Sims 3 won't work on windows 11

xman_iceman​  Let's see if we can get a crash dump from the game.  Click Windows key-R and copy and paste this:

%LocalAppData%\CrashDumps

When you enter, you'll see a list of .dmp files.  If one of them is from Sims 3, or the EA App should it be involved at the moment, please upload it to a third-party filehosting site (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and link it here.  If you see a crash dump that was written at exactly the time the game crashed, I'd like that too.  But in either case, please only upload files from after we started troubleshooting here.

If there is no Sims 3 .dmp file, you can enable them:

• Hit the Windows key, type "command prompt" in the box, right-click on Command Prompt in the search results, and select Run as Administrator
• In the window, paste "reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\devenv.exe" /v DumpType /d 2 /t REG_DWORD" without the outside quotes into the box, and enter
• Launch Sims 4 and wait for it to crash (whether you can play at all or not)
• After it crashes, wait for any crash dialogs to finish
• Then hit Windows key-R and paste "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps" without quotes into the box, and enter
• Upload the last .dmp file to a free filesharing site and link it here
• When you want to undo the auto crash log dumps, open Command Prompt as before, paste "reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps" /f" without the outside quotes, and enter.

billblogs​  I'm not sure why you're linking that guide.  None of it is going to be remotely helpful to someone who can't start the game at all other than the Alder Lake patch, which the OP has already tried.  Further, some of the mods listed conflict with each other, AND it's never a good idea to add ANY third-party content to a game that won't start at all unless that content (e.g. the Alder Lake patch) is meant to address a specific issue that the setup clearly has.

Further to that, the creator of this, um, collection of other people's tools, originally set it up in a way that borrowed other creators' work without permission or links to their sites.  And it was all packaged in a way that could have been very dangerous for end-users, really bad practice in general.  After some significant community protest, Mod the Sims intervened, and you can see the results in the update notes, but I still would never link any of this person's work for anyone due to their previous decisions.

But really, the bottom line is nothing on that page is going to help, and some of it might be actively harmful.

xman_iceman​ you could try ts3tools 

[CM - Edited direct link to 3rd party site - feel free to look up the mod mentioned]

Nope on both. 

Installed the patch correctly, no change. 

Did the cpu, Nothing. It just opens up and then closes.  I must have the only pc in the world that doesn't work for the sims 3 lol.

xman_iceman​  For the Alder Lake patch, you want to launch the .exe file (listed as an executable under file type if you don't have file extensions showing) and choose TS3W.exe, with the W.  For a disc install, it would likely be here if you didn't choose a custom install location:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

If the patch doesn't help, try one of the other workarounds listed here:

Sims 3 won't open: Alder Lake (Intel 12th-gen) CPU | EA Forums - 8265525

Alright, figured out the local account and made one. Just need to figure out this patch. 

Yes, the launcher shows up, but after I hit play, it just closes and nothing happens. No crash report or anything. 

Alright, so the patch, I downloaded it, but not entirely sure what to do from there.

I do not use OneDrive, pretty sure I have it turned off.  I'll take a look again into creating another account, but i am not seeing any options like that. 

xman_iceman​  After the reinstall, can you get the Sims 3 launcher to show up?  If so, you now need the Alder Lake patch or another workaround, applied to TS3W.exe, with the W.  Disc installs still have this issue because of course they didn't get the patch to the EA App version.

When creating a new Windows account, there's an option that says "I don't have this person's info" or similar, actually two of them, in small print below the field where it prompts you to enter an email address.  Or at least that was the case when I last created a new account about two months ago.

However, the important point with the local account is to keep Documents away from OneDrive, as simply removing OneDrive doesn't necessarily move Documents back to the default location.  What you can do here is confirm that Documents is NOT inside the OneDrive folder.  In the new account, have a look at the registry entry that governs the location of Documents and make sure it's the default location:

%UserProfile%\Documents

rather than anything else.  Here's how (and how to manually change it if necessary):

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/operation-to-change-a-personal-folder-location-fails-in-windows-ffb95139-6dbb-821d-27ec-62c9aaccd720

As for why there are no errors in the Reliability Monitor, do you use some kind of cleaner app that deletes temp files?  If so, please disable it for now, as it may be deleting the crash logs the RM would otherwise translate into usable errors.

I tried to add a local account, but I don't see any option other than Microsoft.

Checked the Reliability monitor, still no errors listed 

I deactivated my AV, and no change.

Windows Defender didn't show any issues.

The smart app wasn't on, so that wasn't causing any issues either. 

I just reinstalled the game from the CD. So far, nothing has changed. 

Ugh! I wish something here would fix the issue!

xman_iceman​  Please create a new admin Windows account and try playing there.  Make it local, as in, don't link it to your Microsoft account or any email address.  (You can skip that step and answer some security questions instead.)  You'll be able to at least try to launch the game without reinstalling it.

If you still can't play, please look again for any Reliability Monitor errors that happened at the time you tried to open Sims 3, whether those errors list the game or not.

No errors at all strongly suggest the game is being blocked rather than crashing, so the next place to look would be your antivirus.  If you use a third-party program, the simplest test is to temporarily disable it, repair the game (EA App > Sims 3 > Manage > Repair) to undo any changes the AV made, and try again to play.  As long as you don't do anything else at the same time, your computer should be safe.

For Windows Defender, Controlled Folder Access isn't usually a problem for Sims 4, but I suppose it could be if it updated to be more aggressive in blocking access to Documents.  So temporarily disabling it would be the way to test here too.  Please also see whether Smart App Control is active.  It blocked Sims 4 for a few days a couple months ago, and while I didn't see any evidence it was affecting Sims 3, it's supposed to be evolving and getting smarter, so that could also mean it's tightening its restrictions.

Ok tried the Alder Lake thing.. Didn't work either