- Fast internet connection
- Admin rights on the machine
- At least 10GB available
- Know how to use Windows File Explorer
- Know how to run .exe files as an administrator
- Know how to use Windows Powershell as an administrator
- Know how to use Windows Command Prompt
- Download the Final Fantasi XI/PlayOnline installer files (download all of them to the same folder!).
- Run FFXIFullSetup_US.part1.exe to decompress the installer files
- Run FFXISETUP.exe after decompression completes to begin installing Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) and PlayOnline (POL).
- To avoid possible future issues with allowing FFXI to access/modify its own files, it is best to install FFXI and POL to a folder of its own on your computer (we'll use C:\PlayOnline\ as an example).
- Make sure to install everything that prompts on the installer.
- Once you are done with the installation we can move to the setup phase.
- Open PlayOnline Viewer. If you have never used PlayOnline before, it will prompt you update PlayOnline, do so and make sure to restart PlayOnline after it updates.
- Choose For PlayOnline Members!
- Go through the prompts using your PlayOnline account you have registered previously. If you don't have an account, you can just enter a faux one that is 4 Letters, followed by 4 numbers (i.e., you can enter
ABCD1234 for the Member Name and PlayOnline ID.
- It is not required to provide a PlayOnline Password or a SquareEnix ID, so skip entering those.
- Close PlayOnline.
- Download the update_xi.ps1 script (note the location it was downloaded to, you'll need that shortly).
- Open Powershell as an administrator.
- Run
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass to allow running the script.
- Navigate to the folder that update_xi.ps1 was downloaded to.
- Run .\update_xi.ps1. Playonline should start automatically after this script completes.
- NOTE: If you encounter errors/issues with any of the above steps, STOP HERE and skip down to the steps in the "Game - Update Steps (manual)" section below.
- If Playonline didn't automatically start, open Playonline once more and choose Check Files.
- On the next screen, make sure you change the Playonline-compatible software choice to FINAL FANTASY XI.
- Click on Check Files to repair the files.
- It should tell that a file is missing and that it needs repair, followed by a long download and install.
- Once it's done repairing files, close Playonline. We can move on to the “Game - First Run” step.
- Browse using “File Explorer” and go to the folder that you installed FFXI into (as mentioned above, we'll use C:\PlayOnline\). Go into the SquareEnix sub-folder followed by the FINAL FANTASY XI sub-folder (for full clarity, again using the above folder as our example, the path to the folder you should be at would be C:\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XI
- Create a new file called file.txt
- Open file.txt with some type of text editor, such as Windows Notepad or Notepad++ and populate it with the info below. Make sure to also add a 3rd empty line!
123456:654321:FTABLE.DAT
::
- Save the file and then exit out of the text editor.
- Open Playonline once more and choose Check Files.
- On the next screen, make sure you change the Playonline-compatible software choice to FINAL FANTASY XI.
- Click on Check Files to repair the files.
- It should tell that a file is missing and that it needs repair, followed by a long download and install.
- Once it's done repairing files, close Playonline. We can move on to the “Game - First Run” step.
- To run FFXI for the first time (and all subsequent times), you have a choice of three "bootloaders" that are used to load the game and connect to the XIWeb game server:
¶ XILoader (the barebones bootloader, loads the game and nothing else, best for testing out issues before reporting them)
- Download xioader.exe into a directory of its own.
- Open Command Prompt as an administrator.
- Find the folder where you downloaded xiloader.exe to and run it as follows:
xiloader.exe --server xiweb.catsangel.com
- Download Ashita.exe into a directory of its own.
- Run Ashita.exe as an administrator. Ashita will download all other necessary files and then present you with the Ashita launcher
- Download xiloader.exe into the ffxi-bootmod sub-folder of your Ashita folder.
- In the Ashita launcher, click on the + icon in the bottom-left of the Ashita Launcher window.
- Click on the New Configuration that was just created then click on the Pencil icon (that is to the right of the + icon) in the bottom-left of the Ashita Launcher window.
- Give your new configuration a name (xiweb or whatever name you wish).
- For the File: line, use:
.\\ffxi-bootmod\\xiloader.exe
- For the Command: line, use:
--server xiweb.catsangel.com
- Click on the icon in the bottom-center of the window to save your changes (the icon looks like a sheet of paper with a checkmark).
- Double-click on the name that you gave for the configuration you just made (in the Ashita launcher) to launch the bootloader.
- If this is your first time playing on XIWeb, you will need to create an account and a password and use such to connect to XIWeb.
- If you already have an account on XIWeb, you need to use the account and password you created to connect to XIWeb.
- Download Windower.msi into a directory of its own.
- Run Windower.msi as an administrator. Windower will install to a folder of your choice (best to use the folder you downloaded Windower.msi into)
- Navigate to the folder you installed Windower into and run Windower.exe as an administrator. Windower will download all other necessary files and then present you with the Windower launcher.
- In the Windower launcher, click on the + in the bottom-left of the Ashita Launcher window to create a new profile.
- Give the new profile a name (click on the New Profile 1 and change it to a new name of your choice) and then click on the left-pointing arrow in the upper-left corner of the profile. (Make sure to remember the name you gave the profile)
- Close the Windower launcher.
- Download xiloader.exe into the PlayOnlineViewer sub-folder of the SquareEnix subfolder of your PlayOnline folder on your computer (created in the Game - Installation steps at the top of this page) .
- An example of the above would be:
C:\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer ← this is only an example, this may not be the path to yours, adjust as necessary!
- Navigate to the folder that you installed Windower into and open settings.xml with some type of text editor, such as Windows Notepad or Notepad++.
- You'll need to add the xiloader.exe to every profile (including the profile you just created) you see in settings.xml, as well as the with your server information and login.
- Here is an example profile (you can copy and paste the below code block into the file if you wish):
<profile name="xiweb">
<consolekey>Insert</consolekey>
<args>--server xiweb.catsangel.com</args>
<executable>DRIVE_LETTER:\path\to\xiloader.exe</executable>
</profile>
- Note the
path\to\ portion in the <executable> section cannot contain spaces and cannot be a relative path.
- An example of the full path is:
<executable>C:\PlayOnline\SquareEnix\PlayOnlineViewer\xiloader.exe</executable> ← this is only an EXAMPLE, this may not be the path to yours, adjust as necessary!
- Make sure you save changes to the file and then exit out of the text editor completely.
- Launch Windower again.
- Double-click on the name that you gave for the configuration you just made (in the Windower launcher) to launch the bootloader.
- If this is your first time playing on XIWeb, you will need to create an account and a password and use such to connect to XIWeb.
- If you already have an account on XIWeb, you need to use the account and password you created to connect to XIWeb.