How to get MapleStory working on Windows 7

I downloaded MapleStory last night (an article one of our freelancers sent in for our May issue got me really excited to check out the recent changes)--only to find out that the game wouldn't launch on my Windows 7 machine.

I downloaded MapleStory last night (an article one of our freelancers sent in for our May issue got me really excited to check out the recent changes)--only to find out that the game wouldn't launch on my Windows 7 machine. I browsed forums, I Googled, I asked friends. Everyone said they knew how to fix it--but they were all liars. So I tracked down the answer from the developers themselves. Here's how you can really get MapleStory to run on Windows 7--and it's easy!

If you Google for a solution, you (like me) will find forum posts and How-Tos recommending a ton of different solutions--ignore them all. Before Nexon updated the client to be officially compatible with Windows 7 in 2010, there were a lot of problems, but nowadays there's really only one: MapleStory requires Microsoft Visual C++ 2008, but oddly does not include it in its installation process.

To install Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 on your computer:

First check Windows Update to see if it's listed as an option in there. If so, download it through there. If it's not listed in Windows Update, download the 32-bit versionor the 64-bit versionmanually from Microsoft's website, depending on whether you're running the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 7.

Additional troubleshooting steps:

Make sure that none of the executables (launcher and game client both) are set to run in compatibility mode. Most guides I found recommended running them in compatibility mode, but MapleStory would not run until I turned this option off. Try running the launcher executable as Administrator (right-click the executable and select Run as Administrator). If you've done a lot of additional tweaking trying to solve the problem already, it's probably best to simply re-install the game. Download the installer here.

Did that solve your problems? Do you know of other solutions? Let us know in the comments below!