Stellaris launcher won't run

[Wedlor]

Running Steam under admin rights.
Completely uninstalled Stellaris and PDX Launcher v2, rebooted.Deleted PDX folder under user\appdata.
Installed Stellaris aaaaand still nothing.
The game don't start via launcher (Steams shows it's running for a second and finishes off). It starts just by Stellaris.exe itself.

OS: Win7SP1
Locale: Russian
The game installed on D: drive (where steam is), not on system C:

The only log is in Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2. Attached.

 

[AndrewT]

please try this:

- exit the Steam app completely

- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user

- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam

Is that any better?

 

[Wedlor]

please try this:

- exit the Steam app completely

- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user

- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam

Is that any better?

Nope, tried this already. Steam just says that the game launched for a moment and then nothing more.

 

[AndrewT]

I assume you do not have a file:
C:\Users\Zhar\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcherpath

If not, please make a text file with that name in that place, and put in it:
C:\Users\Zhar\Documents\Paradox Interactive\
Notepad will want to make that filename launcherpath.txt , so check that and remove the .txt if necessary.

And, does this exist?
C:\Users\Zhar\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2019.10.3\Paradox Launcher.exe

And finally, what is in the Steam-Stellaris/launcher-settings.json file? Has the user Documents folders been moved in this computer perhaps?

 

[Wedlor]

1. Created file without .txt extension
2 Put C:\Users\Zhar\Documents\Paradox Interactive\ in it
3. No, there's no such dir. there, only .cpatch empty folder. Should i run launcher-installer-windows.msi from Stellaris directory?
4. Attached file, had to add .txt to it.
5. No, Documents folder didn't move. Problem appeared after recent patch (played the first version of relic DLC and it's first patched version)

I've also attached launcher log file.

 

[AndrewT]

Please try this:

- exit the Steam app completely

- uninstall the Paradox launcher from Windows Control Panel , Remove Programs

Delete the following folders if still present:
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Roaming/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/

- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user

- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam

Good luck with that!

 

[Wedlor]

- exit the Steam app completely
Done

- uninstall the Paradox launcher from Windows Control Panel , Remove Programs
Wasn't installed.

Delete the following folders if still present:
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Roaming/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
Done

- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user
Done (RMB on shortcut - run as admin)

- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam
Done


Result: still launcher don't start.


Should i install it manaually from Stellaris folder?
Log says that file i've created eariler (and got deleted with folder) not exists.

 

[AndrewT]

If you run stellaris.exe directly, does that work?

- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user
Done (RMB on shortcut - run as admin)

I'm not sure that works; can you do it on the actual steam.exe file please?

 

[Wedlor]

If you run stellaris.exe directly, does that work?
I'm not sure that works; can you do it on the actual steam.exe file please?

Tried this too. No result.

Any command line options for launcher setup with extended logging?


Ok, played with beta versions in Steam - launcher stops working after switching from 2.3 version to 2.4.


Or it might be some registry entries that needs clearing too?

 

[AndrewT]

Tried this too. No result.

Any command line options for launcher setup with extended logging?


Ok, played with beta versions in Steam - launcher stops working after switching from 2.3 version to 2.4.


Or it might be some registry entries that needs clearing too?

I'm a little confused here. Did you say that running stellaris.exe by itself also fails? If so then this cannot be a launcher problem, of course, since it is not involved.

 

[Wedlor]

I'm a little confused here. Did you say that running stellaris.exe by itself also fails? If so then this cannot be a launcher problem, of course, since it is not involved.

No, launching stellaris.exe works fine.
The problem is in new laucher that cannot install iteself

 

[AndrewT]

Any command line options for launcher setup with extended logging?

Not that I'm aware of. The devs for the launcher hang out here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/about-the-paradox-launcher.1254011/

Given that a clean reinstall of the launcher still comes back with:

2019-10-29 21:25:53 [v:2019.10.1] [main] [CRITICAL] Failed to install Paradox Launcher:
open NUL: The system cannot find the file specified.

There must be something different on this computer to what's normal and expected by the launcher installer in Windows, but I cannot see what it is.

In the Steam-stellaris folder you'll see launcher-installer-windows.msi . Right click on that and run Troubleshoot Compatibility. It will probably come back with Skip Version Check, do Test the Program, Next; what path does it show in the install destination? Then Next again and Install.

Whether it succeeds or fails then, hit Next, Save these Settings, and Close. Then again run Steam as Admin, and fire off the game.

Whew! I hope that does it for you!

 

[Wedlor]

Not that I'm aware of. The devs for the launcher hang out here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/about-the-paradox-launcher.1254011/

Given that a clean reinstall of the launcher still comes back with:

There must be something different on this computer to what's normal and expected by the launcher installer in Windows, but I cannot see what it is.

In the Steam-stellaris folder you'll see launcher-installer-windows.msi . Right click on that and run Troubleshoot Compatibility. It will probably come back with Skip Version Check, do Test the Program, Next; what path does it show in the install destination? Then Next again and Install.

Whether it succeeds or fails then, hit Next, Save these Settings, and Close. Then again run Steam as Admin, and fire off the game.

Whew! I hope that does it for you!

Sadly, but no.
Launcher still won't start. Attached logs and screens

 

[Wedlor]

Some info.
Tried to copy some files within all folders described above. After installing launcher manually from Stellaris folder and copying launcher-settings.json to C:\Users\Zhar\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\ i've managed to get launche started, but it doesn't recognize that Steam is runningf (w or w/o admin rights)

Steam still unable to run the launcher and C:\Users\Zhar\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\bootstrapper-v2.exe still reports error

Some info on paths:
Steam dir: D:\Games\Steam\
Stellaris path: D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris
User path: C:\Users\Zhar
Launcher path: C:\Users\Zhar\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2019.10.3 (launcher-v2.2019.10.4 got created after all experiments)

 

[Wedlor]

Um, hello? Any status update?

 

[OneirosCC]

Is it possible the launcher does not start if you have a special character in your user folder name? In my case it is a #

 

[AndrewT]

Is it possible the launcher does not start if you have a special character in your user folder name? In my case it is a #

It is, yes, I MAY have one other case like that. You could test that for us please by making a new Windows user with a plain alpha name, and see if it has the same issue. thanks!

 

[AndrewT]

Some info.
Tried to copy some files within all folders described above. After installing launcher manually from Stellaris folder and copying launcher-settings.json to C:\Users\Zhar\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\ i've managed to get launche started, but it doesn't recognize that Steam is runningf (w or w/o admin rights)

Steam still unable to run the launcher and C:\Users\Zhar\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\bootstrapper-v2.exe still reports error

Some info on paths:
Steam dir: D:\Games\Steam\
Stellaris path: D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris
User path: C:\Users\Zhar
Launcher path: C:\Users\Zhar\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2019.10.3 (launcher-v2.2019.10.4 got created after all experiments)

Go to the folder where Stellaris.exe is, and find the file launcher-installer-windows.msi .

Please right-click on that .msi file and choose Troubleshoot Compatibility. Hit Test the Program, Cancel, Yes, Finish, Next. Save the changes that process suggests, then Close. Now manually run that .msi by double-clicking on it and run through the install; if it wants to remove the launcher do that, then run it again to install it.

Does that help at all?

 

[OneirosCC]

Bloody hell that might have been it. On another user thingy it works... is it realistic the launcher will be made to work with special characters in user name folders soon or should I start settling everything over to the new user?

 

[AndrewT]

Bloody hell that might have been it. On another user thingy it works... is it realistic the launcher will be made to work with special characters in user name folders soon or should I start settling everything over to the new user?

The launcher should work with any legal Windows user name, IMO. Please report your findings in the launcher support thread:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?posts/25985044/