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GTA V

Grand Theft Auto V PC Installation Issues Workaround Guide

This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

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Grand Theft Auto V launched only a few hours ago for PC after many months of delays and waiting. In the midst of this launch however, there have been some issues like the ones we told you about earlier. While there are definitely some problems that need to be fixed, Rockstar has released a statement on their support forums on a possible workaround to get your game going right now.

The main issue that people seem to be having is trouble installing the game itself, possibly due to the “Windows username includes characters that are not in the table at the bottom of this page.” This often times brings up the the error stating “The Rockstar update service is unavailable (code 1).” For those not wanting to wait for a patch, Rockstar has revealed the following workaround:

“We have identified an issue where players with Windows usernames that include characters not found in the table at the bottom of this page will likely run into difficulties when attempting to download, install, or play GTAV. We are currently working on a fix for this issue.

“If you don’t want to wait for a fix, you need to create a new Administrator User Account for your Windows system that only includes letters A to Z, a to z or numbers 0-9 from the basic roman alphabet. For a full list of supported characters, see the table at the bottom of this page. Please note that simply renaming your current User Account will not correct this issue. Once your new account is created (or if you already have an account that only uses these characters) we recommend you restart your PC and log in with that account before starting or continuing with the installation process. To create the account, follow these instructions from Microsoft’s website:

“We will update this support article with any new information as soon as we have it, including expected timing of a fix and whether you will be able to transfer progress on the newly-created Windows username over to your original Windows user account.”

This workaround doesn’t seem to be the perfect solution that will work for everyone, but it can at least help some gamers out that are having issues with Grand Theft Auto V for PC.


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