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Forza Horizon 5 Crashing PC: How to Fix

By Jack O'Dwyer

Some Forza fans are finding that Forza Horizon 5 is suffering some major crashes on their PCs.
Some Forza fans are finding that Forza Horizon 5 is suffering some major crashes on their PCs. / Playground Games, Xbox Game Studios

Some Forza fans are finding that Forza Horizon 5 is suffering some major crashes on their PCs.

Forza 5 Horizon, the highly-anticipated next-generation installment in the flagship open-world racing franchise, has officially launched today—allowing players to soar through vast Mexican deserts and detailed towns. Well, some players, anyway. Those who've purchased the game via the Microsoft Store or Steam for their PCs have reported the game continues to crash to their desktop (CTD) upon attempting to run the software.

Unsurprisingly, this has frustrated fans, who simply want to experience Xbox Studios' latest racer.

Forza Horizon 5 Crashing PC

Opening a program taxes a system a lot more than players would realize. This makes it among the most common times crashes can occur. Below, we've collected an assortment of fixes so all PC players can experience Forza Horizon 5.

Run the game as an Administrator

Yes, even PCs that host a single account may need to do this. Sometimes you just need to remind the rig who's the boss. Fortunately, it's an easy process, and takes less than a minute to perform.

  1. Locate the Forza Horizon 5 shortcut or startup application (.exe).
  2. Right click the icon or application listing. This should prompt a drop-down menu.
  3. From the drop-down menu, select "Run as administrator."

Players may see a benign pop-up asking if they're sure they'd like to run the program. They should, of course, click "Yes."

Disable "Game Mode" for Windows 10/11 PCs

Microsoft originally programmed in a dedicated "game mode" for its users that primarily use their computers to play video games. It's supposed to help improve performance on PCs by making the physical game application the first priority while running.

Unfortunately, the mode, itself, is another piece of software that would need to be running in the background, so the feature can sometimes be a bit counterintuitive. Some report that certain games actually play better without the mode enabled.

To turn off Game Mode:

  1. Right-click the Windows icon in the bottom left corner of the screen—at the leftmost side of the taskbar icons. This will prompt a pop-up menu.
  2. From the pop-up menu, select "Settings."
  3. Locate and click the "Gaming" option on the lefthand vertical menu. This will bring you to the Gaming section and should have the appropriate heading at the top.
  4. Select "Game Mode" from the menu.
  5. Toggle Game Mode off by clicking the slider on the right of the option.

Check for Software Conflicts

There are a wide variety of programs that could conflict with or threaten the stability of Forza Horizon 5. Obviously, running these concurrent to the game does not guarantee it will crash, but it does raise the risk. The biggest and most common offender is antivirus programs, which Playground Games has listed on its support website:

  • Trend Micro Maximum Security
  • Comodo Antivirus
  • Sophos
  • Emisoft Anti-Malware
  • Avira
  • Avast
  • Bitdefender Firewall
  • AVG

Other offenders include:

  • Logitech G Hub
  • MSI Afterburner / Riva Tuner Statistics Server
  • EVGA Precision
  • OBS
  • Xsplit
  • Discord
  • MacType
  • Warsaw Banking App
  • Wallpaper Engine
  • A-Volute Sound studio
  • Nahimic Audio
  • Sonic Audio

Make sure your PC can run Forza Horizon 5

Last, but certainly not least, if players still find they cannot boot up Forza Horizon 5, they should make sure their PC can actually run the game in the first place. Playground released a set of requirements in the months prior to the game's launch that players can refer back to at any time.

Forza Horizon 5 is available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X right now.

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