Vista Compatibility List
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 x64 or x32 it is presumed to be cross compatible between x32/64 as Vista is coded nearly identical on both but with some changes where as XP 64/32 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.
The latest Starforce update is 5.5 and is available for download here
Many games will run better or in fact run when they would not previously run after DirectX 9.0c has been installed on your Vista system. So try to keep your DirectX install up to date.
To start off you should grab the latest DirectX redistributable from the Microsoft website, The November 2008 redist is available here
| 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 | Game has alot of 3D sound driver issues on vista but game runs great otherwise | |||
| 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 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| 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 | ||||
| Drakan | Works ok but frequent crashes | |||
| Dungeon Keeper 2 | Few graphic glitches in the menu. Game can crash, but rarely. | |||
| Dungeon Runners | ||||
| 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 | I gray'd this from green as no mater what I did it was always a black screen and this is a common problem online so please confirm and add proper notes | |||
| Farcry 2 | ||||
| F.E.A.R | ||||
| F.E.A.R Combat | ||||
| Frontlines: Fuel of War | ||||
| Gears of War | ||||
| Ghost Recon - Advanced Warfighter | ||||
| Ghost Recon - Advanced Warfighter 2 | ||||
| Gothic 3 | ||||
| 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 2 links in, 'Eye of the North' and 'Factions' Don't worry as Guildwars runs of 1 exe no matter what | |||
| 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 | |||
| 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. | |||
| Need For Speed: Carbon | works without updating to latests patch, As of the 1.3 patch; the 'movies' directory needs to the moved or renamed (which, unsurprisingly, will disable all in game movies) | |||
| Need For Speed: Most Wanted | ||||
| Neverwinter Nights 2 | Use the latest update to resolve several issues | |||
| Oblivion - Shivering Isle | With Vista X64 SP1 There are a lot of crashes and freezes but no actual in game bugs so make sure you 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. | |||
| 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. | |||
| Rise And Fall: Civilizations At War | No CD Patch works fine (If you don't want to use a No CD mby Update Starforce?) | |||
| 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 | Use a No-CD or (Update Starforce)? to get it to run as this games Starforce version isn't compatible with Vista. | |||
| 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 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 | Update Starforce drivers, Game used from a already installed copy in XP will try a fresh install in Vista | |||
| Trackmania United Forever | Forever updates United to bring cross compatability with nations multiplayer | |||
| Two Worlds | ||||
| Unreal Tournament | Runs with constant fluctuations in gameplay speed (tested on ATi card with OpenGL/Direct X) | |||
| 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 |
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