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Crash description
Bethesda titles are notoriously unstable and Fallout 3 is no exception to the rule. One of the most common crashes is when you Alt-Tab out of the game and then attempt to get back in. By default, it is almost guaranteed the game will stay minimized and refuse to work onwards. Here is how to fix it.
Fallout 3 Alt-Tab crash fix
Fixing the Fallout 3 Alt-Tab crash is actually so easy that it puts Bethesda’s incompetence into a spotlight so bright, it would make a Glowing One look like a shadow. The process literally consists of changing two values in notepad and yet, this is not the default in game files.
First, navigate to Fallout 3 installation folder.
If you don’t know how to find the folder:
The easiest way to find the right address is to open your Steam library, right click Fallout 3, choose Properties, then Installed Files and then browse. You will know you are in the right folder when you see “Fallout3” and “FalloutLauncherSteam” executable files.
Inside the folder, there is a file called “Fallout_default.ini”. First copy it to Desktop or another folder to use as backup in case something goes wrong.
Double click Fallout_default or right-click it and choose to open it with Notepad. You will see a bunch of lines with different values but the two lines you need are called “iLocation Y=5” and “iLocation X=5”.
Change “5” to “1” in each of the lines so it looks like the ones below:
iLocation Y=1
iLocation X=1
Save and exit the file. That’s it, you have fixed the problem, as much as it can be fixed. The game will still sometimes crash while minimized but the frequency will be way low.
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