Fallout 3 on Windows 7.

The ini file in the Fallout directory itself is just for the default settings. It will have no impact on the in game settings you set.

Merging the documents w/the Installation directory will not help, No.


Im really not sure what to recommend here. Ive never really had such issues with textures.
At this point, I would completely uninstal FO3, and delete any file left over.
Re-Install so that you have a fresh copy of the game.

I would delete the Fallout ini and Fallout Pref. ini located in the Documents/My games Folder. (Actually I would delete these before uninstalling the game)

Start the normal launcher itself, and set it to Med. Quality, and then set the resolution (For now-You can bump up the settings once you get the game stable)

Boot the game in its vanilla state, and close it once you get to the main menu.
-->>By doing this, you will recreate the settings at default values in the Documents/My Games Folder<<--


You can go ahead and active GFWL now if you want. Lots of people disable it, I have myself in the past. But, as of late I just leave it enable. Ive had no issues with it and I run a lot of mods. With the exception of any mod that requires FOSE. But, FOSE will disable it anyway. I've found disabling is not at all needed, even if you want to run FOSE.

Then open Fomm, start activating mods 1 at a time, and run BOSS after each mod.

After you activate 1 mod, and sort it, boot the game (with Fomm) and ensure you get to the main menu. (No need to start a game, just make sure it will launch)
If by chance all is going well, and the game starts crashing after a mod gets installed, you'll know its a likely culprit. Disbale it, and try again to verify.

Keep going like this until you get all your mods installed.

Then, run AII (from the DATA directory) and activate it. It should all work now.

Dont forget to make a Merge Patch with FO3 edit after all this is done, and put it at the very end of your load order.


This is the procedure I do, and never had any major issues, aside from a buggy mod here and there.... Not really sure what may be causing the issue for you TBH.

Thanks for the update & glad you got it all sorted out.

Now you can enjoy a modded version of one of the best games ever, at least IMO. :)

I THINK I may have figured out why Fallout 3 doesn't work on Win7 x64 - the "Crash to Desktop" (C2D) problem at least, because I had it myself AFTER installing all my DLCs, Mods and of course the 1.7 patch. I wasn't even aware that this problem existed.

Anyways, I uninstalled it and went back to playing Vegas.

HOWEVER, something today made me try it out again.. just wanted to waste some time I guess.

1) So I installed the game, I DID NOT INSTALL ANYTHING ELSE. Nada. Didn't even change the graphics settings. DID NOT CHANGE OR INSTALL ANYTHING BUT THE BASIC GAME!
2) I started up the game, and Win 7 freaked out about my AERO desktop theme causing issues with the game and got the Crash to Desktop. Well that was new... so I went in to the desktop settings and changed the theme to CLASSIC BASIC... okay. Lets try again.
3) Started up the game, and ... no crash. Played through to the end of chapter ESCAPE! and exited the vault, all in glorious 640x480 + low quality settings. IDK if thats necessary to do.. its just what I happened to do. NFI why I did it either.. probably just so surprised that it was working and wanted to see how long it would. OH! It crashed once on me after basic character creation, so I restarted and then it worked fine all the way out the vault.
4) THEN... I installed PATCH 1.7 and.. started the game back up again... and, no crash. There I am standing outside of the Vault... so I walked to MegaTon... no crash, met the Sheriff, had a chat.

So I have NOT installed ANY of the DLCs AT ALL, yet! IDK if you guys have tried (I'm sure you have though) to run the game, just the patch also without DLCs. Right?

ALSO, I turned the theme back on just now and started the game and it worked, so now I'm a tad confused. HOWEVER, it could just be that FIRST START UP, you need the graphics set to DEFAULT and the desktop theme not as Aero, but classic/basic. Play a bit (if it starts up with no C2D), save and THEN set your graphics options.

(Also, I noticed my dt res is set to 1600x900 for some odd reason and I'm quite sure that the last time I tried to run FO3 it was at 1920x1080 ... so perhaps that has issue too.)


I KNOW this sounds asinine but it might work. The game was doing the same thing for me, I didn't change compatibility or anything like that, I haven't done ANYTHING to my system since uninstalling it the last time (couple weeks ago) when it wouldn't start up (wouldn't get past 1 second of the load intro) EXCEPT PERHAPS I installed the update for my ATI card for the game RAGE from ID ... but basically, no... my system is a wreck (its a mess in here) and for some reason this time it started up.. hope this helps.

People also say that they DELETED the FALLOUTPREFS.INI and all other setting INIs.. I'm wondering if since the game perhaps responds poorly to those files existing on first start up, if that is a bit similar to my own "playing the game on basic settings" for awhile before changing graphics options (also I'm now seeing other people removing the aero theme from running while playing), seems like a similar issue since deleting those files WOULD set all the options back to the lowest default, right?

Update: I installed the DLCs while my character was at MegaTon and the game still plays fine.