Problem with windows 11

[Darkcyrus]

My game crashes randomly in certain zones like port sandy or when enlarging the chat box. It was running fine with windows 10, after upgrade, I get random crashes.

[Thukoolo]

Good morning Darkcyrus, and thank you for posting in the Final Fantasy XI Technical Forums.

I apologize for the delay in response to this issue. If you are still experiencing this issue, please respond with the following:

Error message(s) received:
Other programs being used when running FFXI:
Techniques used to solve problem:
How often does this error occur?
Have you attempted to adjust the settings under 'FINAL FANTASY XI Config'?

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XI Technical Support Forums!

[Alhanelem]

I wish I could help you, but I've been running Win11 since it first came out on the Insider dev channel and FFXI has been as stable as it was before I upgraded.
There was an issue however with certain intel CPUs and certain games, but I kinda doubt FFXI was among those. I suppose it's possible though. But that issue was supposed to have been fixed.

[Darneltia]

Greetings fellow adventurer,

Unfortunately, Windows 11 is not an officially supported platform for Final Fantasy XI at this time so bugs and problems may arise as a result. We advise changing the game's executable file under Properties > Compatibility to "Windows 7, 8 or 10" to see if this may help resolve the issue. You may also want to try uninstalling the game and reinstalling it. Furthermore, it may be better to do a direct reinstall of Windows 11 instead of using an upgrade from Windows 10 to 11 to see if this may help. If you are having further issues with Windows 11, we advise contacting Microsoft support for further assistance.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XI Technical Support Forums!

[IBHalliwell]

Hello,

It has been 9 months since your last information on FFXI and Windows 11. Please can we have an update? Additionally:

My Son just bought from Dell a 27 inch All in One Inspiron. It comes only with Windows 11 Home.

There are two (2) reasons to have some idea (official and unofficial) the support date for Windows 11. They are:

1) FFXI is a major reason for the system I bought for my Son.
2) Given Dell and other manufacturers are for home / personal system mostly selling Windows 11 (only) systems, we'd love to know when or if ever SE will support Windows 11 (especially for those people with newly bought systems).

Thank you for your time and hopefully an idea when we'll get support.

[Alhanelem]

As the support person said, not being supported doesn't mean it won't work. I've been running the game on windows 11 since it the first Windows Insider dev branch builds were released, on a system with an unsupported CPU (first generation AMD Ryzen). The game works fine for me.

[Darkdragongers]

I think you talking this?

To install and enable DirectPlay on Windows 11/10, follow these steps:
Search for the windows features in the Taskbar search box.
Click on the Turn Windows features on or off search result.
Find out Legacy Components and click the plus icon.
Tick the DirectPlay.
Click the OK button.
Restart your computer.

[BST]

Have you tried changing the "High DPI scaling" option in Windows 10 or 11?

Right-click on pol.exe and click Properties, then Compatibility tab, then down the list click "change high DPI settings" and try enable the top option and then load up the game.

I had to change that option to get the game to even run as my desktop scale is over 100%, which this game seems to have issues with on certain hardware.

[IBHalliwell]

As the support person said, not being supported doesn't mean it won't work. I've been running the game on windows 11 since it the first Windows Insider dev branch builds were released, on a system with an unsupported CPU (first generation AMD Ryzen). The game works fine for me.

Hello and thank you for your reply,

As I was pointing out it has been 9 months since the last we heard from someone at SE about Windows 11. I am hoping for an update on when we might or will see Windows 11 support - if ever. After all it has been over a year since Microsoft officially released Windows 11.

[Sp1cyryan]

Hello and thank you for your reply,

As I was pointing out it has been 9 months since the last we heard from someone at SE about Windows 11. I am hoping for an update on when we might or will see Windows 11 support - if ever. After all it has been over a year since Microsoft officially released Windows 11.

You may never see Windows 11 support for this game.

[Alhanelem]

Hello and thank you for your reply,

As I was pointing out it has been 9 months since the last we heard from someone at SE about Windows 11. I am hoping for an update on when we might or will see Windows 11 support - if ever. After all it has been over a year since Microsoft officially released Windows 11.
Who knows if it will happen or not. I'm just telling you, that regardless of official recognition, it does work.

[IBHalliwell]

Who knows if it will happen or not. I'm just telling you, that regardless of official recognition, it does work.

Hello and Thank you for your reply Alhanelem,

I bought my Son a Dell Inspiron 27 7710 AIO running Windows 11 Home. I installed FFXI.

After playing it for 15 minutes or so, he saw the Window running FFIX simply disappear. No errors and no messages.

I turned on Windows compatibility mode setting it to 8. It STILL had the same problem but he was able to run for a little bit more than an hour before the window simply disappeared without any message or dialog box.

Any thoughts or suggestions? He says he can't trust the system as he could be in a battle or party, etc where people are counting on him.

I offered to return the Dell, as we're still in the 30 days return period. He has faith SE will get it working, but hey, I don't know.

Every home computer today is coming with Windows 11 and SE sees fit to NOT support FFXI on Windows 11. Will they support it and if so when?

Thank you.

[IBHalliwell]

I think you talking this?

To install and enable DirectPlay on Windows 11/10, follow these steps:
Search for the windows features in the Taskbar search box.
Click on the Turn Windows features on or off search result.
Find out Legacy Components and click the plus icon.
Tick the DirectPlay.
Click the OK button.
Restart your computer.

Hi,

I checked and DirectPlay is on. In fact, I remember the FFXI Benchmark 3 turned DirectPlay or Windows 11 turned it on first time I used FFXI Benchmark 3.

Thank you for your reply! :)

[IBHalliwell]

You may never see Windows 11 support for this game.


Wow! Really? Why? Is SE discontinuing FFXI?! I mean come 2026 and there won't be a Windows 10.

[Alhanelem]

The insight I can provide here is fairly limited. All I can tell you is I have this PC i built myself like 5 years ago. I'm running windows 11 even though MS doesn't really want me to and have had no issues playing the game.

The most likely culprit is probably the GPU drivers. Try installing the reference drivers from AMD/NVIDIA's website for your graphics hardware, and see if that helps. Dell in particular often has their own drivers for the hardware andd it could cause issues. Intel integrated graphics I think people have also had issues. This in spite of the fact that the game barely uses your GPU in any way at all.

(The annoying thing with graphics drivers in win11 for me has been sometimes it wants to install drivers through windows update even if I have a newer version from AMD directly, so if you install the reference drivers, you may want to disable the optional updates so that it only updates Windows itself)

If you do want to return the Dell, I'd reccomend doing a self-build or buying a proper desktop PC rather than an all-in-one, these will be much better for gaming, as all-in-ones often have laptop graphics hardware in them, and more likely to have issues with some games. especially older ones.

[Sp1cyryan]

Wow! Really? Why? Is SE discontinuing FFXI?! I mean come 2026 and there won't be a Windows 10.

Why would you jump to such a silly conclusion? Unless told otherwise, the game isnt ending.

There will still be Windows 10 in 4 years, lol. SE just won't provide 11 support unless absolutely necessary. Even then we don't know if they have any actual issues doing so.

[Catmato]

The most likely culprit is probably the GPU drivers.

This seems unlikely to me. The game runs fine for a while and just disappears. That doesn't scream GPU to me.

[Alhanelem]

This seems unlikely to me. The game runs fine for a while and just disappears. That doesn't scream GPU to me.I mean, I've seen it happen. Not specifically with FFXI, but when a game simply terminates it could be literally anything if it doesn't give you an error message.