
EA used to give away the Ultimate Collection on Origin for free to those who owned the game via discs, but that “campaign” ended in 2018 and the UC has only been available to download from third party sites ever since then.

Instead, you should get The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, which is the full collection of the game with all expansion and stuff packs released for Windows.

(But if you have the discs and still insist on installing the game that way, I recommend checking out Crosimmer’s written guide (from page 5) or CozyPixels’ video tutorial for it). Furthermore, buying and installing 19 discs separately for one game is just unnecessarily expensive and complicated IMO. You could also look for old discs on online secondhand shopping sites like eBay, but installing the game from those is not recommended because 1) you’d have to install the expansion packs in a certain order and/or apply patches to them manually if you want the least amount of bugs and possible pre-existing corruption in your game, 2) you may encounter issues with this problematic software called SecuROM that installs itself on your computer with your Sims 2 discs, 3) chances are your modern PC doesn’t even have a built-in disc tray anyway. Since EA no longer support or sell the game, it’s impossible to purchase legally from an official source, at least when it comes to Windows (The Sims 2 Super Collection is available to buy on Mac from the App Store but it’s missing two expansion packs and like half of all stuff packs because those were never ported to Mac in the first place). If you’re looking to play The Sims 2 with all expansion and stuff packs in 2022, your best option is to download it for free. ✦ How to download & install The Sims 2 with all packs in 2022 for Windows 10/11 ✦ I am also working on a FAQ-style technical support guide, but that’s still a WIP.

I wrote this “guide” for people who come to me asking for a download link to The Sims 2, or anyone who stumbles on my tumblr and wants to know. Page is still a work in progress but the links are working!.
