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


asdf2345

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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.

Edited by asdf2345
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On 8/21/2020 at 10:59 AM, asdf2345 said:

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.

 

Tried this but i get a steamui.dll error everytime

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Just now, burd said:

Yea i have , i have the x86 kernel32 aswell

I think I know what's wrong

Follow this video instead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjN6-e3nlPE

Download these four files too

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/tenfoot_misc_all.zip.1ca83d76835b4613170f5cead778b176b11f2b0c

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/friendsui_all.zip.vz.dd7a37b3cfae6b356320e3cc2f8b22b9143d9022_15642680

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/bins_cef_win32.zip.00fd988efedc940b14fe643d5a5eaf4e0a5f1605

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/bins_webhelpers_win32.zip.0f58d386fdc901fee6a04040e92b9ea56146b78a

Using the .exe from the current Oct 2nd copy of Steam you have, it should extract everything. If it doesn't, you'll need to send me the bootstrap logs.

Once Steam is extracted, it'll fail to launch. Now copy over your modded files, and try again

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9 minutes ago, asdf2345 said:

Thanks to a Discord user, I now have the January 4th, 2019 Steam client, and I've released it for everyone to use. It's probably the best client we can use on XP/Vista currently.

IDK. steam api from that client is outdated. Some games wont launch properly

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1 minute ago, Jaguarek62 said:

IDK. steam api from that client is outdated. Some games wont launch properly

I haven't encountered a game that doesn't work on a later API v18 client, but works on a API v19 client. This is coming from someone that mained a v18 API client between Oct 31st, 2019, and mid-late May 2020

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Just now, asdf2345 said:

I haven't encountered a game that doesn't work on a later API v18 client, but works on a API v19 client. This is coming from someone that mained a v18 API client between Oct 31st, 2019, and mid-late May 2020

Business tour, Fall Guys, Rocket league, Beamng fails to start through an older steam client.. I've encountered quite a few of them

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1 minute ago, Jaguarek62 said:

Business tour, Fall Guys, Rocket league, Beamng fails to start through an older steam client.. I've encountered quite a few of them

Those also likely don't work on an API v19 client either

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 8/21/2020 at 7:29 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.

 

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 haven't tried anything with GOG Galaxy, but I know it doesn't officially support Windows 7, but nothing stops Windows 7 users from using the client, so it might work.

 

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.

How to make Steam treat Vista x64 like Windows 7 ?

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