How to Get GTA 4 Working on Windows
I have no idea why people bash on GFWL so much. I've never had any issues and even use the same offline profile for years...for all my GFWL games...Yes you can easily copy and share your offline profiles.
Lets start at the beginning:
- Before launch this game installs GFWL so you don't need to download... but if you do go here.
If you have an Xbox and play online you should already have an account, you just need to link it:
- Press Home to bring up Games for Windows live and sign in.
- Enter your Xbox live account info and wait for your profile to download...that's it.
- You can check the 'auto sign-in' and it will sign you in automatically from now on.
If you don't have an account already, then head over to Xbox.com and create one.
If you don't have a Rockstar Social Club account, then create one as well by going to Rockstargames.com. You can link your Steam, Xbox Live accounts to your social club.
If you don't care about online / achievements, then just create an offline GFWL account and play singleplayer.
- Press Home to bring up Games for WIndows live and click create new profile.
- Scroll to the bottom and click 'create local profile'.
If you need your game save / config path: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games.
If you want to play your own music paste shortcuts to the actual music files here: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\User Music.
If you want to transfer your saves:
- Browse to: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft
- Copy both the GFWLive and XLive folders
- Copy your save game from: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games
Paste all these in the exact location on your new PC.