Paradox Launcher v2.2023.14 Will not open on Windows 7

[RMS Oceanic]

Pretty much what it says. I'm aware Windows 7 is super old and is indeed slated to no longer operate Steam in the New Year, hence my shopping around for an upgrade, but it's frustrating when such an update breaks your setup without warning. After doing a few reinstalls I found the 2022.9 folder can still open the Launcher, but the 2023.14 folder has the following error:

Googling suggests this is an issue with other applications attempting to still run on Windows 7, so I think that is the case. I can still open EU4 directly by navigating into the Steam folder, but I lose all access to mods or achievements. If Paradox intended to drop such an update which would remove Windows 7 support, an announcement on the forums would have been nice, or perhaps some synchronising with Steam's well-announced plans to discontinue support.

 

[grotaclas]

The newest launcher version(s) don't work on windows 7 anymore. I don't know if that's intentional or an oversight. But I would strongly suggest that you change to a different OS (windows 10/11 or something else). Windows 7 has not received security updates for some time(more than 3 years if you didn't pay for extended support) and still using it on a computer which is connected to the internet is a danger for you and the rest of the internet.

Disclaimer: I'm not working for Paradox. I'm just trying to help people.

 

[RMS Oceanic]

I am currently shopping for a new PC and it will indeed have a new OS, I just would have liked a heads up if Paradox Stuff was going to break on 7, as Steam has been warning for several months now.

 

[grotaclas]

Have you seen the post about this topic on the paradox general discussion forum? It has some more explanation and workarounds:

Newest Paradox Launcher version 2023.14 no longer starts on Win7

I suppose this may be a WONTFIX but I wanted to report anyway. Until yesterday I was able to run every game fine on Windows 7 with launcher version 2023.13.1. Today (?) there was an update to 2023.14 and now the launcher will no longer start...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

 

[RMS Oceanic]

I tried that workaround, but the resulting launcher was missing the playset option meaning I still didn't have proper access to mods.

 

[grotaclas]

I tried that workaround, but the resulting launcher was missing the playset option meaning I still didn't have proper access to mods.

Which of the workarounds did you try? The one which results in a warning about the sqlite file? That would break modding support. But I think the workaround to rename the folder should work if you still have a copy of the 2023.13.1 laucher (or any other recent one). If you only have an old one, you probably have to delete the sqlite file and redo your playsets, because the old version can't read the sqlite file of the new launcher version

 

[RMS Oceanic]

I tried relabelling the 2022.9 folder, the 2023.13 folder was gone because my first attempt was remove-reinstall.

 

[grotaclas]

Have you tried removing the .sqlite file(or moving it to a backup folder)? The mod problem is probably because the old launcher version can't read your playlists from the sqlite file

 

[AndrewT]

It's been confirmed that the launcher will no longer work on WIndows 7, and never will any more.

In order to run an older version of the launcher, the easiest way to do it is to rename the folder of the version you want to keep (in this case %LocalAppData%\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2.2023.13.1) to instead be named launcher-v2.2099.99. This will cause it to be chosen as the latest version. Launcher updates should subsequently fail - Which is probably what you want.

Good luck!

 

[RMS Oceanic]

Unfortunately I attempted a reinstall and have lost the 2023.13 folder, and the only alternate version available to be doesn't have the correct menu options for mods and similar. Might be high and dry until I update.

 

[grotaclas]

Unfortunately I attempted a reinstall and have lost the 2023.13 folder, and the only alternate version available to be doesn't have the correct menu options for mods and similar. Might be high and dry until I update.

The 2022.9 version definitely has playset and mod options if it is working correctly. Do you still get the error message that the database migration failed? Then you need to remove the sqlite file so that the launcher can recreate this file in the format that the older version requires. Otherwise it will disable the mod and playset options in the launcher, because it can't handle mods without its database.

And i think you can download a previous version of the launcher installer from https://launcher.paradoxinteractive.com/v2/paradox-launcher-installer-2023_13.msi . You can rename that file to launcher-installer-windows.msi and overwrite the file of the same name in the folder where eu4 is installed. Then you can uninstall the launcher again and start eu4 from steam so that it installs this version.