Trying to get modern game clients (Steam, Origin, and others) to fully work on Vista (Extended Kernel)

[win32]

The best I can come up with is going to application verifier x86 and adding these files from the steam folders in program files and program files (x86):

steam.exe

steam_monitor.exe

steamservice.exe

steamwebhelper.exe

then going to application verifier x64 and adding these:

steamwebhelper.exe

html5app_steam.exe

x64launcher.exe

For each one, go to Compatibility on the tree to the right of the file lists and check HighVersionLie. Then click on it and type 6 in major version, 1 in minor version, 7601 in build number and 1 in service pack major. Then "OK" and then save on the main window.

A hex edit may also be needed for steam.exe, steam.dll and steamservice.dll if Steam starts complaining about the OS version:

Quote

You can use an hex editor like HxD. Search for a sequence of bytes that goes

6A 00 6A 01 6A 06

And change the 6A 01 to 6A 00.

And use this so it doesn't react to the files being modified:

And someday, I'll find a way to make Vista NT 6.1 so none of this will be needed.

[asdf2345]

Updated Steam section, added my findings with GOG Galaxy, and more.

 

[windowsvistadude512]

On 8/21/2020 at 8:29 AM, asdf2345 said:

Steam

All of these require a steam.cfg to block updates. In the Steam folder, create a steam.cfg file, and edit it with notepad to say "BootStrapperInhibitAll=Enable" (Without quotes) and save it.

Certain older Steam builds might require a patched packageinfo.vdf file. More info here

The November 26th, 2018 Steam build does still work today (Even a Steam build from late 2014 can still login to this day), but it has some game compatibility issues. For example, Garry's Mod, which still officially supports even XP, will not launch with this version of the Steam client. Downloading games has been broken for some users, but it can be fixed by modding a certain file.

There's a January 4th, 2019 Steam build, released after Steam dropped XP and Vista support, but works just fine on both XP and Vista. This can play better with some games, and I've confirmed that unlike the Nov 26th client, Garry's Mod works great with this client. The build was released on January 8th, 2019, but the build date is shown as January 4th, so it's listed as January 4th here.

If you want to extract the client from it's package files, and confirm that it's unmodified, I've uploaded everything you need to extract the client here, Windows XP/Vista, and 7 x64 can be used to extract the client, but if you extract it on 7 x64, you'll be left with the 7 x64 CEF, which doesn't work with XP/Vista.

Steam (Vista Extended Kernel)

The Oct 2nd, 2019 Steam build is pretty recent, so most games still work, but some games, like Rust, which require the Steam API v20 don't work with it. There are some file modifications that are required to get it working. It still works with the browser from the XP client, but mouse scroll is broken, and it doesn't work too well with the modern Steam site. This client also is the last client to come with version 72 of CEF, which can be used if you rename the Windows 7 x64 CEF folder to cef.winxp in Steam\bins\cef, then add -no-cef-sandbox to the Steam shortcut target. It does have some issues though, but they could possibly be fixed if it were possible to make Steam treat Vista x64 exactly like Windows 7 x64. If you know how to do this, let me know. One final issue with the client is that you can't sign out of friends, so you'll always appear as online.

The latest Steam build works with the file modifications, but there's no browser, which, because the new library UI is a webview, you'll be stuck using small mode. Other than that, it's quite good, but it still suffers from not being able to sign out of friends too though.

I have a pre-modded copy of the June 6th, 2020 Steam client linked here. I based it off of that version since -no-browser works with it. You could try modding newer clients linked here, but for now I think it's all that'd be needed for gaming on Vista.

The June 6th client is getting a bit old, and I haven't been uploading clients anymore as my upload is very slow, but I have a friend that made a 2020-10 modded client, which works with newer versions of Rust and probably TF2.

There is a CLI Steam client which works on Vista, but the website it's hosted on is involved with software piracy, so I won't mention anything else about it.

Origin

There was a separate XP and Vista client in 2015, but Origin then decided to break it in 2016.

From what I can see, you'd need to spoof your Windows version to attempt to install normal Origin. Also, Origin likes to update all the time recently, which will require you to reinstall it all the time.

I haven't tested if the client even launches on Vista, it might need to be modded in some way. Origin also likes to lock out older clients for some reason, so you might need to make any older versions report as a newer version to Origin servers if the newer version doesn't work.

I don't know much about modding Origin and I haven't tried much, so this is pretty basic.

GOG Galaxy

I've done some testing, and have found GOG Galaxy 1.2.34.10 to be the newest(?) working version on Vista. (Might require extended kernel)

GOG Galaxy 1.2.37.7 is the first I've tested to not work on Vista. It's the CEF that's broken, so it might be possible to port the older CEF to newer builds, but I'm not going to bother with that.

I have not tested GOG Galaxy 2.0.

Other Game Clients

Uplay has a older version that still works with Vista, and from what I've seen, it's still fully functional to this day, so in this regard, Uplay is actually the best in something for once.

Legendary is a free and open source alternative client for the Epic Games Store. I don't know if it works on stock Vista, but it likely does. I recommend everyone use this client even on 7 and newer instead of EGS, as EGS is owned partly by Tencent, so lots of telemetry in the official client is guaranteed.

Playnite is similar to GOG Galaxy 2.0, as it's meant to combine Steam, Origin, Uplay, and more all into one client, but it doesn't officially support Vista, and I haven't tested it on Vista.

i keep getting steamui error, whats up with that? i used the old steam ui

[winvispixp]

On 8/21/2020 at 8:29 AM, asdf2345 said:

I have a friend that made a 2020-10 modded client

It kinda works but I get a "gldriverquery.exe has stopped working" error. Is it normal?

Also was anyone able to get cs:go working? I get "Loader call failed" error

[asdf2345]

1 hour ago, winvispixp said:

It kinda works but I get a "gldriverquery.exe has stopped working" error. Is it normal?

Also was anyone able to get cs:go working? I get "Loader call failed" error

That usually happens with older AMD cards or inside a VM. You can fix that by deleting the gldriverquery files

For CS:GO, I think you need absolute newest Steam, or more kernel functions, but you can still use the 2013 demo viewer for LAN games

[burd]

14 hours ago, asdf2345 said:

That usually happens with older AMD cards or inside a VM. You can fix that by deleting the gldriverquery files

For CS:GO, I think you need absolute newest Steam, or more kernel functions, but you can still use the 2013 demo viewer for LAN games

it was working till last year on the old 2018 build, it seems csgo wont launch anymore though due to added functions

[SharkVader66]

On 8/21/2020 at 6:29 AM, asdf2345 said:

Steam

All of these require a steam.cfg to block updates. In the Steam folder, create a steam.cfg file, and edit it with notepad to say "BootStrapperInhibitAll=Enable" (Without quotes) and save it.

Certain older Steam builds might require a patched packageinfo.vdf file. More info here

The November 26th, 2018 Steam build does still work today (Even a Steam build from late 2014 can still login to this day), but it has some game compatibility issues. For example, Garry's Mod, which still officially supports even XP, will not launch with this version of the Steam client. Downloading games has been broken for some users, but it can be fixed by modding a certain file.

There's a January 4th, 2019 Steam build, released after Steam dropped XP and Vista support, but works just fine on both XP and Vista. This can play better with some games, and I've confirmed that unlike the Nov 26th client, Garry's Mod works great with this client. The build was released on January 8th, 2019, but the build date is shown as January 4th, so it's listed as January 4th here.

If you want to extract the client from it's package files, and confirm that it's unmodified, I've uploaded everything you need to extract the client here, Windows XP/Vista, and 7 x64 can be used to extract the client, but if you extract it on 7 x64, you'll be left with the 7 x64 CEF, which doesn't work with XP/Vista.

Steam (Vista Extended Kernel)

The Oct 2nd, 2019 Steam build is pretty recent, so most games still work, but some games, like Rust, which require the Steam API v20 don't work with it. There are some file modifications that are required to get it working. It still works with the browser from the XP client, but mouse scroll is broken, and it doesn't work too well with the modern Steam site. This client also is the last client to come with version 72 of CEF, which can be used if you rename the Windows 7 x64 CEF folder to cef.winxp in Steam\bins\cef, then add -no-cef-sandbox to the Steam shortcut target. It does have some issues though, but they could possibly be fixed if it were possible to make Steam treat Vista x64 exactly like Windows 7 x64. If you know how to do this, let me know. One final issue with the client is that you can't sign out of friends, so you'll always appear as online.

The latest Steam build works with the file modifications, but there's no browser, which, because the new library UI is a webview, you'll be stuck using small mode. Other than that, it's quite good, but it still suffers from not being able to sign out of friends too though.

I have a pre-modded copy of the June 6th, 2020 Steam client linked here. I based it off of that version since -no-browser works with it. You could try modding newer clients linked here, but for now I think it's all that'd be needed for gaming on Vista.

The June 6th client is getting a bit old, and I haven't been uploading clients anymore as my upload is very slow, but I have a friend that made a 2020-10 modded client, which works with newer versions of Rust and probably TF2.

There is a CLI Steam client which works on Vista, but the website it's hosted on is involved with software piracy, so I won't mention anything else about it.

Origin

There was a separate XP and Vista client in 2015, but Origin then decided to break it in 2016.

From what I can see, you'd need to spoof your Windows version to attempt to install normal Origin. Also, Origin likes to update all the time recently, which will require you to reinstall it all the time.

I haven't tested if the client even launches on Vista, it might need to be modded in some way. Origin also likes to lock out older clients for some reason, so you might need to make any older versions report as a newer version to Origin servers if the newer version doesn't work.

I don't know much about modding Origin and I haven't tried much, so this is pretty basic.

GOG Galaxy

I've done some testing, and have found GOG Galaxy 1.2.34.10 to be the newest(?) working version on Vista. (Might require extended kernel)

GOG Galaxy 1.2.37.7 is the first I've tested to not work on Vista. It's the CEF that's broken, so it might be possible to port the older CEF to newer builds, but I'm not going to bother with that.

I have not tested GOG Galaxy 2.0.

Other Game Clients

Uplay has a older version that still works with Vista, and from what I've seen, it's still fully functional to this day, so in this regard, Uplay is actually the best in something for once.

Legendary is a free and open source alternative client for the Epic Games Store. I don't know if it works on stock Vista, but it likely does. I recommend everyone use this client even on 7 and newer instead of EGS, as EGS is owned partly by Tencent, so lots of telemetry in the official client is guaranteed.

Playnite is similar to GOG Galaxy 2.0, as it's meant to combine Steam, Origin, Uplay, and more all into one client, but it doesn't officially support Vista, and I haven't tested it on Vista.

Gmod no longer works with the Jan4 2019 client unfortunately 

[Dave-H]

Mention of warez is forbidden here under forum rules.

[xp128bit]

The origin legacy client worked until January 14th 2020 https://help.ea.com/en-gb/help/origin/origin/operating-system-not-supported-by-origin/ it was possible to use origin on xp/vista till then. Now all version of origin 9 are blocked from connecting.