GFWL now incompatible with WinXP

[Ducimus]

I was trying play Bioshock 2 again. Installed it, jumped through the GFWL hoops to get the game running, and it ran fine, until i saved the game and exited. So now, whenever i tried to run bioshock 2, it CTD's every time.

So, i decided to cruise some forums. A thread "How to get rid of GFWL in Bioshock 2" (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1844699) naturally caught my interest. But what REALLY caught my interest was this post at the bottom of the first page of that thread:


A heads up for anyone that thinks this game is compatible with Windows XP....
Actually, the game itself plays fine in Windows XP as long as you don't mind not being able to save or play multiplayer. You know, those pieces that been integrated with that awesome GfWL.
Due to the GfWL mandatory auto-updating itself to include that Essentials/Assistant piece, and the Essentials/Assistant piece not being compatible with Windows XP, renders this game (and probably others) nerfed to the point of uselessness.

See http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9ba199ef-3086-4f12-970d-8745be104600 for the proof

Well that link specifically says:

Supported Operating Systems:Windows 7;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows Vista Service Pack 2

Windows Live Sign-in Assistant is part of Windows Live Essentials, which requires the following:

Operating system: 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 with the Platform Update for Windows Vista; or Windows 7; or Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 and the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008; or Windows Server 2008 R2.


So if that is EXACT, that means, that any game saddled with GFWL, can no longer be ran on WinXP. Which means i can no longer use my retail copy of Bioschock 2, and any game.. ANY game with GFWL, will NOT run on an XP machine due to MS crappy DRM.

Great way to force people to upgrade OS's too. Bastards.

[AVGWarhawk]

That looks to be the case. W7 would play it on the virtual machine if I'm thinking correctly. But yes, looks like a new OS is in order. I suspect XP to be supported by MS for quite sometime. Gaming companies I do not see supporting the games in XP as changes/updates occur from MS.

[Arclight]

Yay Microsoft. :shifty:

[papa_smurf]

:Kaleun_Mad: Good 'ole Microsoft

[NeonSamurai]

One option could be to install a xp working version, then block the updater via a firewall, so it can't check or update to the current unworking version.

[Ducimus]

Well, i got it working. The thing is, updating GFWL didn't work. I had to completely uninstall and redownload and reinstall. GFWL controls the save games, and when i re downloaded in installed, how the games were saved was changed to a format where the game would no longer CTD.

This DRM has so many quirks, its disgusting. It's not a install and go type of DRM, its an install, troubleshoot, patch, troubleshoot, then run.

Steam, is just D/L and run. Gotta love that.