Launcher problems.

[Mole204]

Around May 7th, which had an update, my copy of Stellaris stopped working. It was the launcher. I've since found the exe still runs basic Stellaris, but without mods, and maybe without the DLC.
I've gone back to 3.11, to 3.12, and the recent 3.12.beta. I've updated the launcher, tried launcher v2, and the Irony launcher. Yes, I've also looked up how to deal with launcher problems. I've also uninstalled, reinstalled, deleted the paradox file trees, verified, and pretty much anything else I could name. Any good suggestions on how to get the launcher running again?

 

[prismaticmarcus]

Moved to Tech Support.

 

[AndrewT]

FYI reverting game versions cannot possibly have any effect on the launcher, they are separate applications.


Please try this:

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

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/
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

- exit the Steam app entirely
- run steam.exe as the Windows Admin user
- run the game from the PLAY button in Steam
OR
- exit the Epic app entirely
- run EpicGamesLauncher.exe as the Windows Admin user
- run the game from the Epic client

IF that doesn't help, in this folder are some .log files:
C:/users/{userName}/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
Please attach them here.
To see the AppData folder you'll need to enable View Hidden Items in File Explorer.

 

[Mole204]

Run Steam as admin
-Press Play, the little window by it says "launching executable" for a second, then the Play button is back to green. The program didn't start.

Deleted those folders, then ran Steam as Admin again.
Got a windows installer window. It installs Paradox launcher 2. Running pl2 from the icon gets nothing, but this time running it from exe gets the window
Paradox launcher.exe - entry point not found
The procedure entry point DiscardVirtualmemory could not be located in the dynamic link library Kernel32.dll
There's a few search results for Kernel32, so it can't say the whole file is missing.
This looks like an error caused by a program written to reject different versions of Windows. I think Stellaris is encountering some of the legacy patches to use older programs. This is an error on Stellaris's side, as well as an intentional error made by programmers to sabotage older versions of windows. It may have encountered whatever install-and-forget sort of codex voodoo I have somewhere for some reason when I moved OS's. Or Registry keys. Did I ever uninstall that Reg key fixer program? With this new error (read as: mistake made on purpose to push new OS-program product) I think that there will be more people encountering this when using older windows, virtual computers, and non-windows OS's. Maybe even people who have a "all cookie rejection" or adblocker program. BTW, Paradox forum has problems with several adblockers. So I wonder what you (not you specifically, Paradox programming in general) have managed to accidentally mess up inside Stellaris.
At least I have the answer to "why" S won't start. I'll later look into why this "why" is there, now that I know where to look. Because it's only and solely Stellaris that's having problems, and that's not new news. Thanks, AndrewT. You've been helpful in identifying the problem.

 

[AndrewT]

What Windows version are you on? As of a few months ago the current launcher version needs 10 or 11.

 

[Mole204]

Was that announced a few months ago, or implemented a few months ago. Because if it was implemented a few months ago, then the launcher would have broken for some _then_, not May 7th. So either something else went wrong for May 7's update, or something didn't break until May 7th, in both cases Windows 7 isn't what was to blame. What versions of Win10 could it break? Clearly nobody uses Windows Millennium anymore... Perhaps the question is how Paradox went around Intentionally breaking the launcher. How does the intentionally breaking function react to different versions of Kernel32, if there are others in different OS's? If Kernel32 is not found, does it look for other system files to declare Brake over? The real question is what unintentional reactions result in which OS's- Windows and non-windows? Does sandboxing windows 7 get the same results as if it was really an OS? Could this cause problems with whatever comes after Win365? So much testing to do, so little hard drive space, and even less time.

 

[AndrewT]

That was announced here in November:

Update on Paradox Game Launcher's support on Windows 7, 8 & 8.1

Hello everyone! Last week, we deployed version 2023.14 of the Paradox Game Launcher. With this version we are no longer supporting Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. We wanted to give you all some more information on how this decision came about and what it...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

I can only guess your launcher failed to update since then until just now, for some reason, as launcher versions after that date simply fail to start at all on pre-Win10 versions.

What versions of Win10 could it break?

None, so far as we know.

I can't answer all your other detailed code questions, I am sorry, I am not a programmer nor a Windows support specialist. The bottom line is the launcher will not run if you are on Win7, you need to use the workaround described in that thread, that will keep you on an older Win7-compatible launcher version.

Do you have this game in Steam, or elsewhere? Because Steam also stopped supporting pre-Win10 versions recently.