Can't install the client on windows 8.1 64bit

[Rackham]

I tried searching for an answer to this on these forums and google, but couldn't find anything.

After a few months break I decided to renew my subscription but I can't get the client to install on my new pc...

When I try to run the ffxivsetup.exe I get an error that says "This app can't run on your pc. To find a version that works contact the publisher"

[Squa11_Leonhart]

ffxivsetup.exe may be corrupt or may require admin elevation.

[Rackham]

Ok should I try redownloading it I guess?

[Raist]

Make sure both 3.x and4.x versions of .Net are active. Some things have been deprecated in the newer releases and it causes issues sometimes with installers. They should both be listed when you go to turn Windows features on/off under the add/remove programs control panel snap-in (can run appwiz.cpl from run/search box to get to it directly). May want to hit Windows Update to get them up to date too...especially if one was disabled.

[Squa11_Leonhart]

FFXIV doesn't use anything from the Dotnet runtime, its purely visual C and the launcher is am embedded IE engine.

[Raist]

FFXIV doesn't use anything from the Dotnet runtime, its purely visual C and the launcher is am embedded IE engine.

OP is talking about installing the game, not running it. It's a documented issue that some older installers will not run properly without the 3.5 framework active.

They stopped enabling 3.5 on new installs a while back--without it you loose older framework support. Forget exactly when this happened, may have gone as far back as Vista or 7... but it wasn't active in my 8.0 fresh install to my old XP PC, nor on my ASUS laptop (refurbed older model, but loaded with 8.0). A store bought system may have it enabled to support older bundled software, but a fresh install from a MS DVD won't. This was a big problem for people with XI and other older games as well... both 3.5 and DirectPlay had to be toggled for that game to work, so some of you guys may already have them turned on and never ran up against it with XIV, but it could potentially be an issue here as well.

Keep in mind that XIV was initially developed with the intention of running it on XP (even 2.0 ARR was targeted to run on XP initially)... which means there is a lot of legacy stuff in there. As in MSIE8, .Net 3.5, and DirectX9. So this could very well be an issue with fresh 8.1 installations.

@OP, you may also want to enable that legacy support for DirectPlay as well (old DX9 feature that may not be available by default as well). That should also be available in the list for turning Windows Features on or off, under the Legacy section.

Edit:
Just out of curiosity, I poked around in the installer with TextPad and there appears to be a .Net Framework check going on. Error messages are there in plain text about failing version check in mscoree.dll because of deprecation in the 4.0 framework, and further down another message in plain text about .Net framework 1.0-3.5 not found. Whether that is the root cause of the OP's problem or not remains to be seen. But it does appear that the installer may be checking for .Net and it may throw up on itself if it doesn't find the legacy components available. There also appears to be a check for DirectPlay and at least a specific version level on the DirectX files. So there may still be some weirdness where people need to enable legacy support or run the old DX runtimes again like we had to do in the early days of Vista/7.

[Squa11_Leonhart]

You should always run the Dx9 websetup or full setup on any OS you install fresh, as there will always be managed and d3d9 extension files missing from the installation.

Strange that mscoree.dll would be referenced at all, the game is pure C++, theres no C# at all.