As the title says, I just did a clean install of Fallout: New Vegas, and whenever I launch the game and click play the game starts to load in, but then it just tabs me out back to my desktop and a windows installer pops up. The windows installer never manages to do anything, it just spins until I task manager close the game. If it's worth anything I have New Vegas on steam, but I don't have it installed.

Ever since I bought this game on GoG all I've had is problems, I've never been able to get it to work and I've never seen this issue before, any help would be greatly appreciated.

The game doesn't install anything during launch, so you shouldn't see any installers while loading the game. But it does install a few Visual C++ redistributables when you install the game, maybe you have a problem with them. You should try to uninstall at least 2005 and 2008 versions of it, both 32 and 64 bit and then reinstalling them. You can find the redistributables with google.

Okay, I'll give that a go and see what happens. I tried installing it on steam too and the preparing to install thing came up

So, I tried uninstalling both and reinstalling both, and nothing worked. Have no idea what to do at this point. I've got over 100 hours on steam so I was able to play no problem before, don't get what the issue is.

Also, if it's worth anything, this is what the event viewer says:

The program FalloutNV.exe version 1.4.0.525 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
Process ID: 31fc
Start Time: 01d34c321ca2a0f9
Termination Time: 4294967295
Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout New Vegas\FalloutNV.exe
Report Id: c59405e8-18b6-429d-aaed-1dc51d587c1f
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

sorry for all the edits, this also came up in the event viewer:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{D63B10C5-BB46-4990-A94F-E40B9D520160}
and APPID
{9CA88EE3-ACB7-47C8-AFC4-AB702511C276}
to the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

You haven't had both GOG and Steam versions installed at the same time, have you? Because that would very likely break at least one, possibly both installs. If you have, uninstall both completely and also delete C:\Users\*name*\Documents\My Games\FalloutNV folder just to be sure. Do note that folder has your saves, so copy them somewhere if you want to keep them.

The latter event is talking about not granting permissions, try to run the game as administrator and see what happens. With Steam version of FONV you need to run Steam itself with administrator rights. If you have linked FONV to GOG Galaxy I actually don't know can you run the game directly with administrator rights, never tried Galaxy.

If all else fails, you might want to try to reinstall your graphics card drivers just to rule them out. Especially if you happen to use Windows 10 and installed the recent Fall Creators Update, those major updates can in some cases do some funky stuff.

No, I've never had them installed at the same time. I do use GOG through the Galaxy client though, so I'll look into that side of it some more. Thanks for your help so far though, I'll see what happens.

So, I tried running the game as admin, didn't work. Tried reinstalling my graphics drivers, didn't work. What I did do was look in my Fallout 4 folder and the _CommonRedist folder, and I was wondering if I uninstalled the 2005 VC++, somehow made a Fallout NV version of the _CommonRedist folder that is supposed to download but never does, when I reinstall the game would it properly install the 2005 VC++ because the folder and all the correct thing are there? Trying anything at this point honestly.

As a side note, even when I download the game and hit verify/repair, I see it download the VC++, and it installs, but the game acts like it didn't.

Well, did everything you said to a tee, and same problem. I'm convinced it has something to do with that _CommonRedist folder not downloading with the rest of the game, because when I downloaded Fallout 4 and Fallout 3 the other day that folder was present, but not when I do New Vegas.

I have FONV installed using the the non-galaxy classic installer, and that doesn't have a folder containing the C++ installers. They are embedded in the installer files, runs them during install and that's it. Don't know how galaxy does it though. Besides, as long the needed C++ runtimes have been installed to your computer, the game doesn't need the redistributables it comes with. I've uninstalled the ones FONV installed and left only the most up-to-date version installed, the ones I linked previously and the game is working just fine.

Does Fallout 3 work for you? It uses the same engine as FONV and likely the same C++ versions, so if that works but FONV doesn't the problem might be somewhere else than with your C++ runtimes.

Sorry for the late reply, yeah, Fallout works. I tried uninstalling on GOG, doing what you said with the C++ files, and reinstalled it on steam and same issue. So like you said, obviously the problem must be deeper, but I don't know where to look or even start. Thanks for your help so far, I really do appreciate it.

Happy to help, but I have no idea what could cause that. Random wild guesses:

- You have installed or done something else FONV doesn't like, you could try to turn off any non-critical software you have running in the background
- Weirdly corrupted windows, use this guide to check for that
- Your antivirus software is being overzealous and not letting the game do what it needs, turn it off and see does that help
- You are living on ancient indian burial grounds and your PC is haunted

If nothing else helps you could always try to make a clean new windows install, if you are up for that.

So, quick update, I did what was listed here and I got almost to the main menu, and instead of it saying "preparing to install", it said "cancelling" lol. I'm going to try what you sent right now though.