Running Hotline Miami 2 on Windows XP

If you wish to play this game but you are still using Windows XP, take a look here!
NOTE: The guide is now obsolete for Steam users - Hotline Miami 2 supports XP out of the box now!

22ND JUNE 2016 UPDATE

Hotline Miami 2 now supports Windows XP out of the box! This guide is now officially obsolete for Steam users and for the time being remains online only for DRM free users.

10TH DECEMBER 2015 UPDATE

Editor beta of Hotline Miami 2 now supports Windows XP without any tweaks. For more info, click HERE!

Before opting in for Editor beta, you'll probably want to get rid of HM2 XP completely. Thus, make sure you remove d3d9.dll and hm2_xp.dll from your game directory!

Thank you for using the patch! Enjoy!

Overview

Before Hotline Miami 2 was released, the official system requirements for the game listed Windows XP as being compatible with the game. Though at the time of release, it turned out that posted requirements in fact came from the first installment of Hotline Miami. As a result, the game cannot run on XP and users who preordered the came are not able to play now.

I decided to do some quick research around the issue and it turned out re-adding XP support is not terribly hard. This unofficial patch aims to make the game playable on XP.

As of patch 1.03, the game defaults to OpenGL mode if running on XP. If for whatever reason you have to stick to DirectX 9 mode, add -d3d to the launch parameters.

NOTE: As of March 17th, this patch has been officially endorsed by Abstraction Games!

Download & Installation

Since the patch is now obsolete, all download links have been removed. However, if for any reason you still need to obtain it, you can get the source code from my GitHub page:
https://github.com/CookiePLMonster/HM2-XP

In order to patch your game to support Windows XP, follow those steps:

1. Unpack the archive contents to the game root directory. If you don't know where your game is, open Steam -> Right click on Hotline Miami 2 -> Properties -> Local Files -> Browse Local Files to locate your game directory.
   
2. Run hm2_xp_patch.bat. This will patch HotlineMiami2.exe to use my hm2_xp.dll which makes the game bootable on XP.

Repeat Step 2 every time the game gets an update and it fails to launch again.

Known Issues

NOTE: As of patch 1.03, those issues will NOT occur unless you use -d3d.

When the game runs in DirectX 9 mode, it crashes on device lost. To minimize the negative impact of this issue, the game is now forced to run in borderless windowed mode, so it still appears to be fullscreen, but cannot be minimized like regular fullscreen applications. The game will STILL crash when applying changes to any Graphics settings. Don't worry, despite the crash, all the changes got applied! When you launch the game again, the settings will be changed.


Enjoy the game! :)

[CsyeCok The Soldier of Sykhiv]

Can HLM2 mods work on Windows XP?

[paul]

im surprised people are still using XP after it lost support lol

[Cyb3r™]

Windows 7 master race

[payder]

yeah, i`m using XP

[Cyb3r™]

Wait.... People still use XP?

[Silent]

Indeed, this is known. I'm pretty sure Editor beta doesn't have this issue though, you could try this instead of using the patch then.

[Aveqs]

no achivements in game

[Aveqs]

Thanks!

[Silent]

Yes! Or instead of getting the patch, switch to Editor beta since it supports XP out of the box!

[Aveqs]

have downloaded this file unzip and stick just to the root folder and then run?