Where to Buy Generals
You can now buy all of the classic Command & Conquer games digitally from either Steam or the EA App as part of The Ultimate Collection.
You can now buy all of the classic Command & Conquer games digitally from either Steam or the EA App as part of The Ultimate Collection.
C&C Generals is now playable on Windows 10 and 11 | Campaign and Multiplayer Online!
Generals and Zero Hour are available in 3 main versions:
Versions not listed here are unofficial and are not supported by our group. It is best to only use the official versions of the game to prevent issues and to support the developers.
You can now buy a digital copy of all 12 Command & Conquer games from the EA App.
Purchase the C&C Ultimate Collection via EA App.
If you already own Generals and Zero hour, skip this step.
Retail & TFD: Install the Game from the Discs
EA App: Install the game via the EA App Client
GenPatcher is an all-in-one application for updating Generals and Zero Hour to run correctly with Windows 10 and Windows 11.
For help and support, head over here.
Generals and Zero Hour regularly crash when you attempt to Alt+Tab out of the game. Enabling Borderless Fullscreen using the following instructions will make the game more stable. Note: Playing in borderless fullscreen will disable cursor edge-scrolling.
You should now have Generals running with borderless fullscreen, which is incredibly smooth and compatible with Alt+Tabbing. Just make sure you launch the game from the Windowed shortcut on your desktop.
You are now able to play Generals and Zero Hour campaigns in singleplayer!
C&C Online is a community-made-and-managed online server for Generals & Zero Hour.
Note: You will need to have GenTool installed in order to play Generals & Zero Hour online. This is bundled with GenPatcher, which has been covered earlier in this guide.
Here are the steps to get your game online!
Note: If you have trouble connecting to other players online, launch GenPatcher and go to the Playing Online tab. Now activate Network optimizations to help connect with other players.
Click here for more info on common issues and solutions with C&C Online.
There is a chance GenPatcher gets flagged by your anti-virus as either a trojan or a virus. This is a false positive. GenPatcher is completely safe to use.
The reason anti-virus software may flag it is because GenPatcher applies fixes to your game's Windows registry entries, as well as moving and deleting files that could cause game instability. Therefore, to be on the safe side, the anti-virus software will block GenPatcher and prevent it from running. That's why it's recommended to switch off your anti-virus before downloading GenPatcher to ensure you won't run into any problems.
You can find more information about this on the GenPatcher support page.
Generals & Zero Hour Crash when Alt+Tabbing in Fullscreen Mode
If you run the game in regular fullscreen (not borderless fullscreen), the game will sometimes crash when you attempt to Alt+Tab out of it. The fix for this is to use d3d8to9-wrapper, which alleviates this issue by converting all Direct3D 8-API calls and low-level shaders to equivalent Direct3D 9 ones. Note: Do not use this if you would like to play online, as using the d3d8to9-wrapper will result in increased chances of a mismatch.
Zero Hour is Censored in Germany
The German version of Zero Hour is censored. To remove the censorship:
Alternatively, you can download and install it manually.
You can find plenty of mods for Generals and Zero Hour over at ModDB:
However, if you're only after the more popular mods, GenLauncher is the recommended way to go.
The easiest way to install mods for Zero Hour is through GenLauncher (official Discord). GenLauncher allows you to download and install multiple mods at the same time, while keeping your original Zero Hour game installation intact.
To install GenLauncher:
After that, it's as simple as running GenLauncher from the shortcut on your desktop, and downloading the mods you want. When a mod is downloaded, launch it through GenLauncher.
Here's a list of popular mods for Generals and Zero Hour that are currently available on GenLauncher:
There are also other mods which are not on GenLauncher, so it's always worth checking out the Generals Mods and Zero Hour Mods sections of ModDB.
One popular mod is the Generals Evolution mod. Generals Evolution is a total conversion mod for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 that aims to recreate Generals in the updated SAGE engine.
Visit the C&C Online Discord Server or Support Forums.