Overview
Do you have problems with Steam Overlay not working in Mass Effect? Or you’re really annoyed by the game asking for Admin privileges every time it starts? You’ve come to the right place, Commander Shepard. (NOTE: This one works on Windows 10.)
Background
Mass Effect 1, for reasons probably only known to the defunct BioWare, requires Admin privileges to run. This is the root cause of two things:
- The UAC Alert pop-up before game starts, and
- Steam’s inability to inject Steam Overlay into the game
Many suggested running Steam as admin, but I frown on this practice because:
- Only apps that actually do System-wide configuration should run as Admin
- It means you have to go through a tedious procedure before playing this game
- It *might* get “contagious”, making new games installed why Steam was running as Admin to themselves require Admin privileges
- Mods might contain malicious and/or mis-written code that can severely compromise your system when running as Admin
Another ‘trick’ is to downgrade the PhysX driver … doesn’t work with newer Windows versions, and potentially causing conflict with the latest GPU drivers.
Yet another ‘trick’ uses this hairy-looking “FOR …” command. Won’t work in Windows 10, for unknown reasons. (Yes, I’ve tried. Yes, I’ve rebooted after trying the command.)
So, here I outline the steps to fix two problems with one solution, and this solution works for all Windows versions starting from Windows 7.
Step 1: Make a Symlink
Open an “Elevated Command Prompt”
- On Windows 10, you can do this by pressing Win+X and choosing “Command Prompt (Admin)”.
- On other Windows, you can search for “Command Prompt” in the Start Menu (under “Accessories”, IIRC), right-clicking, and choose “Run as Admin”.
Next, find out where “MassEffect.exe” is located. It should be in the “steamappscommonMass EffectBinaries” under the Steam folder.
- If you installed Steam in “C:Program FilesSteam” (bad idea, btw), then the path would be “C:Program FilesSteamsteamappscommonMass EffectBinaries”
- I install Steam in “D:GamesSteam”, so the path would be “D:GamesSteamsteamappscommonMass EffectBinaries”
“cd” to that directory from within the elevated command prompt (please note that the quotes are required), then change to the drive:
Now, rename the “MassEffect.exe” program to something else, and create a “MassEffect.exe” symlink pointing to that new name:
If you check the result in Windows Explorer, you should see this:
You can try launching Mass Effect now, and you’ll notice:
- It won’t ask for Admin privileges
- Steam overlays now work
There’s still one step to do, though. So don’t load any saves yet, close the game, and continue…
Step 2: Tell your Graphics Driver of the New Name
.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I do NOT have an AMD Graphics card, so I can’t write up the steps for AMD Graphics card. That’s why there’s only one subsection here. Feel free to tell me the steps for AMD Graphics!
First of all, you’ll need the NVidia Inspector utilty. As of the writing of this guide, the latest version is 2.13. Extract the utility’s zipfile to an empty folder, and run the “nvidiaProfileInspector.exe” program. You will see something like this:
Click the “Profiles” box and type “Mass Effect”, like such:
Click on “Mass Effect” (without any numbers).
Click on the “Add application to current profile” button, as shown:
A file selector dialog will pop up. (1) Change to the “Binaries” folder location, (2) Choose “MassEffect_REAL.exe”, (3) Click on “Open”
Notice that both “masseffect.exe” and “masseffect_real.exe” are associated to the “Mass Effect” profile:
Click on “Apply Changes”:
DONE!
Conclusion
There you have it, a simple way to achieve 2 objectives at the same time:
- Stop Mass Effect from asking for Admin privileges, and
- Enable Steam Overlay in the game
Hope this simple guide helps you!