Installing and getting Battlefield 2 (an EA game from 2006) to work on Windows 7 is not as easy as it could be. For that reason I wrote this howto to get BF2 and Project Reality installed and running.

• Install Battlefield 2 from DVD
• Start the game (it will crash)
• Fix the crash by changing the display refresh rate in the profile
  • Goto C:\Users\YOUR_USER\Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\Default
  • Open Video.con with Notepad
  • Change VideoSettings.setResolution from 1600x1200@85Hz to 1600x1200@60Hz
  • Goto C:\Users\YOUR_USER\Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\001
  • Open Video.con with Notepad
  • Change VideoSettings.setResolution from 1600x1200@85Hz to 1600x1200@60Hz
• Start the game (it should work now) and quit
• Add missing key in registry for update
  • Run regedit
  • Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Battlefield 2
  • Edit -> New -> String Value, Enter: Version
  • Right click on Version -> Modify, Enter: 1.0
• Download and install Battlefield 2 Patch v1.41:
  • http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield-2/downloads
  • http://largedownloads.ea.com/pub/patches/BF2/1.41/BF2_Patch_1.41.exe
• Download and install Battlefield 2 Patch v1.5:
  • http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-2/799373-battlefield-2-v1-50-download-links-official.html
• Download and install Project Reality 0.97 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3:
  • http://www.realitymod.com/downloads
• Start the game and play