[Fixed] Fallout: New Vegas crashing/freezing Windows 10/11
- If Fallout: New Vegas is crashing on Windows 10, you have to know you are not the only one experiencing this issue.
- Experiencing random crashes on Windows 10 while trying to play Fallout: New Vegas can cause some frustration to appear.
- Using the compatibility mode in Windows 10 has proven to be a useful solution to this issue.
- Another way to start resolving this problem is to edit some files from the game installation folder.

Quite a few players have posted on Microsoft’s forum requesting support for fixing Fallout: New Vegas crashing or freezing.
Sometimes the game might suddenly crash and return players to the desktop. Or the game can completely freeze. One player said this in an MS forum post:
My problem is not just that Fallout freezes, but that when it does Windows 10 won’t close the program. So, I end up having to restart my computer. I don’t blame Windows 10 for the freeze, but it ought to be able to kill the program without a restart.
How can I fix Fallout: New Vegas crashing or freezing?
1. Run Fallout in compatibility mode
- Press the Windows key and E at the same time to open File Explorer.
- Open the Fallout: New Vegas folder.
- Right-click the Fallout.EXE game file and select Properties.
- Next, click the Compatibility tab shown directly below.
- Select the Run this program in compatibility mode checkbox.
- Select Windows 7 on the drop-down menu.
- Press the Apply button.
- Click OK to exit the window.
2. Edit the Fallout.ini and Fallout_default.ini files
- First, open File Explorer.
- Then open your FalloutNV folder.
- Right-click the FALLOUT file and select Open with.
- Select to open the file with Notepad.
- Find the bUseThreadedAI=0 setting in the file.
- Change the bUseThreadedAI=0 setting to bUseThreadedAI=1.
- Press Enter after bUseThreadedAI=1 to add a new line.
- Then add iNumHWThreads=2 in the empty line just beneath bUseThreadedAI=1.
- Click File to open a menu.
- Select Save on the menu.
- Next, open this path in File Explorer:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout New Vegas
- Right-click Fallout_default.ini and select Open with to open the file in Notepad.
- Modify the Fallout_default.ini file in exactly the same way you edited Fallout_default.ini as outlined in steps five to eight.
- Then save the file.
3. Install the New Vegas Anti Crash (NVAC) mod
Download the mod and extract contents
- Open the download webpage for the New Vegas Anti Crash mod.
- Register and log in on the NexusMods website.
- Click the Manual Download button for NVAC.
- Then select to download the NVAC.ZIP file.
- Open the folder you downloaded the NVAC.ZIP to in File Explorer.
- Double-click the NVAC.ZIP to open it.
- Click the Extract all option on the Compressed Folder Tools tab.
- Click Browse to choose a folder path to extract the ZIP to.
- Select the Show extracted files when complete checkbox.
- Press the Extract button.
Move content to the right folder
- Open the NVSE subfolder.
- Next, select all the content within the nvse_5_1_beta4 folder by pressing the Ctrl + A hotkey.Â
- Press the Ctrl + C hotkey to copy the files.
- Open your Fallout New Vegas folder at:
Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout New Vegas
- Click the Paste button on the Home tab.
- Then open the NVAC folder.
- Open the NVSE, New Vegas Anti Crash, and Plugins subfolders as in the shot directly below.
- Right-click the nvac.dll file and select Copy.
- Open your Fallout New Vegas folder again.
- Then open the Data, nvse, and Plugins subfolders.
- Press the Paste button to copy the nvac.dll into the Plugins subfolder.
4. Adjust display settings for Fallout
- Open the Fallout: New Vegas folder.
- Click FalloutNVLauncher.exe to open the Fallout launcher.
- Click Options to open the window in the shot directly below.
- Next, select the Windowed checkbox.
- Click the None radio button for screen effects.
- Select a lower resolution on the Resolution drop-down menu.
5. Reinstall Fallout: New Vegas
- Right-click Windows 10’s Start button and select to launch Run from the menu that opens.
- Type appwiz.cpl in the Open text box and click OK to open the uninstaller window.
- Next, select Fallout: New Vegas within the uninstaller window.
- Click Uninstall on the Programs and Features window.
- Then click Uninstall to confirm.
- Thereafter, you’ll need to open the Steam software.
- Click Library in Steam.
- Select Fallout New Vegas on your Library list.
- Then click the Install button for Fallout: New Vegas to reinstall the game.
Those are some of the resolutions players have fixed Fallout: New Vegas crashing and freezing with.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re guaranteed resolutions for everyone, but those fixes are certainly worth a try.