Steam Stellaris doesn't launch the launcher; auto-installed launcher doesn't see Stellaris.

[Garr Incorporated]

This issue occurs on my Lenovo B590 laptop running Windows 10, with Steam and Stellaris both installed on drive F: (my second drive); reinstalling Stellaris to C: did nothing to resolve the issue.

After installation trying to run Stellaris via Steam does nothing: the game "launches" for half a minute with nothing visible happening (at first launch the launcher got installed automatically). After that time the game closes, enabling one to "start" it again with no effect. It is possible to launch the game manually by running the .exe.
If, instead, I try to run the launcher that got installed to my laptop, it behaves as an outside launcher. That is, it requires installing Stellaris via it instead of Steam. The launcher does not recognise the Steam game at all (which, as I understand, makes sense code-wise).

The issue persisted despite multiple reinstalls, cleanses of launcher and/or Stellaris files and checks for issues in Windows. The default Windows Firewall is offline regarding the programs running, so it should not be affecting the program in any way.
While cleaning up any and all files regarding the launcher I found a lot of "AppCrash_Paradox Launcher" files in Windows Error Reporting folder. I could not access those quickly, but judging by the amount and the timing those were made whenever I tried launching the game via Steam. It tried opening the Launcher, failed and sent the error message to the WER. Since there was no visible error visual I never would have found those if not for the cleaning.

 

[Garr Incorporated]

Apparently, one launch of Stellaris via Steam created about half a dozen of error reports. Here they are.

 

[AndrewT]

From what you say here, the issue is with the launcher and not the game.


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


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.

 

[Garr Incorporated]

Tried doing the steps you described. I did those once before, but for thoroughness' sake.
It did not work. The logs are here; and curiously, the log with the current date is empty. Hence it being unable to attach here.

 

[AndrewT]

Those logs look okay, but was there no cpatch.log in the same place?


Does this file physically exist?
C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2022.14/paradox launcher.exe

If so, what happens if you run in manually from File Explorer?

 

[Garr Incorporated]

Those logs look okay, but was there no cpatch.log in the same place?

No, there was no catch.log in the folder. I sent everything there was.

Does this file physically exist?
C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2022.14/paradox launcher.exe

Not... exactly. The described path is a bit different. Instead of "launcher-v2.2022.14" there is "launcher" folder with "bootstrapper-v2.exe", third party licenses txt file and ".cpatch" and "launcher-v2.2022.1" folders. The latter does contain the launcher application, and when launched it behaves like an outside launcher: presents me with "no games installed on computer" and a choice to go to store or log into the Paradox account. Also requests to update the launcher.

 

[AndrewT]

This is a weird one, we really have nothing to go on! What happens if you set bootstrapper-v2.exe to run as the Windows Admin user then run it manually?

 

[Garr Incorporated]

This is a weird one, we really have nothing to go on! What happens if you set bootstrapper-v2.exe to run as the Windows Admin user then run it manually?

Just to clarify: what do you mean by "set X to run as Windows Admin"? I am not sure if you refer to "run as administrator" prompt or something else.

 

[AndrewT]

Right click on the .exe , properties, compatibility. Tick the "run as Admin" box, untick everything else, Apply and exit that dialog.

 

[Garr Incorporated]

This is a weird one, we really have nothing to go on! What happens if you set bootstrapper-v2.exe to run as the Windows Admin user then run it manually?

If I run the bootstrapper manually, it loads the launcher (both before and after setting it to run as Admin). That launcher, as before, doesn't see Stellaris.
Running Stellaris from Steam after setting to run as Admin does not change anything.

 

[Garr Incorporated]

Could it be because of some weird way the launcher interacts with Steam being installed in a drive different from C:? I keep thinking about this being a thing despite it being very unlikely. Wish I could easily test it out without literally removing everything.

 

[AndrewT]

That launcher, as before, doesn't see Stellaris.

That is expected; standalone mode is meant for users who don't want to use Steam, so it does not see your Steam installation. We're trying to diagnose and fix your launcher issue here which is unrelated to that situation.

As the launcher has run, there should be a cpatch.log now?

 

[AndrewT]

Could it be because of some weird way the launcher interacts with Steam being installed in a drive different from C:? I keep thinking about this being a thing despite it being very unlikely. Wish I could easily test it out without literally removing everything.

That is a normal situation; I have the launcher on C: and the game on D: and it works fine.

 

[Garr Incorporated]

As the launcher has run, there should be a cpatch.log now?

Indeed there is. I will attach all recently changed logs as well, just in case.

As an aside, there are now more AppCrash reports in WER, which all seem to coincide with my attempts to run the launcher from Steam.

 

[AndrewT]

Looks like we still have a permissions issue here. What antivirus app do you use? You need to make sure all these apps are in its exceptions lists:

stellaris.exe and dowser.exe (in the Steam Stellaris folder)
C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2022.14/paradox launcher.exe (or whatever version is now latest there)
C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe

IF that doesn't help, also set each of those .exe files (EXCEPT stellaris.exe !) to run as the Windows Admin user.

Then the game should run from Steam/our launcher, and enable all the DLCs.

 

[Garr Incorporated]

Looks like we still have a permissions issue here. What antivirus app do you use? You need to make sure all these apps are in its exceptions lists:

stellaris.exe and dowser.exe (in the Steam Stellaris folder)
C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2022.14/paradox launcher.exe (or whatever version is now latest there)
C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe

IF that doesn't help, also set each of those .exe files (EXCEPT stellaris.exe !) to run as the Windows Admin user.

Then the game should run from Steam/our launcher, and enable all the DLCs.

Okay. There is definitely progress being made.
After your suggestion to check antivirus app (I don't have any, I juse use Windows Defender), I examined it again. Turns out I had my firewall active the whole time.

After turning off the firewall and started the game from Steam (I made all the relevant apps ran as Windows Admin and also restarted Steam as an admin), there was a download of mods from the Workshop! Unfortunately, the game still does not launch properly for some reason, but there is something moving forward.

 

[Garr Incorporated]

... Weird. After turning the laptop off for a good while and launching Stellaris again I finally got the request to launch the "dowser.exe". After that Stellaris bootstrapped launcher worked properly. I will keep monitoring the issue, but at present it seems to work properly.