How to install Games for Windows live - on Windows 10 (Working 2018)

[Willy Wynn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg_ORe3QvZg&t=201s

[tford1956]

Didnt they change GFWL to a xbox acct now?

[Festa2]

Originally posted by tford1956:

Didnt they change GFWL to a xbox acct now?

Owners of dirt 3 got the dirt 3 complete edition which got rid of GFWL and had all DLCs

[Pablo - Salta Arg]

Hi, I dont know who will read this. but I had it on W7, it was a "non steam version" if you know what I mean. It worked, I have my saves.. good news is that I made it work on w10.. bad news is that my saves won't run (I was level 130 or so), why? because GFWL encrypts them, so I have to start again, I almost had finished it man. that is unfair!!
Before we start, there was a posting by somebody on steam, this gave me the idea.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1493759457

So let's start. first dont uninstall the game, but uninstall games for windows live and marketplace. "Ordinal 43" error message means that actually the GFWL that the game brought is old, even in W7 that error was present.
If you install the GFWL that is inside de Disk (200MB), it will still throw the ordinal 43 error maybe.
then if you get the GFWL that is something like 600kb exe, it won't install for some reason, it is a live downloader that actually worked in 2018 or 2019, and now it just doesn't. probably it finished to disappear, or it still works on W7 (I dont know).
So I had the idea, what if I get the full version of a newer one? , so I found it in here.
https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1012-microsoft-games-for-windows-live/
dont pay attention to first link, check the bottom, you will find
>>> "gfwlclient.msi" --> this is the client, you need to install
>>>"xliveredist.msi" --> this is a rar with some files on it, unrar it and install the 2 files named "XLiveUpdate", one fo them must work.

Then go to the windows search (bottom left of your screen on windows 10) and write "GFWL" and the installed version you just installed will appear "Games for windows marketplace" meaning it was successfully installed. Open it, and login/ create account window will appear. Dont pay attention to it, close it. You only opened it to see Ordinal 43 error doesn't appear anymore.

Now, restart windows. Go to the dir where your exe is, check you dont have any xlive.dll (in case you tried other methods that implied copying .dll to game folder)

Play Dirt 3, now it will run, first screen inside Dirt 3 will prompt you to create an account, skip it.
I am not sure if Dirt can create offline accounts, I think so, because when you create your Dirt profile, the game asks you your NAME, then GFWL window appears so that you write your name. Then Dirt asks you for your SURNAME, and GFWL window opens and you write your SURNAME. and also allows you to choose an icon (mine is a horse).. and that will be your GFWL offline account, it is the cr*p that encrypts your saves but also makes them possible to happen, in other words GFWL is the owner of your saves, lose it and your files in "Documents/My games/Dirt" will be useless.

OK, at this point I must explain you some details. when you start Dirt 3 and the game just opens, GFWL also opens and prompts you, but you dont need to login using your EMAIL , that is your ONLINE account. You dont need it, meaning: you dont need to create or have any ONLINE account in GFWL, it is not necessary to save your progress on Dirt 3, so you dismiss it. How? by pressing ESC or skip button in your joystick. In my joystick A is accept and B is cancel or dismiss.

Then, your profile is next, you open your profile in DIRT where your name and number of races completed are, so if you install it for the first time all the career slots will be empty.
So you start a new career, and immediately GFWL interface will pop up in the upper part of the screen and makes you write your NAME and SURNAME, and this you NEED to do, this is your offline account. If you click on an option to "autenticate automatically" you wont need to select your GFWL profile anymore, the GFWL window when choosing your profile wont show anymore.

Notice several things.
1) your GFWL offline profile doesn't contain any email address.
2) your GFWL offline profile contains your name and surname and a friendly logo
3) that you can have several offline accounts, in a PC, they are free. So if you have brothers they can have their own careers in Dirt3.
4) Dirt 3 is not the only game that needs GFWL, many other games dom like Juiced 2, Gears, etc.
5) I actually wanted to extend in the explanation to make this clear: If nothing of this happens automatically, you must "CREATE AN OFFLINE ACCOUNT" manually inside GFWL, to do so, Start the game and dismiss the GFWL login, now the game intro starts, you press HOME button in your keyboard (the middle button of the upper row) and start looking for the option "create an offline account" or "local account" it is a link in blue probably, or an option at hand, easy to find. Find videos, it is easy.
This has its own history as well, before it used to be easier to create, but at some point people stopped making online accounts (because they realised it was not necessary), and as that was not benefitial for microsoft, they hid the "create offline account" button a bit, so it was difficult to find for noobs, who ended up creating online accounts and giving their emails...

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This is all folks, just to finish Id like to mention that I use a regular joystick and some old games required XBOX360joystick (a failed monopoly attempt), I know Steam gives you support for this, but I use "other" method, x360ce version for 32 bits (if I attempt to install the 64 version of the emu it will tell me "this is a 32 bit game and it wont work"). This little thing makes me play with any joystick and it starts automatically with the game, it is portable, small files, and if you dont want it just delete it without secondary effects.. If you can't run this, tell me and I can help you.

Also, if you fail to run DIRT 3 anyway, or if you just installed windows and this will be your first game in your system, check inside the disk or in the installation dir, or in the redists or steam framework or something and find all there is to install,
install DirectX, install Open AL, vcredist_x86, vcredist_x64, all those redists that come with the game are sometimes necessary.
Also Framework 2, 3, 3.5, etc, though I think Windows 10 already comes with it installed.
Last thing, I dont think I saw Dirt 3 in the store, So I think all this explanation will be for the guys that already had it.. Also there was another version of DIrt3 "complete collection" that didn't need GFWL.. I dont see it in the stores, neither. I only see Dirt 4 onwards..