Locate and delete the original Startup.exe and WarGame-G4WLive.exe .
Navigate to your game directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Gears of War\Binaries . GoW_Win7-8.1_Fix.zip
The file is a community-made patch designed to allow the PC version of the original Gears of War (2007) to run on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 . This fix is necessary because the game's digital certificate expired, causing it to crash or fail to launch on these operating systems with an "expired certificate" or "startup.exe" error. Installation Steps Locate and delete the original Startup