Freydis

I certainly hope so. I bought my Vanilla Skyrim disk version back in 2012 after upgrading my Dell 530 Inspiron Win XP to play it. In late 2015, the WinXP was replaced with a XPS 8900 Win10 but my rural internet connection is still through WildBlue Satelllite, so downloading (among other things) the DLCs was, and still, not an option for me at this time. At first, as a Steam first timer, I was very upset upon thinking I still needed to be connected to Steam in order to disengage it to play offline after the final installation was completed. Ok, learned I don't but My concern is what would happen IF Steam ever "went down" or, years down the road, Valve folded leaving you with perfectly good games you can't play anymore because of the Steam DRM requirement. At least I can play it "offline" but I'll be damned if Steam pulls my legitimate disk version out of the lineup and can't play it anymore. As you said, you paid for the game....it's yours.

If you look through "Search", you will find several lists of "Essential Mods" to enhance your gameplay. Generally, you can start off with the unOfficial Patches for Fallout and all DLCs (the current one actually has Mr. Burke doing more than merely sit in Moriarity's Saloon) In no particular order, these are a few I use to play with my Fallout 3 GOTY version. The UnOfficial Patches Fellout Dogmeat never dies Project Reality Streetlights and Streetlights wasteland MTC Wasteland Travellers (makes the land more "alive" than only seeing people in the Towns) Responsive Kill Reactions Trick your enemies with armor (inflitration) Portable mattress DC Interiors combo (opens up several areas in DC) A World of Pain (more dangerous) Megaton Reborn Lootable Rubble piles Attentater's Wasteland Economy Passive Critters (as long as you don't attack bloatflys or molerats, they will not attack you) Fallout Farms There are several fan made "land mods" you can get download. Some are small quest-like (e.g. "The Librarian"), while others are far larger (e.g. "Alton IL") I have several "Green World"/Floral mods to change the drabness of the vanilla landscape after while. Fallout 3 still has a large, active modding community. ;)

I have a XPS 8900 with Win 10 Home which ran my Fallout GOTY fine until the Anniversary Update Sept 25th. Then ran into several problems launching Fallout GOTY. Went to Steam to find a solution (although I have the disks but figured someone would post a "fix" there) I finally downloaded the 9 driver from Skyforce and installed in my Fallout 3 folder. Now it runs although my OEM Nvivdia 745 card is not recognized (Options keep showing I am running the older 8800). Finally got my FOMM running as Admin so all my mods will work. I downloaded the utility but haven't tried installing it yet. The one thing I have not done is update all my Geforce Drivers to the latest version as I didn't see a need (still using 361 driver version). Being on a metered Satellite Internet connection hampers any HUGE update downloads (including the obligory Win 10 ones) Good thing I didn't or else I would Really be in trouble as I really enjoy playing this game and all the mods. I bought the GOTY shortly after it came out to play the game on an eight year old Inspiron 530 WinXP I had. Well, until the motherboard went "south" late last year. Was so glad the game could be played on a Win 10 even with a bit of "tweaking".

I use mine for the same reasons (work and play at home) and why I never replaced my old WinXP....until it finally died (if it ain't broke.....). So I back up my work on a regular basis. Including several years worth of "Downloads" saved into separate folders for just such a contingency. As I use a satellite connection for the Internet (Wildblue), this cuts down having to re download a huge file, like updates (or huge game mods) and up my FAP. It was installed when no other internet connection was available except Dialup (yes....I live in a very rural area). Cell towers only began marching their way into my area a few years ago and WB is still more cost effective. I thought I had saved GWL disabler in one of the "Downloads" folders but didn't. As I said, that was all that was needed for my game to run. My FOMM is one of the early versions and why I need to update it to work properly. Like you, I am looking at slaving my WinXP HD as an external...in the hopes some of my Windows applications can still be used/transferred to use through my Win 10 for now. Hard to say until I do. Not that I need the extra "space" (the XPS came with two terabytes) but until I can replace these with Win 10 compatibles.."shrugs". By the way, Oblivion GOTY installs and plays on Win 10 without problems. A friend of mine, who recently bought a Win 10 gaming rig, told me her Skyrim installed and plays without problems. I had Skyrim on my Inspiron but haven't installed it on my XPS yet. I'll get around to it some day.....but having too much fun with Fallout 3 right now.

I agree with didguns.....A good mod can change the game and modders for Bethesda's games prove this time and time again. They expand and extend a game's life for years. Presently I have Oblivion and Fallout 3 GOTY installed on my new XPS 8900 Win 10 (never went to Win 7 or 8). Up til then, I played these on my old Inspiron 230 (WinXP) for years. Oblivion runs just fine on Win 10 without a hitch from the beginning. However, I did have a problem with Fallout 3 until I installed the GFWL app (missing file glitch) and the disabler. I have Morrowind and several mods for it as well as Skyrim to install later. Eventually I'll buy Fallout 4 but still having too much fun with #3

Apparently the Steam community has had similar problems and here is one person's solution that worked for me. https://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/discussions/0/541907675756259732/ Here is one of the shared links that helped me http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=149946772 For me, it was making sure I had an updated patch (fortunately saved on a flash drive from my old computer in a previous "save") and redownloaded the "Games for Windows Live" and disabler. There is a YouTube, you can search for, telling you how to get the game to run on Win 10 too. I have the disk version of Fallout: GOTY which I played on my old Inspiron 530/WinXP for years. Never had Win 7 or 8. So when it died, I bought a new Dell XPS 8900 with Win 10 and installed the game. Fallout 3 was made for WinXP/Vista and had some problems getting it run on Win 10 though. I still get a "this app may not work on your computer" notice but disregard that. Essentially, after installing my disks, it kept telling me some file was missing and would not run. After installing the Games for Windows Live application and the disabler, it worked. Click on "all apps" > "Games"> Fallout 3 and it should work. I never got around to putting up an icon. I installed FOMM but still need to update the NET version for it to run properly.

Haha....glad your problem is fixed :) However you haven't wasted anyone's time asking.....the majority of gamers I 've known are always willing to help newbies. My suggestion is to play it in spurts at first to get the "feel" of it and determine what kind of character you want to "play" as. Save often. When outside of the Vault, the "vanilla" Wasteland is pretty grim and foreboding. The Fallout 3 modding community has created several good ones for the "vanilla" game as you probably found out after playing Oblivion for a while.

P.S. Since your Fallout 3/Oblivion were released "bundled" by Bethesda....Have you updated your Fallout 3 will all current patches? Every time I see the TV ad from a particular "fix the registry" company.....(cause my "my computer is so sloooow") I run far away. Ads from these companies (and this one has been around in various forms over the last few years) are "possible" scams. As for needing to pay money to have your problem fixed....no way and not needed. The solution for your "Fallout3.exe not being read" may be found using this site's "Search" function. Yes, it can be frustrating but the 'chase" is worth it. Being 61 and being a historical researcher, most of my computer expertise (such as it is) is self taught using this method of "chasing down" the quarry. Being a detective who sorts through and digs around for tips/evidence to solve a problem. Being an Admin for another Official game website for several years has also helped while working with game communities. The game isn't going anywhere.....it will be there waiting to be played as soon as the solution is found and applied. ;)

Here is a suggestion.....defrag your computer. If you haven't done this in a while, do this. It's amazing how many files get scattered all over and cause problems with new games not working properly no matter how well your computer meets game requirements. Have you tried disabling the "Microsoft Games for Windows Live"? If I remember right, this is what I did.....After I defraged (and before installing the game) As mentioned above, Oblivion uses the same game engine...yes...but it is an earlier version of what Fallout 3 uses. From TweakGuides.com about "Games for Windows Live" Here is the G4WL Disabler link: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/1086 Before upgrading my PSU and Graphics card, I went through several "tweak guides" to maximize what I could do to optimize Oblivion more. The . "TweakGuides.com" has been one of my favorites to go for this. And should for Fallout 3 ( The highlighted link will take you to his "Fallout 3 tweak guide pages") So remember this, I went back and found his page about possible launching problems http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_13.html Fallout 3 seems to run smoother on WinXP than Win 7. So if you are using Win 7, have you tried using the "Compatibility Mode"? It also appears Win 7 has a problem reading the "Fallout3 .exe" command but there are solutions to it. Have you tried starting the FalloutLauncher.exe instead? Believe me, you are not alone with this problem but it has been solved.

I run my Fallout 3 GOTY on a five year old Dell Insprion 530 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 WinXP 32 bit with 3 gig RAM I bought new for my family business in 2007 and any gaming I may want to do. Earlier this year I upgraded its OEM 300 PSU to a 500 to support a later video card upgrade (OEM 8300GS to an EVGA GTS 450) I can't afford to buy a new computer just yet and any hardware upgrades are dictated by what I can stick comfortably into my Dell's mid Tower. What games I want to play can still be supported by what I have...especially with the new card. Even Skyrim will run on it on medium/high settings I found out if I perform some tweaking. This what I have found out from reading other posts on the subject. I just watch my mods compatibility and load order whenever installing new ones. Have had very few crashes and only after playing for long periods. Yet expected that.

1...what are you computer specs? (always a good starting point) 2... "Uninstall, Reinstall and Reboot" is an old gamer's mantra... to make sure ALL the files downloaded properly from the disks and "settled" into your game's folders. I have a 5 year old Dell Inspiron 530 Intel 2.2 Core 2 Duo, WinXP SP 2 (3 gig RAM) bought new for the family business in late 2007. It has been adequate for my own gaming needs with games made up to 2006 and still good enough for later ones like Oblivion (although for that game, after some tweaking was done) In Jan. 2012 I upgraded my OEM video card to a more gamer friendly GTS 450 and swapped out the OEM PSU for a more powerful one to support the card and/or any later one. Then bought Fallout 3 GOTY....which I had been wanting to play since reading about its development. At first, like you, it would not start or crash to loading screen. After going through "#2", it ran. But then Fallout 3's engine "does" have its quirks and so does Fallout 3 GOTY. You can find all sorts of advice through the "Search" to help you. Just hope mine helped you get it running....;)

I was really hoping there would be some way to permanently disable Steam after installing the game. My internet connection is through satellite (WildBlue)....not cable, wireless or "whatever". So to frantically pull out my cord just because Bethesda decided to insist you update patches via Steam instead of on your own is ridiculous. Well, I downloaded the TESV file in preparation for when I buy the game later.

Wukong: You can go to Games Debate.com to look for Skyrim. They have a version of "Can You Run It" systems requirements program that will help you. The minimum requirements can be found in the first postings of this thread. Based on that you have enough RAM to "just" run the game...and anything else on your computer. Your E5200 processor will do fine But I would suggest replacing your GT 210 workstation card with a GT 240 or GT 440 if you don't intend upgrading your PSU right now. Both only require a minimum 300w PSU support...which your Dell came with. For better video card options, you would have to upgrade your PSU to a 500w or better. Corsair, Antec Earthwatts, OCZ or Seasonic are good brands. I have a Dell Inspiron 530 Core 2 Duo E4500 2.2ghz WinXP SP 3 3 GIGS RAM nVidia Geforce 8300 GS And according to GamesDebate.com, it is sufficient. (on a scale of 1 to 10, my processor is rated a "4" haha) Only need to upgrade my video card. The computer is used mostly for a family business but I also do some "more than casual" gaming. I play Oblivion GOTY and my card is auto detected for Medium settings. After a bit of tweaking and using some mods, Oblivion is played on Medium-High with my "workstation" OEM video card. Skyrim can't be played with it. I recently upgraded my power supply to an Antec Earthwatts Green 500Dw and looking at getting an EVGA GTS 450 or a GTX 550 Ti. A 550w or 650w PSU would open up my video card options more, I know. but can't afford anything better at the moment. After reading several up grade video card questions in the Dell Forums, found the Antec can support these cards. Even a GTX 460 is possible....but I understand it's more power hungry. So..in a nutshell: Add another Gig of RAM....at least. NVidia GeForce GT 440 card (if you want to stick with your Dell OEM 300w PSU) Better still, upgrade your PSU First.....and don't go cheap if you can help it. Good luck and have fun slaying Dragons when not stormin' castles.