I really hate this new launcher for adding no utility while removing ease of use

[please add multithreading]

Before the launcher I had EU4 simply pinned on my taskbar and played whenever I felt like it. Nowadays if I wanna play EU4 I need to open Steam click EU4 click trough a menu to decide wich version, click through another menu, wait for the game to load and only then am I in the game. Not a big problem you could say but unlike 80% of EU4 players I do achievenments wich means I play more nations then England, Prussia and Custom nation. Some achievenments require silly amounts of restarting from minor mistakes like reacting too slowly to a enemy coming at you when you are watching another siege, wich are practically run ending in some of them. Now a process wich turned from click taskbar and come back into the menu after menu clownfest. I genuinly have been playing EU4 far less cause of this since why would I bother with menus when other games let me click a button and instantly play. I couldnt even play with the taskbar if I didnt care about achievements since none of the dlcs will be enabled if I do.

 

[InvisibleBison]

It's possible to bypass the launcher if you don't want to use it (at least on Windows, but you seem to be using that OS). Navigate to the folder where EU4 is installed (on my computer it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Europa Universalis IV) and you should see the game's exe file. Opening that file will launch the game directly, without involving the launcher. You can even pin it to the taskbar if you want.

 

[please add multithreading]

It's possible to bypass the launcher if you don't want to use it (at least on Windows, but you seem to be using that OS). Navigate to the folder where EU4 is installed (on my computer it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Europa Universalis IV) and you should see the game's exe file. Opening that file will launch the game directly, without involving the launcher. You can even pin it to the taskbar if you want.

Thats exactly what pinning EU4 at the taskbar does. If you are curious go do it yourself.

 

[gigau]

If you don't change the mod and DLC setup, you can even add the launching of EUIV with a hotkey.

I personally start EUIV with the press of a button using a streamdeck... as i recall, doing the same with keyboard hotkeys would work the same way.