How to fix
Forza Horizon 5 startup crashes
on Windows

Hello, I have recently got Forza Horizon 5, and it worked fine for the first few days, but it is now crashing on startup every time I try launching it. I'd appreciate any help - I can't play the game at all currently.

Video games evolved a lot over the past 20 years and are now very complex. The environment polygon count, graphics, AI, and many other aspects of games have been continually improved on. It is not a surprise, considering how much the industry has grown overall and is now larger than more traditional entertainment forms like music and movies combined.[ref en-1]

Unfortunately, the innovation does not come "for free" per se. Players have been increasingly unhappy about unfinished and buggy releases of games - we saw the trend with Outriders, Cyberpunk 2077, the GTA trilogy remaster, and many others. While people are angry, it does not change the situation, and they need to deal with it somehow. Fortunately, there are plenty of solutions that could be tried before giving up on the game completely.

Forza Horizon 5, which was released on November 5, 2021, for Xbox consoles and Microsoft Windows computers, had an overall very positive reception. The racing game was not only praised by players but also media, getting a 92 score on Metacritic.[ref en-2] Even good game releases some users have troubles with, and this one is not an exception.

People started experiencing Forza Horizon 5 crashes soon after it was released. The problem is not universal to all players, so not everyone is experiencing it. The game usually shuts down some seconds after the "Play" button is pressed, be it on Stem or Microsoft Store.

However, when checking negative reviews on Steam, it becomes clear that the reason for such evaluation lies within technical difficulties. Here's one of the comments left by a user:

At the moment people is getting random crashes to desktop. Not even showing whats the error.. Also car is randomly freezing you go with 10x multiplier and forza just says NOPE all gone stop. When these 2 be fixed ill change my review.

There is no doubt that crashing games are extremely frustrating to deal with. Windows is a sophisticated operating system that has tons of built-in and third-party components, and various combinations can sometimes cause problems within its operation. As a result, some games or apps might start crashing.

Thus, before you proceed with manual ways to fix  Forza Horizon 5 crashing issues, we recommend you try using [d1] PC repair and maintenance utility. It can fix underlying problems with the operating system automatically, which could potentially fix crashes you are experiencing with the game.

Solution 1. Use troubleshooter

If you have purchased the game on Microsoft Store, it is worth checking out its issues. Start with the troubleshooter:

• Right-click on Start and select Settings
• Scroll down and select Update & Security
• Select Troubleshoot
• On the right side of the window, pick Additional troubleshooters
• Scroll all the way down and select Windows Store Apps
• Click Run the troubleshooter and apply the suggested fixes once finished

  

• Restart the PC.

Solution 2. Update your GPU drivers

People said that their game keeps crashing on startup even if they run it on the most sophisticated graphics cards such as RTX 3070. However, without the latest drivers,[ref en-3] the issues with games can persist, so we strongly recommend making sure that the latest GPU drivers are installed.

Do not use the Device Manager for this process, as it commonly fails to find the latest driver updates. Instead, go to your GPU manufacturer's official website and download the latest drivers from there. If you are not sure how to do that, you can instead employ [rev id="DriverFix"] software that is capable of doing that for you automatically.

Solution 3. Resolve software conflicts

It is known that Forza Horizon 5 might be crashing due to software conflicts. First of all, you should temporarily disable or uninstall any third-party anti-virus software. Some people said that disabling Windows Defender also helped them. 

There are several popular apps, such as Discord, Nahimic audio, Sony audio, MSI Afterburner, Wallpaper Engine, OBS, EVGA Precision, Xsplit, and others. You could instead try running Clean boot and enabling each of the services one by one to recognize which app is causing the issue.

• Press Win + R, type msconfig, and hit Enter
• Go to the Services tab and tick the Hide all Microsoft services checkbox
• Select Disable all
• Go to the Startup tab and click Open Task Manager
• Here, right-click on each of the non-Windows entries and select Disable
• Close down the Task Manager
• Go to the Boot tab and tick the Safe boot option

  

• Click Apply and OK, and restart.

Solution 4. Reset Windows components

• Type cmd in Windows search
• Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator
• If User Account Control shows up, click Yes
• In the new window, copy and paste each of the following commands, pressing Enter each time:
  net stop bits
  net stop wuauserv
  net stop appidsvc
  net stop cryptsvc
  Del "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\\Application Data\\Microsoft\\Network\\Downloader\\*.*"
  rmdir %systemroot%\\SoftwareDistribution /S /Q
  rmdir %systemroot%\\system32\\catroot2 /S /Q
  regsvr32.exe /s atl.dll
  regsvr32.exe /s urlmon.dll
  regsvr32.exe /s mshtml.dll
  netsh winsock reset
  netsh winsock reset proxy
  net start bits
  net start wuauserv
  net start appidsvc
  net start cryptsvc
  

  

• Restart your PC.

Solution 5. Use Media Creation Tool

If none of the above helped, try using Media Creation Tool. This method helped Windows 11 users the most.

• Visit the official Microsoft website and download Windows 10 installation media (there's also Windows 11 version)
• Open the installer, click Yes when User Account Control shows up
• Agree to Terms and Conditions
• Select Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD or ISO file) for another PC and click Next

  

• Mark the Use Recommended options for this PC checkbox and click Next
• Pick ISO file and click Next

  

• After downloading the ISO file, right-click it and select Mount, and double-click the Setup.exe
• Accept the license once again
• Select Keep my personal files and click Install
• Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process.

Other things to try:

• Check minimum system requirements
• Run the game as administrator
• Turn off Xbox Game Bar
• Make sure the latest Windows updates are installed.