Halo: Combat Evolved (PC) patches

This article lists all patches for the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved.

Halo PC 1.01 Patch
(September 30, 2003) (File Size: 3.87 MB)


 * Patched before most people even have the game, we don't completely know what this does.


 * Made the game check for a valid Halo PC CD at startup

Halo PC Standalone Server 1.01 (No Maps)
(October 2, 2003) (File Size: 1.75 MB)


 * Gearbox is offering a pre-release version of the Halo PC standalone server for people wanting to set their own stations up. This edition contains NO MAPS -- you will need to copy them from your Halo PC installation folder.

Halo PC 1.02 Patch
(October 8, 2003) (File Size: 4.04 MB)


 * Timedemo doesn't check memory usage consumption with every frame rendered.


 * After running timedemo, the last saved checkpoint is not altered anymore.


 * Multiple minor bugs fixes to the Halo Auto-Updater application.


 * Fixed an issue in keystone.dll that was causing certain configurations to potentially crash when chatting in multiplayer games.


 * Fixed minor card specific rendering glitches.

Halo PC Standalone Server 1.02 (No maps)
(October 8, 2003) (File Size: 7.36 MB)


 * Enables multiple instances of a server to be run.


 * Adds remote administration of servers (rcon).

Halo PC 1.03 Patch
(December 10, 2003) (File Size: 4.63 MB)


 * Halo PC 1.03 is the first update to address some of the most important issues that have arisen since the game was released. The goal with this patch was to 1) improve the quality of the online experience for gamers and 2) address the most frequent issues gamers run into. This update is also the first opportunity to improve the networking architecture with some of their learnings from their hours of online play. Highlights include:


 * Note: saved games prior to 1.03 are now no longer compatible. Any levels that were unlocked as you progressed through the game are still available, but your checkpoints will be reset.

- Anti team killing. Increased respawn time multiplier for team killing.

- Added automatic ban feature for team killers.

- Increased chat text length – Chat length has been increased from 40 characters to 64 characters

- Networking performance – Enhancement to player prediction

- New in-game scoreboard – Displays players, kills, deaths, assists and ping

- Cinematic speech bug with Audigy cards fixed

Halo PC 1.03 Dedicated Server
(December 10, 2003) (File Size: 2.35 MB)


 * Gearbox has released a sequential patch for the dedicated server. You must have the 1.02 dedicated server installed first. Once you have installed that patch, you can download this one. Highlights of fixes and additions include:

- Enhanced functionality to reduce online team killing and facilitate the banning of users.

- Optimized map loading functionality, significantly reducing the time to load large map cycling configuration files.

- Extended sv_players functionality.

- Teams are now persisted for the next game when map cycling occurs.

- It's now possible to restart the current game without requiring the server to map cycle.

- User can now specify their data folder directories using -path.

Halo PC Patch 1.031
(December 31, 2003) (File Size: 4.63 MB)


 * The 1.031 patch fixes some issues that users were experiencing with the 1.03 patch. This patch was released in a remarkably short amount of time after the original. And for those users experiencing technical problems with the game, most have been resolved.

Halo Mac 1.03 Patch
(January 21, 2004) (File Size: 2.4 MB)


 * Mac users can now play online with PC users (1.031 PC). Since MacSoft receives the code from Gearbox to create their updates, the changes / features are very similar, if not identical to 1.03 and 1.031 PC.

Halo PC 1.04 Patch
(February 11, 2004) (File Size: 4.63 MB)</tt>


 * This patch from Microsoft and GameSpy fixes a potential crashing issue with Halo PC. It will update the game's version number to 1.04.

Halo Update 1.05 patch
(May 20, 2004) (File Size: 4.6 MB)</tt>


 * Unknown, Needs Information Urgently

Halo Update 1.06 patch
(September 6th 2004) (File Size: 4.5 MB)</tt>


 * Unknown, Needs Information Urgently

Halo Update 1.07 patch
(May 31, 2005) (File Size: 4.7 MB)</tt>

This latest patch for Halo includes all earlier patches and fixes, as well as:


 * Fixed the crash on startup bug relating to the intro movies.


 * Anisotropic filtering is now off by default.


 * A significant number of reported game crashes are related to an external library called keystone.dll (such as 'There is a problem with your game installation. You may need to reinstall the game to fix it'). Microsoft has updated this library to address the most common failures. These crashes would usually occur when changing screen resolution, when starting or quitting Halo PC, when chatting in a multiplayer game or when using ALT-TAB to minimize Halo PC and return to Windows.


 * Halo can now be bound to a specific IP address using the -ip command line argument. (facilitating multiple NIC support for Halo Dedicated Servers)


 * Halo can now read/write data files to a user specified folder using the -path command line argument. This is particularly useful for Halo Dedicated Servers but also be used for users whose 'My Documents' folder is remapped to a UNC path. It is an advanced option and using it will force you to manually move saved games and multiplayer gametypes.


 * Online Multiplayer: Telefrag message is now appropriately replicated.


 * Online Multiplayer: Minor fixes to switching teams in kill-in-order games (score will now remain accurate)


 * Online Multiplayer: Minor fixes to the end of the game state (new players now have to wait for the game to be restarted before being admitted to the server)


 * Online Multiplayer: Fix for clients flashlight states when joining games


 * Online Multiplayer: Vehicles won't re-spawn if they have a projectile (such as a plasma grenade) attached to them. They will wait for the projectile to be removed.


 * Online Multiplayer: Minor fixes to using teleports for high-latency connections


 * Sound: Fix for cinematic dialog being cut out on certain cards when enabling Audio Hardware Acceleration in the Audio Settings.


 * After running timedemo, the last saved checkpoint is not altered anymore.


 * Multiple minor bugs fixes to the Halo Auto-Updater application.


 * Fixed minor card specific rendering glitches.

Halo PC Patch 1.0.7.0615

 * Fixed the server crashing issue when a certain program is used.

Halo Update 1.08 patch
(August 7, 2008) (File Size: 3.1 MB)</tt>


 * Prevents buffer overrun errors and also removes the requirement for a CD rom at startup.


 * Fixes for server-crashing security bugs.


 * Several external programs may not work, resulting to game-crashing.

Halo Update 1.09 patch
(October 4, 2009) (File Size: 3.1 MB)</tt>


 * Prevents buffer overrun errors and client loop exploit.

Halo Update 1.10 patch
(May 16, 2014) (File Size: 3.0 MB)</tt>


 * Moved Gamespy services to use new non-Gamespy server
 * Fixed a family of index-out-of-bounds bugs which had been exploited to crash clients
 * Made banlist parsing not case-sensitive
 * Removed halt on cache file verify error
 * Removed some verbose debug logging of gamespy connections
 * Fixed handling of video cards with >= 2GB of memory
 * Enabled refractive Active Camo on Nvidia cards, which had previously used an alpha fade. (AMD cards already have this)
 * Updated 2003-era upper bound on the video resolution picker. Use at your own risk; the game is untested at 4800x3600.
 * Updated chatbox settings to work with newer resolutions
 * Models node limit updated to 63
 * Fixed reading sv_ban_penalty from init.txt
 * Disabled executable_is_valid checksum from strings.dll
 * Allowed network access in devmode
 * Fixed parsing of custom map names containing a "."