I'll have to try and get around the patch somehow, it's so frustrating because it takes so long to find out if anything has worked. I really don't look forward to reinstalling all my mods either, so many mods...

If you have patched it to the latest one and want to get back to 1.67, you need to removed your TS3 installation completely and do some cleaning in windows registry before you can install a clean one then patch it to 1.67, to do this just uninstall TS3, after you done restart your PC, then open windows registry in cortana or search box by typing "regedit", right click on it and run it as administrator, navigate to HKEY_Local_Machine\Software, remove or delete everything related to TS3 in windows registry under EA and/or The Sims 3, if your win 10 is 64bit you also need to remove everything related to TS3 under Wow6432Node.

When you're done cleaning in registry editor, just save and close it, restart your PC one more time, then you can begin fresh and clean TS3 installation. Note: If you don't cleaned up TS3 related stuff in registry editor after you removed TS3 installation, then your new TS3 installation might still having the same problem, because your new TS3 installation might still using the registry that has been patched to the latest patch you've done earlier.

Update about Windows 10:

If you already have Win 10 installed in your system, and your Windows 10 version is Build 10240, (you can type dxdiag in cortana or search box to check it), MSFT will force you to update it with November update (now after it's back on again after they removed it for a while) which is a newer version of Windows 10, the problem with the newer one it is a huge update, about 3GB in size, if you're using meter bandwidth internet connection, I suggest not to update it but re-download Windows 10 altogether with the new MediaCreationTools they provided in their website, this will allow you to download a newer version of Windows 10 and have yourself a copy of it. This will safe you paying your meter bandwidth insternet, safe time by not updating it directly and slow down your internet connection in your daily activity.

Great tips - thanks @PapaEmy.

I've been on Windows 10 for about a week, and my TS3 performance is much better than it was on Windows 7. Part of it is I'm sure machine related, but Win10 also seems much more efficient at memory usage. The exact same save game w/ heavy CC/store content used to regularly chew up about 2.5-2.8mb of RAM on Win7 — now it's regularly at 2.0-2.3mb, making life much much sweeter.

I've followed your instructions, thankfully I managed to find my old BG disk so that's installed (and updated to 1.67!) I'm currently installing a bunch of expansions from Origin downloads but I've just tried the launcher and it's just made me aware there's a new patch I can update, so I've politely declined (or screamed 'no fuck you, get away' at my laptop)

I haven't tried the game yet, but it's looking promising! Thanks a lot :D

My higher end laptop came pre-loaded with Windows 10. I wouldn't have picked it . The Sims 3 and 4 work ok on it and I can download files via the sims 3 launcher ,but somehow when I was asked what program I wanted associated with .package files, they attached to adobe acrobat reader before I could change the program. Now I am unable to download mods and unzip them. When I go into settings and try to change the program associated with package files , it states to either pick adobe acrobat reader which doesn't open package files or an app associated with the app store which consist of 2 very old programs. Any suggestions?

But you shouldn't be unzipping files that are already of type package. There wouldn't be anything to unzip.

There are zipped files (which can have anything inside, including maybe package files and maybe other things). They can be unzipped by right-clicking and selecting Extract or possibly some other command if you have and want to use a third party program like WinZip, WinRar, or 7-zip to decompress them though that shouldn't be necessary for regular zipped files. You should also be able to peek inside regular zipped files by double-clicking, but that's not the same as decompressing (extracting) and is not necessary, it's just a convenience when it works right.

Then there are package files. It doesn't matter what program is associated with a package file, they aren't meant to be opened unless you are trying to edit them/create your own content. They just get put in the correct place in your Mods/Packages folder so the game can read them; the game doesn't care what its file associations are or what their icons look like as long as the "dot-package" part of their names are correct. If you really do want to open up a package file so you can edit it, you would need a program like S3PE or NRaas Packer; either of those would make sense as a program association since then the package file could be opened for editing automagically with a double-click.

It sounds like maybe you are trying to use your web browser to download and open files all in one step? It would make more sense, I think, if you could download and save instead, then navigate to wherever your browser has saved the downloaded files and do with them what you will independently of the browser.

Sims 3 works but I have problems with sims 2.

I fixed the problem by using the package extractor that is a mod from MTS3. I was able to associate package files with it. In the sims 4, I bit the bullet and purchased WinZIP after my trial ended. If you try to delete it, they offer it to you at half off. Now I have no problems downloading and extracting files in sims 3 and 4 using windows 10.

I've removed my TS2 game (because of TS3 obviously hehe) long ago even before win 10 were introduced , but I still have my old favorite game from 1998 (or 1999, it was Mob Rule aka Street Wars), so it was even before win XP, my system was Win98/Me if remember correctly, and today.. Windows 10 don't have any problem running it, I still play it sometimes, I just sets its compatibility mode to Win98/Me.

You just need Net 3.5 for win 10 installed, all win 10 compatible drivers for your hardware installed, install the game with compatibility mode sets to win 7, or XP with SP2 or SP3 for TS2.

Well here is something I have been dealing with when it comes to Windows ten, I have seen it on my dad's work laptop and it really doesn't interest me so i didn't upgrade. However now the offered pops up five to ten times a day even if I close it with task manager and every time it does it crashes any program I am running including The Sims 3 and it takes up about five gigs of ram. I guess Microsoft is getting desperate, if i had the money I would switch to a Mac. I paid $140 for my copy of Windows 7 just about two years ago and that should be in the end of it. So I guess the answer to my question is not only does The Sims 3 not work with Windows 10 but now Windows 10 is causing it not to work with Windows 7.

Micro$oft has no right to bully people like this, I mean i can't even run open office and be sure it will not be randomly crashed. I am thinking of looking into filing charges against Microsoft if this does stop, them hacking in and crashing my computer because I will not get their latest product has to be some kind of fraud, and if it's not it should be.

Sorry for the rant, I guess my point is don't get any version of windows if you want to play The Sims 3, because Microsoft will not let you use the OS you just paid money for. Can The Sims 3 be made to run on Lenix? I ask because I really want to get away from this corporate BS and just play my games and use my computer.