Halo PC won't launch

First of all, I hadn't played Halo PC in awhile, maybe a couple of months, yet I've had Windows 10 since about Day One. It HAS worked before. I don't know at one point it stopped working, if it was one of the latest Windows 10 updates, that, I don't know. I think it's worked since the Fall update, but I haven't really played it much since then.

Upon launching the game, I get the message: We are sorry but there was a problem accessing your personal Halo PC files which are located in your My Documents folder.

Mind you, the PC version of this game came out in 2003, so it was originally built for Windows XP, and that the Documents folder had been moved around, since. Once again, the game HAS worked fine on my machine on every version of Windows, since....well, with the exception of possibly WIndows 8/8.1, I never owned a copy of that. It worked fine on Vista, 7 and then 10.

A support link is provided in the error message, but the page cannot be found.

It looks like it's having trouble basically accessing the Documents\My Games\Halo folder.Before anyone suggests this: Re-installing did not help at all. Compatibility mode didn't help, either.

See the attachment to see the error I'm experiencing, but I did basically describe it.

Can you try adding Halo to the Controlled Folder Access allowed app list? Change Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access Settings - Windows 10 Security System Tutorials

PolarNettles said:

Can you try adding Halo to the Controlled Folder Access allowed app list? Change Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access Settings - Windows 10 Security System Tutorials

EDIT: I found a workaround so I'm able to access and edit the registry. I'm currently working on it and will post another reply with results.

That doesn't even work. I cannot even create the first registry key, I end up with permission errors. See attached. I tried manually creating a reg file and that didn't work, either.

Strange, Not run Halo for a couple of years, it's been sitting on a drive that's gone from Win7 to Win10 and moved to a different PC, Fired up first time, other than having to agree the licence and input settings it's working OK.

Edit: And created it's folder in C:\Users\xxxxx\Documents\My Games\Halo

clam1952 said:

Strange, Not run Halo for a couple of years, it's been sitting on a drive that's gone from Win7 to Win10 and moved to a different PC, Fired up first time, other than having to agree the licence and input settings it's working OK.

Edit: And created it's folder in C:\Users\xxxxx\Documents\My Games\Halo

Do you have Bitdefender? Secondly, did you update it to 1.00.10 and confirm that it's running? I'm not all sure what I did a couple of years ago, if it was just the "10" update or another update, but basically, Gamespy had closed down and we needed to do something to point the game to another service, maybe that was part of the update. Were you able to see servers under multipayer? I'm about ready to re-install it now.

My Anti-virus, Bitdefender Total Security 2018 was causing the problem. I never would have thought to investigate this. Thank you for tipping me off, @PolarNettles .

Basically, the post from you told me to investigate settings, that I apparently did not have, because I'm not using Windows Defender.

Initially, Halo would not even launch. I would get the error message in the OP. Then, I found a way using BitDefender to allow the Halo app. I was then able to open the game, but it would freeze at the initial screen, turning into a small window, then taking full screen again, back and forth. Why was I all the sudden seeing this behavior? No idea. Maybe it has something to do with new protections brought on by Meltdown and Spectre.

Thank you @clam1952 for attempting to look into the matter, as well. Too bad we weren't experiencing the same issue.

Solution: Turn off BitDefender, THEN install Halo PC, update it with the latest patch (Halo PC 1.0.10) found on this page, confirm that it's running, then re-enable BitDefender.

Many thanks for this, fixed my not loading and allowed me to get my Halo fix again... An overzealous Bit Defender is better than an ineffective one.

JOSHSKORN said:

My Anti-virus, Bitdefender Total Security 2018 was causing the problem. I never would have thought to investigate this. Thank you for tipping me off, @PolarNettles .

Basically, the post from you told me to investigate settings, that I apparently did not have, because I'm not using Windows Defender.

Initially, Halo would not even launch. I would get the error message in the OP. Then, I found a way using BitDefender to allow the Halo app. I was then able to open the game, but it would freeze at the initial screen, turning into a small window, then taking full screen again, back and forth. Why was I all the sudden seeing this behavior? No idea. Maybe it has something to do with new protections brought on by Meltdown and Spectre.

Thank you @clam1952 for attempting to look into the matter, as well. Too bad we weren't experiencing the same issue.

Solution: Turn off BitDefender, THEN install Halo PC, update it with the latest patch (Halo PC 1.0.10) found on this page, confirm that it's running, then re-enable BitDefender.