Vista Compatibility List
From OCAU Wiki
This page is here as a list of games that are compatible with Windows Vista.
If a game is unknown for a certain architecture being lightgray for x86 or x64 it is presumed to be cross compatible between x86/x64 as Vista is coded nearly identical on both but with some changes where as XP x86/x64 was a different code base (confirm) for each system which introduced many problems into normal games and applications.
Feel free to edit this page and update the list as you please.
Starforce
Starforce is a copy protection driver that when games written specifically for XP are run on Vista, they will usually refuse to work or will BSOD the OS
It is recommended to update starforce with a version for Vista which is version 5.5 or higher, The latest version is available for download here
Note: Some older games won't run or may bsod (rending your system in need of a full re-install) your Vista system, even when you have the latest starforce driver installed, as some older games try to install there own starforce version regardless if you have a updated version installed.
Try to keep your Drivers and DirectX install up to date as the latest Drivers and DirectX can sometimes fix some older compatibility problems.
Latest DirectX Distributable - Always up to date
Game List
Colour | Description |
---|---|
Untested | |
Working | |
Mostly working | |
Lots of problems | |
Doesn't run |
Game | x86 | x64 | Game Explorer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Age of Mythology | ||||
Age of Empires III | Works, including both expansions. | |||
Alpha Prime | Works if you use Alchemy or else the 5.1 sound doesn't work well as in missing ALL voice on movies etc | |||
America's Army | If you click 'Run Program as Administrator' under 'compatibility' | |||
American McGee's Alice | ||||
Armed Assaut | Game runs great with Vista x64 if updated to the 1.14 version | |||
Assassin's Creed | ||||
Audio Surf | ||||
Battlefield 1942 | ||||
Battlefield 2 | ||||
Battlefield 2142 | Crashes on titan mode when changing level, but can be fixed. | |||
Battlefield Vietnam | Works fine with x64 although it cannot use EAX and must use Miles 2D sound, although the sound works fine. | |||
Battlestar Galactica | ||||
Bioshock | ||||
Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 | ||||
Call of Duty 2 | ||||
Call of Duty 4 | Stereo mix must be disabled (or enabled, can someone confirm one way or another?) or game crashes on opening. | |||
Call of Duty: World at War | sound quality must be set to 24bit 48,000hz in control panel, anything else results in a crash on open | |||
Carmageddon 3 | Only runs in software rendering mode. | |||
City Life 2008 | Some graphic corruption and screen size probs | |||
Civilization IV | ||||
Cold War | ||||
Colin McRae Rally 2.0 | ||||
Company of Heroes | ||||
Command & Conquer Generals | ||||
Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour | ||||
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 | ||||
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 | ||||
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars | ||||
Colin McRae: DiRT | ||||
Counter Strike: Source | ||||
Crysis | ||||
Crysis Warhead | ||||
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic | Resource hog; crashes when closed - runs very well with 4GB ram on 64 bit | |||
Darwina | ||||
Day of Defeat: Source | shows retail box in Game Explorer | |||
Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition | ||||
Diablo 2 | ||||
Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction | ||||
Drakan | Works ok but frequent crashes | |||
Dungeon Keeper 2 | Reported unplayable with graphical glitches on Nvidia in 64bit with the screen covered in moving greyness. | |||
Dungeon Runners | fully working x64. | |||
Dungeon Siege 2 | ||||
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. | x64 works fine with 1.5 patch | |||
EVE Online | ||||
Everquest II | ||||
Evil Genius | ||||
Fable: TLC | Works fine on Vista 64 with SP1 installed, there was an early compatibility patch for Vista that is required to get this working however this was an early Vista patch so it should work on all versions post SP1. | |||
Falcon 4.0: Allied Force | ATI users will have to disable Catalyst A.I in the 3D settings of the CCC, even then the menus might have problems refreshing. Also enabling XP compatibility is strongly advised. If the movies crash the game; rename them and replace them with text files. | |||
Fallout | Works fine except the occasional black screen which seems to be just a failing to refresh. As soon as you move the cursor the main view returns and mousing over the controls down the bottom forces it to redraw where the mouse is. Still very playable! | |||
Fallout 3 | ||||
Farcry | Works with 1.3 patch with HDR disabled | |||
Farcry 2 | ||||
F.E.A.R | ||||
F.E.A.R Combat | ||||
Frontlines: Fuel of War | ||||
Garry's Mod | Works on Windows 7 | |||
Gears of War | ||||
Ghost Recon - Advanced Warfighter | ||||
Ghost Recon - Advanced Warfighter 2 | ||||
Gothic 3 | I find this strange to work perfect on 64bit and not run on 32 bit please test and add proper notes | |||
Grand Theft Auto | ||||
Grand Theft Auto 2 | only tested the 'updated' version available for download from Rockstar | |||
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | ||||
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | Original version without patch | |||
GTR 2 | ||||
Guild Wars | Game Explorer adds links in to all 3 games | |||
Half life 2 | Game Explorer adds many links to all most installed Steam games and doubles some up | |||
Half life 2 Episode 1 | ||||
Half life 2 Episode 2 | ||||
Halo: Combat Evolved | ||||
Hidden and Dangerous 2 | Tested with the 1.12 patch with HD.exe and Sabre Squadron.exe | |||
Hitman: Blood Money | ||||
Indigo Prophecy | Works fine on Vista x64. | |||
In the groove 2 | ||||
Infernal | No 5.1 Audio due to Direct Audio and will never be fixed | |||
Lineage II -CT1 Hellbound- | ||||
Lock On: Modern Air Combat | Lots of crashes in game occurs on clicking 'Top Gun' training and random in game also joystick goes completely dead. | |||
Lord of the Rings Online | Disables Aero whilst playing in windowed mode | |||
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition | ||||
Mafia | ||||
Medieval 2 Total War | ||||
Men of Valour | ||||
Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance | Works only if you run it in Creative/Universial Alchemy. Uses 100% cpu while running but runs fine. | |||
Morrowind + Tribunal + Bloodmoon | Use a updated binkw32.dll file from a recent game to get to work even still the bink video's show some corruption | |||
NecroVisoN | ||||
Need For Speed: Carbon | Proper notes please | |||
Need For Speed: Most Wanted | ||||
Neverwinter Nights 2 | Use the latest update to resolve several issues | |||
No One Lives Forever 2 | it appeared twice in Game Explorer for me. works fine though | |||
Oblivion - Shivering Isle | Bethsoft standard crashes - save often | |||
Operation Flashpoint | ||||
Overlord | ||||
Phantasy Star Universe | ||||
Project Snowblind | ||||
Pure | ||||
Quake 2 | ||||
Quake 3 Arena | Works fine, except it won't save settings. Think its a UAC problem.//confirming with UAC off settings save fine, no other game issues to note. | |||
Quake 4 | Works fine with the latest patch | |||
Race 06/07 - The WTCC Game | ||||
Racedriver: GRID | ||||
Raiden 3 | Graphic corruption on player's ship and some backgrounds / no fix is advaliable | |||
Railroad Tycoon 3 | Fresh install and patches before 105 work. Patch 105 crashes just as main menu appears. | |||
Rainbow 6 Raven Shield | ||||
Rainbow 6 Vegas | ||||
Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 | ||||
Return to Castle Wolfenstein | Single player with x64 crashes or has massive slowdowns when outdoors. MP still works fine. | |||
rFactor | ||||
Rise And Fall: Civilizations At War | No CD Patch works fine | |||
Rise of Legends | ||||
RoboBlitz | ||||
RollerCoaster Tycoon | Latest Patches applied | |||
Sam and Max: Season 1 | ||||
Scarface | (ATI) Latest Drivers needed.(finally no graphic corruption)/(Nvidia rumors still corrupted) Game is buggy anyway like extremely slow mouse | |||
Scrapland | Starforce issues. Update Starforce or use a NOCD | |||
Sid Meier's Pirates! | ||||
Silverfall | ||||
Sim City 4 | ||||
Sins of a Solar Empire | ||||
Sniper: Act of Victory | ||||
Snoopy vs. The Red Baron | ||||
Soldiers Of Fortune | Runs great for an old game. | |||
Soldiers Of Fortune II: Gold Edition | Game runs flawless on 32 and 64bit. | |||
Soldiers: Heroes of world war II | Install patch 1.28, then SolVistaPatch. Run in 98/ME compatability mode | |||
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | No-CD required to disable Starforce | |||
Splinter Cell: Double Agent | Works fine with 1.02 although the game itself is still buggy as it was with WinXP | |||
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: SoC | High resource usage compared to XP | |||
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky | ||||
Starcraft | ||||
Starship Troopers 2005 | ||||
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic | ||||
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords | ||||
Stepmania | ||||
Stranglehold | ||||
Supreme Commander | On Vista x64 SP1 and latest patch - crashes when closed also ATI duel monitors ALT-TAB results in gray screens | |||
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance | ||||
Swat 4 | ||||
System Shock 2 | ||||
Team Fortress 2 | ||||
Test Drive: Unlimited | ||||
The Matrix - Path of Neo | ||||
The Operative: No One Lives Forever | Only tried in 64bit and won't even run the installer | |||
The Secrets of Atlantis | ||||
The Ship | ||||
The Witcher | ||||
Time Shift | ||||
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne | ||||
Tomb Raider Legends | No 5.1 Audio as this is due to the actual sound card | |||
Total Annihilation | Game runs fine but multi-player will never run as DirectPlay has been disabled due to security flaw | |||
Trackmania Nations Forever | Forever version replaces/updates standard Nations which had starforce issues on Vista | |||
Trackmania Sunrise Extreme | Starforce issues, was tested from running direct with a installed version | |||
Trackmania United Forever | Forever updates United to bring cross compatability with nations multiplayer | |||
Two Worlds | ||||
Unreal Tournament | Anthology edition reported working - please retest on x86 | |||
Unreal Tournament 2004 | ||||
Unreal Tournament 3 | ||||
URU Ages beyond Myst / D'ni / Path of the Shell | Run in XP compatibility and don't use Alchemy | |||
Urban Terror 4.1 | Lagged A bit but probably due to onboard graphics | |||
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines | ||||
Virtual Pool 3 | ||||
Warcraft III | ||||
World in Conflict | ||||
World of Warcraft AKA "The Plague" | For NVidia cards, use drivers 162.22 and later | |||
X-Plane 9 | SLI & Crossfire may decrease performance |