Games for Windows - LIVE
Games for Windows - LIVE (GFWL) is an online gaming service provided by Microsoft. Users sign in with their Windows Live ID. GFWL enables games feature achievements, 360 controller support built in, and cross platform chat with Xbox LIVE users.
Issues And Fixes
Password Special Characters
Passwords need to be under 16 characters and no non unicode characters such as $%&%^><. If your password contains any of these characters you will most likely not be able to sign in to the GFWL client in your game.
Changing Gamertag Breaks Savegames
The changing of one's GFWL Gamertag will result in savegames becoming invalid.[1]
It is possible to retrieve savegames by renaming the Gamertag folder to the new Gamertag (on a per-game basis).[2] For example, switching the Gamertag in Fallout 3:
C:\Users\%username%\Documents\My Games\Fallout3\Saves\%Gamertag Name%
Cannot connect in-game
Although your GfWL account may be usable on the various Microsoft websites, it cannot connect through the in-game service. Two possible fixes are:
- "Sign in as a different user", then re-enter all the same account credentials again. This may now connect.
- Open an administrator-level command prompt (enter "cmd" without the quotes into the Start menu search dialog, then hit Ctrl-Shift-Enter). Type in
netsh.exe interface ipv4 show interfaces
.
Identify your Local Area Connection, then type in
netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface 10 mtu=1492 store=persistent
where "10" is the value for your Local Area Connection from the first command's results. This may need to be run every time you want to play the game. This problem arises because GfWL tries to alter your connection's MTU before using it, a ludicrously stupid thing to do for a single application's needs. Note that 1492 is a non-standard MTU value to boot. Naturally, Windows blocks this unsafe operation without even getting UAC involved as there is no valid reason for a client application to make this change. Yes, GfWL is incompatible with Windows.
Moving/backing up saves
If you need to move the saves for a games for windows live game to another computer or just back them up, don't forget to backup/move the Xlive folder. The savefiles might not work without the folder.
It is located at C:\Users\*USERNAME*\AppData\Local\Microsoft\XLive
on Windows 7.
Crashes
Many people have problems with GFWL crashing in-games, and on startup. See here for a fix.