Installing Freelancer in Windows 11
2022 is here and it’s time to take another look at one of the greatest games of all time, Freelancer! The game was released in March of 2003, so we are coming up on the 19th anniversary. It’s amazing that this game still holds up and is still great fun after all these years.
While playing the game is fun, installing it is not. In 2020 I put out a video on installing on Windows 10. This included all the tweaks needed to get the game, install it, and run it on a new PC.
Today, we have a couple of major updates to work with. One is, of course, Windows 11. I have been running Windows 11 for a few months now. I installed it on a gaming PC that I can wipe and start over with no worries. Turns out Windows 11 isn’t terrible, but I don’t feel comfortable upgrading my workstation, that’s for sure. The other update is there is an HD mod that keeps the game nearly 100% vanilla, but updates the graphics and tweaks the UI to work with higher and widescreen resolutions.
The good news is that installing on Windows 11 is actually a simpler experience than Windows 10 was. We still need to do most of the Windows 10 tweaks, but overall it goes smoother.
The great news is that the HD mod does all of the tweaks for us. If anyone would like better graphics and less headache, then this mod is for you!
I posted a video of the install process of the vanilla game and then the HD mod on YouTube. If you want to get back into Freelancer, or experience it for the first time, take a look!
Here are links to the tools used in the video. These will get you the needed dll and exe files as well as the HD mod.
NOTE: Looks like some links have changed. Please see here for the newer FLCombinedPatch to get the No-CD fix and Jason's Freelancer Patch in one self extracting file. Extract it and copy/paste into your Freelancer directory. https://the-starport.com/wiki/community-info/
Download the game - Old Games Download
7-zip to extract the game ISO - 7-zip
No CD fixed exe - The Starport
JFLP dll - JFLP dll
Moddb HD Mod download - Moddb
If you are still running Windows 10, here is my previous video from 2020 that will take you through the install in Windows 10.