Remove "Your system falls below minimum settings" in Forza 4
Your PC (like mine) may fall below the minimum requirements to play Forza, meaning that on every launch there is an annoying popup warning you about " suboptimal performance" that has to be clicked on.... every time!
This is especially annoying when in big picture mode with a controller. It's a total immersion breaker, requiring you to grab a mouse, switch windows and click "ok" then switch back to the game.
Luckily there is a solution to this windows-clicking nightmare; with a simple script, this popup can be closed automatically, with zero impact on gaming performance.
Disclaimer: This guide does require the renaming of game files. Modding Forza Horizon 4 may breach the game's terms of service. Proceed at your own risk. We are not responsible for any adverse effects caused by modding.
Step One - install AutoHotkey
Go to https://www.autohotkey.com , download AutoHotkey V2.0 and follow the install wizard.
Step Two - rename the Forza executable
To find its location first right click on Forza in Steam and click on "properties"
Click "Installed Files" then "Browse" to see the game files in file explorer.
Scroll down to "ForzaHorizon4" in file explorer and rename it to "ForzaHorizon42". Its a good idea to keep this file explorer window open as we will be coming back to that later.
Step Three - create the AutoHotkey script
Navigate to a file location with a new file explorer window. It doesn't matter what file location you do this at (somewhere you know were it is for later). right click on empty space in the file explorer window. From the context menu click on "AutoHotkey Script".
Name the new Script "Forza Script". Press edit and choose your text editor (Notepad will work fine). Then you need to copy and paste the code below into the editor and save it.
Please note that the path to your executable may be different to the one in my script if Forza is installed on another drive. If so, find the path by right clicking on your "ForzaHorizon42" executable file then click "copy as path" then paste it where the path is on the first line of the script.
Run("C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ForzaHorizon4\ForzaHorizon42.exe") ; location of the Forza executable with its name changed
WinWait("Your system falls below minimum settings") ; Waits untill the window Appears
While WinExist("Your system falls below minimum settings") ; Triggerd when the window Appears
{
WinClose("Your system falls below minimum settings") ; Closes the window
}
ExitApp ; Exit the script once the window is closed
Step Four - Compile the code:
Search for AutoHotkey Dash in the start menu and open it. Click "Compile". If there is a pop up that says "Ahk2Exe is not installed" click ok.
Browse to the path of the "Forza script" you made in step three for the Source(script file) and click open. Browse to the folder where Forza is installed that you found earlier for the Destination(.exe file), name the file "ForzaHorizon4" and click save.
Base File(.bin, .exe) should be set to v2.0.4 U64 AutoHotkey64.exe from the dropdown.
Finally Click convert.
Doing This mod on my PC resulted in small black boxes appearing over the game very occasionally. If this happens don't rename the game files, instead add a shortcut to the script as a non-steam game and hide the original game in your steam library. This solution isn't as elegant but should solve this problem.
Congrats! You are finished!
Now hopefully, when launching Forza from Steam you should no longer see the popup! This works by the AutoHotkey script pretending to be the Forza game executable, then launching the renamed real executable so that achievements and time played will still show in Steam. It then waits for the popup to occur. When it occurs it closes it, then quits the AutoHotkey script so not to impact gaming performance.