Baldur's Gate 3 on Windows 7 workaround 2025

[TSNH]

Tested on version 4.1.1.6758295

Baldur's Gate 3 is a game that is oficially supported by it's developers only on Windows 10. There are both Steram and GOG versions available, but I would advise against buying it on Steam since the steam client may stop working on Windows 7 at any time, while GOG game releases are DRM-free and have offline installers available so you aren't going to lose the ability to play.

This game comes is two variants bg3.exe (Vulkan based) and bg3_dx11.exe (DirextX 11 based).

You probably want to be using the Vulkan version as dx11 one has a broken map (and minimap)

To run the Vulkan version you need a pretty recent video driver:

Nvidia: for example version 471 will be fine

AMD: not tested

 

Required for patch 8 v4.1.1.6758295 :

This part is for the current version v4.1.1.6758295 (this is patch8) Patch 7 v4.1.1.6072089 does not require this, Patch 6 v4.1.1.5022896 requires a different workaround, see spoiler

1. Download CFF Explorer (part of Explorer Suite)

2. Find bg3.exe and open it in CFF Explorer

3. On the left panel go to Import Directory then find PlayFabServices.Win32.dll, PlayFabCore.Win32.dll and PartyWin.dll under module name

4. Right-click and click Delete Import Descriptor for PlayFabServices.Win32.dll, PlayFabCore.Win32.dll and PartyWin.dll

I think cross-platform play may not work if you remove PlayFab, but looking at it's website https://playfab.com/ this PlayFAB is likely to contain Microsoft's spyware and you may not want it anyway of you are on Windows 7

5. Save the file as bg3_win7.exe or whatever

For All versions of Baldur's Gate :

6. When launching the game's exe always hold the Shift key (not needed for Windows 8.0 and 8.1)

7. Congratulations, Launch bg3.exe (I mean your modified one here) in the bin directory (don't even bother with a crappy Larian launcher)

 

 

patch 6 v4.1.1.5022896

On Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1 the game works out of the box and you just have to launch bg3.exe in the bin directory (don't even bother with a crappy Larian launcher)

On Windows 7 you have to follow these steps:

1. Download CFF Explorer (part of Explorer Suite)

2. Find bg3.exe and open it in CFF Explorer

3. On the left panel go to Import Directory then find kernel32 under module name

4. Replace a function called GetOverlappedResultEx with GetOverlappedResult (just rename)

5. Save the file as bg3_win7.exe or whatever

Edited April 19 by TSNH
new version

[TSNH]

Update: Larian Studios has dropped a new update to BG3! I've just updated this guide with a new workaround regarding the Win7-incompatible PlayFAB component.

According to the developers it's the last main development update so there is a big chance that BG3 will be kept compatible with Windows 7 for years to come

[veso266]

On 4/19/2025 at 8:00 PM, TSNH said:

Update: Larian Studios has dropped a new update to BG3! I've just updated this guide with a new workaround regarding the Win7-incompatible PlayFAB component.

According to the developers it's the last main development update so there is a big chance that BG3 will be kept compatible with Windows 7 for years to come

great tutorial, but how can deleting a dependency actualy make the game work (won't the game call functions that are in that dlls?)

[Tripredacus]

Modern games tend to ship with more capabilities than any one person needs. This is the result of the dev environment and I personally consider it to be laze. Take a simple example where a game will have all of the textures included that the game supports using, despite the fact that any person who plays the game will only use one of them. This is why you can find a lot of people complaining about games being so big, or 4K textures being included even for people who don't/can't use them. But on the code side, since these games are created using suites, they also include support for a lot of extra stuff. Let's say this particular thing is only relating to the multiplayer aspect, if you only played in single player the missing function calls would likely never be used.

So the result of removing a dependency is that it is likely something isn't going to work, but that doesn't mean the thing that won't work is a function that a player will ever use or need. Eventually it can lead to a problem with future patches or with mods.