launcher-dowser.log missing

[DeathWatcher]

When ever I try launching the game from inside my steam launcher I get this error

But when I launch it from my taskbar shortcut the game will load up but none of my mods will be working
When I got to my appdata paradox interactive and run launcher-dowser.txt I see this

2019-09-26 20:01:15 [main] [INFO] The `launcherpath` file does not exists:
C:\Users\Ryan\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcherpath
2019-09-26 20:04:07 [main] [CRITICAL] Failed to install Paradox Launcher:
exec: "msiexec": executable file not found in %PATH%

This is my first time back to the game in a couple months and I have never had this problem before in the past years that I have been playing
I am on a windows 10 and I have tried uninstalling the game and restarting my computer but I still get the error.
If anyone knows how to fix i would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AndrewT]

I'm guessing EU4, so over there we go.

 

[AndrewT]

Please try this:

- uninstall EU4 from Steam
- uninstall Paradox Launcher v2 from the Windows "Apps and features" utility, if still present.


Delete the following folders if still present:

- Steam/SteamApps/common/EU4
- Documents/Paradox/EU4 (keep any valued save games, of course)
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/
- C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Roaming/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/

Reboot.

Now install EU4 again and see how that goes please!

 

[DeathWatcher]

Yes its EU4
I uninstalled, deleted those files, then rebooted but I am still getting the error

 

[AndrewT]

Then it seems msiexec.exe is missing from your Windows somehow. Try this:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au...er-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

 

[DeathWatcher]

Okay so I did everything on the webpage and in my cmd promp I got "windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations"
I tried running EU4 and am still getting the error

 

[AndrewT]

Does msiexec.exe physically exist in your C:/windows/system32/ and C:/windows/syswow64/ folders?

 

[DeathWatcher]

Yes the msiexec file in in both of those areas

 

[AndrewT]

I see; how is it then that it is not being found by launcher-installer-windows.msi I wonder? Weird stuff!

Are your Windows Documents and AppData folders in the standard place C:/users/<UserName>/ ? Or have they been moved to some other drive, or OneDrive, perhaps?

Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.

Then open a command prompt in Windows. Navigate to the Steam-EU4 folder and just run msiexec there, does it run? If so it will open up a small help screen. That tells us the path variable is fine.

 

[DeathWatcher]

Here is the speccy report on my computer
How would I do the second part you wanted with the cmd prompt

 

[AndrewT]

In the Windows search box type cmd and hit Enter to open a command line box.

In it type:
cd \Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Europa Universalis IV\
and hit Enter.

Then type:
msiexec
and hit Enter. Does it run, or say it cannot find it? This is to see why the .msi installed apparently fails to find or run this basic Windows utility.

If it runs we may be able to manually run the installer with it, to get around whatever Windows problem is causing this. That would look like this:

msiexec.exe /i launcher-installer-windows.msi

 

[DeathWatcher]

So I did that and I got this

 

[AndrewT]

Okay then, there is something wrong in Windows, as that is a core Windows utility that should be available everywhere.


If you then do PATH there (ie in that same EU4 folder), what shows?


If you type C:\windows\syswow64\msiexec does that show up the help dialog for the installer? If so, we can then try:

C:\windows\syswow64\msiexec /i launcher-installer-windows.msi

Boy I hope that works for you!

 

[DeathWatcher]

If I do PATH I get this

Then for C:\windows\syswow64\msiexec I get a windows installer V 5.0.18362.1
Then when I run C:\windows\syswow64\msiexec /i launcher-installer-windows.msi I get

I really hope that it can be fixed love EU4

 

[AndrewT]

FYI I ran that same command and it worked fine. That reads as if the .msi file is bad now ... how can there be so many problem on this machine!

Try deleting launcher-installer-windows.msi then run a Steam verify operation against this game, to get a new copy. Then run that command again please.

Also, what happens if you run eu4.exe by itself, so skipping the launcher?


I do thank you for your cooperation here!

 

[DeathWatcher]

When I run the eu4.exe command I get

but when i run the game from my taskbar it does work, it just skips the paradox launcher and goes right into the homepage of eu4 but none of the mods are enabled

How would i delete my launcher-installer-windows.msi

 

[AndrewT]

I meant to run eu4.exe from File Explorer, not on the command line. Although that would work if you were in the folder where it is.

File deletions are also done in File Explorer.

 

[DeathWatcher]

If I run eu4.exe the homepage of the game comes up
When I went to launcher-installer-windows.msi and ran that I got a setup page for a paradox launcher V2.2019.09.1 but when I run the launcher I get a blank blue page with a general error sign
Should I still delete the launcher-installer-windows.msi then

 

[AndrewT]

If I run eu4.exe the homepage of the game comes up

So it works, is that right? That screenshot looks to be the same one from two posts ago ...

Should I still delete the launcher-installer-windows.msi then

Yes, then run the Steam Verify operation against the game to replace it with a new copy.

Then try C:\windows\syswow64\msiexec /i launcher-installer-windows.msi again. If that still says it's not an .msi file I'm frankly not sure what to look at next!

 

[DeathWatcher]

When I tried to delete the file it gives a try again page saying that the file no longer exists in this location