Putting this here for posterity and in case it’s useful to others.

This specifically applies only to people who have the Windows CD version of TIE Fighter (the one released using the XvT engine). If you have the old DOS version or the GOG.com version, these instructions may/will not apply to you. These steps are directly adapted from this guide, distilled into the minimal form of the steps I followed. That guide also has instructions for the older DOS version and GOG.com versions, if that’s your thing. Additionally, this is specifically for users of Windows 7 x64. I make no guarantees of applicability to other versions of Windows.

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Primary Instructions

Download Tie95-win7.zip
Download TF95ReochestratedDatav1.zip
Extract Tie95-Win7.zip to a temporary location (henceforth %TIE95-WIN7_DIR%)
Insert the TIE Fighter CD. Close/exit autostart if it opens.
Open the TIE95 disc in Explorer instead.
Copy all files on disc to your hard drive somewhere (henceforth %TIECD_DIR%)
Run XCS_TIE95_MSI_v1.0.0.0.exe from %TIE95-WIN7_DIR% and point it at the place where you copied the game files.
Run XCS - TIE Fighter 95.msi from %TIECD_DIR%. Accept defaults (or change them as desired; I didn’t try; henceforth, this install path is henceforth %TIE_PATH%).
Copy tie95.bat from %TIE95-WIN7_DIR% to %TIE_PATH%. This file closes Explorer when the game launches (possible color issues) and restarts it again when the game exits. Do not be alarmed.
Locate the TIE Fighter 95 shortcut in the start menu, right-click and choose “Properties”
Change TIESTART.EXE to tie95.bat
Click ‘Apply’, then ‘Change Icon…’, then select the TIE95.EXE and click ‘OK’
Click ‘OK’ to close the properties window.
In your video card profile settings (e.g. NIVIDA Control Panel), create a profile for TIE95.EXE

Disable anti-aliasing. Having it on leads to weird color flickering.
Enable 16x Anisotropic Filtering


Open XWTIE95.zip from %TIE95-WIN7_DIR% and run XWTIE95.exe to prevent D3D crashes.
Make sure the disc is in the drive
Copy B6M3GW.TIE from %TIE95-WIN7_DIR% to %TIE_PATH%\Mission (official LucasArts patch for this mission)
Make sure you have a joystick plugged in. Game won’t cooperate without one.
Run the game from your shortcut

Reorchestrated Music

To get the original music and improved voice, you basically need to rebuild the TIE CD disc with the Reorchestrated data files.

Ensure you have a way to create and virtually “mount” ISO disc images
Extract TF95ReochestratedDatav1.zip to %TIECD_DIR%
Replace %TIE_PATH%\TIE95.EXE with the one in the Data zip’s INSTALL folder.
Create an image of %TIECD_DIR% and be sure to name it TIE95 (so it matches the existing disc)
Mount it as TIE95 using some kind of virtual mounting software.
Ensure the original game disc is no longer in your drive.
Run the game from your shortcut
You may get prompted that there is no disc in the original drive. Click ‘Cancel’ and the game should launch anyway. It will not show this warning on subsequent runs.

Enjoy!