of the time, the game crashes when gamers try to start a new game by clicking on “New”.

This issue needed to be sorted out as the Fallout franchise has too many followers. For such reason, developers discovered some tried-and-tested methods to run Fallout 3 on windows 10 successfully.

Read on to know How to play Fallout 3 on windows?

Method 1: Run the game Fallout 3 as an Administrator

Sometimes Fallout 3 runs easily on Windows 10 by running it in Administrative mode. The process of making the game an Administrator on Windows 10 is very easy. Just follow the given steps:

  1. Find out the Fallout 3 folder from your Steam folder.
  2. Right-click on the .EXE file of the game.
  3.  A context menu will appear;  from there, click on Properties.
  4. Go to the Compatibility tab
  5. An option named ‘Run this program as an administrator will appear.
  6. Click on the check box to enable the function.
  7. First, Click on Apply and then on OK.
  8. Start the game and check if it runs properly.

Method 2: Start Fallout 3 in Compatibility Mode

Since Fallout 3 was released back in 2008, that’s why it is not compatible with Windows 10. As a result, most of the time, the players who try to play Fallout 3 on Windows 10 face a sudden crash and sometimes it doesn’t run at all.

However, running the game in compatibility mode can solve the purpose. Here are the steps you can follow to make the game run in compatibility mode:

  1. Find out the Fallout 3 folder from your Steam folder.
  2. Right-click on the .EXE file of the game.
  3. A context menu will appear; click on Properties.
  4. Go to the Compatibility tab.
  5. An option named ‘Run this program in compatibility mode’ will appear.
  6. Click on the check box.
  7. A dropdown menu will appear under the Run this program in the Compatibility mode for option.
  8. Open the dropdown menu and click on Windows XP (Service Pack 3) option.
  9. Click on Apply and then on OK.
  10. Now, start the game and see if it runs properly.

If the game still doesn’t run, try running the game by selecting Windows XP (service pack 2) or Service pack one or simply on windows 7.

Method 3: Download the Game from Windows Live Application & Install it

Sometimes the Games for Windows Live application is required to run Fallout 3 successfully. However, installing this application is very simple. Just follow these steps:

  1. Download the Games for Windows Live application.
  2. After it gets downloaded, go to the file and double-click on it.
  3. Some instructions will appear on your screen, just follow those simple steps and the application will get installed successfully.
  4. Launch the Games for Windows Live application.
  5. After you launch the Games for Windows Live application, it will automatically download all the files required by Fallout 3.
  6. Now, close the Windows Live application Games, relaunch the game, and see if it runs properly.

Method 4: Edit the File called Falloutprefs.ini

Another way to run Fallout 3 successfully on your Windows 10 computer is to edit the falloutprefs.ini file. It is a config file of Fallout 3, learn how can you edit it:

  1.  Go to My Documents\My Games\Fallout3.
  2.  Look for the falloutprefs.ini file.
  3. Now, you need to open the  falloutprefs.ini file and double-click it.
  4. It will open in a new instance of Notepad.
  5. Locate this line
    Now change the 0 to a 1 and in case you don’t see bUseThreadedAI=0 there, then,
     just add in a new line of the file.
  6. After this, again in a new line, type.
  7. Finally, press Ctrl+S to save the changes in the falloutprefs.ini file.
  8. Now, run Fallout 3 and check if your problem has been solved. After following these steps, you can also run Fallout 3 in compatibility Mode with administrative privileges for better results.

In case the procedure doesn’t work, then go to the falloutprefs.ini file and try again by replacing iNumHWthreads=2 with iNumHWthreads=1. Then, save the changes and rerun the game.

Final Words

Now you know how you can run Fallout 3 on windows 10 smoothly. What are you waiting for? Start playing the game and enjoy the virtual world.