Thread: 'Unable to to complete version check' error message Windows 8.1

Yeah. Once Windows 8 gets into your machine, it becomes extremely difficult to remove it.

You can try a couple different things, but honestly, they didn't work for me and I don't think they will work for windows 8.1 in general:

1.) Delete the boot folder and drop in a known "good" boot folder. You can get good boot folders from the FFXIV Reddit page. Here is where the boot folder is in my directory:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn

2.) Also make sure the boot folder is unchecked for Read Only

3.) Turn your user settings down to "never notify". You can find it here:

Control Panel\User Accounts and Family Safety\User Accounts

4.) Run FFXIV as admin by right clicking and selecting "Run As Administrator".

5.) Set up a new user account on your machine and attempt to run FFXIV.

If these don't work, you can take more, "drastic" measures. Keep in mind, when playing with these files there is always the chance of your computer freaking out and having to reformat. I wouldn't take these steps unless you're ready for a full reformat anyway:

1.) Pick up a registry cleaner and clean your ENTIRE registry. You can find a popular one here: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

2.) You can manually assign permissions for FFXIV to see if it fixes the issue. You can find a walkthrough here: http://www.askvg.com/guide-how-to-ta...ly-in-windows/

3.) You can try to repair your permissions by loading to a backup before it started giving issues. Here is a half written lazy walk through on how to fall back to a previous restore point: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...backup-restore

4.) Reformat to Windows 8 or to Windows 7.

Honestly, your best bet is to just get off 8.1 and 8 in general. It's a terrible TERRIBLE OS and should not have been released with the sheer amount of bugs and broken components in it. I've seen Alpha programs run better than 8 and 8.1.

Anyway, I hope I could at least point you in the right direction and hope you get back up and running soon!

PS: This isn't a bug with FFXIV. This is a bug with Windows 8.1. Specifically a permissions issue with Windows 8.1 preventing the version check to actually happen and pass.