Launcher freezing after game exit.

Antrox41 · July 10

Was prompted to update the launcher today, it updated fine but every time I close or exit the game, the launcher just freezes and I cant close it unless i forcefully end the task. Any else having issues with the launcher update?

HipSkinned · July 11

My launcher is doing the same as yours after the update. I either have to force end task or wait a couple of minutes and then the launcher goes back to displaying the Play button again.

BloodWolfe · July 12

Same here, noticed this yesterday on July 11 and still happening today. Really annoying!

I play through the ZOS ESO Launcher and NOT through Steam, I am on Windows 11 Pro and come to think of it, this started with Windows 11 Pro as I recently went to 11 from 10 and only yesterday installed ESO onto Windows 11 so I wonder if this is strictly a Windows 11 related issue?

valenwood_vegan · July 12

This happened to me too today, after quitting the game the launcher was completely unresponsive and couldn't be closed. After about 2 minutes it started working again and could be closed normally. For whatever it's worth, this is on Steam/PC/NA and Windows 11.

valenwood_vegan · July 12

Just to add, as a bit of a possible workaround... I was able to launch the game and then immediately close the launcher instead of leaving it open in the background while playing.

KurganNazzir · July 12

It's best to close the launcher after the game launches so you don't have to sit and wait. Although to be fair, the wait time for the launcher maybe now matches the actual wait time for the game to show as closed in Steam so maybe it was a purposeful change even though not everyone plays on Steam (or does this only happen to Steam users, I haven't run without Steam to see).

Antrox41 · July 13

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

Just to add, as a bit of a possible workaround... I was able to launch the game and then immediately close the launcher instead of leaving it open in the background while playing.

KurganNazzir wrote: »

It's best to close the launcher after the game launches so you don't have to sit and wait. Although to be fair, the wait time for the launcher maybe now matches the actual wait time for the game to show as closed in Steam so maybe it was a purposeful change even though not everyone plays on Steam (or does this only happen to Steam users, I haven't run without Steam to see).

For a temporary and faster way to just force close the launcher if it keeps doing this.

If you are using Windows 11 Pro (Home Edition does not have Developer Mode, you will not be able to do this without Pro Edition), go to Settings-->System-->For Developers
-Enable Developer Mode
-Tick Enable End Task by right click.

Now when there is a program that is unresponsive you dont have to open task manager or even CTR+ALT+DEL. Simply right click the icon in taskbar--> End Task and done (It functions the same as force ending it task manager).

BloodWolfe wrote: »

Same here, noticed this yesterday on July 11 and still happening today. Really annoying!

I play through the ZOS ESO Launcher and NOT through Steam, I am on Windows 11 Pro and come to think of it, this started with Windows 11 Pro as I recently went to 11 from 10 and only yesterday installed ESO onto Windows 11 so I wonder if this is strictly a Windows 11 related issue?

Not a Windows 11 issue specifically, it seems everyone is experiencing this even on Windows 10.

Thrasher91604 · July 13

I too am experiencing the launcher freezing after exiting the game.

Bug report to ZoS got a standard performance form letter response that had nothing to do with the Launcher.

Great job ZoS.

SilverBride · July 13

The launcher is freezing for me, too. Sometimes it eventually closes on its own but other times I have to force close it. So I started shutting it down after launch instead of leaving it running in the background like I used to.

Another thing I've noticed, though is that the game itself isn't completely shutting down for several seconds. During that time I see a blue spinning circle by my mouse symbol and am unable to use Chrome to open web pages until that resolves. It does this regardless of whether I've left the launcher open in the background or not.

BloodWolfe · July 14

Antrox41 wrote: »

BloodWolfe wrote: »

Same here, noticed this yesterday on July 11 and still happening today. Really annoying!

I play through the ZOS ESO Launcher and NOT through Steam, I am on Windows 11 Pro and come to think of it, this started with Windows 11 Pro as I recently went to 11 from 10 and only yesterday installed ESO onto Windows 11 so I wonder if this is strictly a Windows 11 related issue?

Not a Windows 11 issue specifically, it seems everyone is experiencing this even on Windows 10.

Ah ok, seemed weird because for me I didn't have this issue until I switched to Windows 11 so guess it was just coincidental timing on my part lol.

madman65 · July 14

I had alot of trouble from Windows 11, I went back to Windows 10. No more problems except for Norton thinking the ESO64.exe has IDP.generic.

Tandor · July 14

SilverBride wrote: »

The launcher is freezing for me, too. Sometimes it eventually closes on its own but other times I have to force close it. So I started shutting it down after launch instead of leaving it running in the background like I used to.

Another thing I've noticed, though is that the game itself isn't completely shutting down for several seconds. During that time I see a blue spinning circle by my mouse symbol and am unable to use Chrome to open web pages until that resolves. It does this regardless of whether I've left the launcher open in the background or not.

That sounds similar to my issue with the launcher. When I quit the game the launcher says "running" for a few seconds and I can't close the launcher until that has cleared, whereas it used to be able to close the launcher immediately on exiting to it. I think this has just been over the last week or two, possibly a bit longer.

method__01 · July 14

BloodWolfe wrote: »

Same here, noticed this yesterday on July 11 and still happening today. Really annoying!

I play through the ZOS ESO Launcher and NOT through Steam, I am on Windows 11 Pro and come to think of it, this started with Windows 11 Pro as I recently went to 11 from 10 and only yesterday installed ESO onto Windows 11 so I wonder if this is strictly a Windows 11 related issue?

the launcher prob affects all windows installations both 10 and 11 (tested in my old win 10 rig and new one with 11)
BUT windows 11 and ESO have lots of other probs since June 2 update -see other threads - so if any, check
some solutions ppl suggested

BloodWolfe · July 16

method__01 wrote: »

BloodWolfe wrote: »

Same here, noticed this yesterday on July 11 and still happening today. Really annoying!

I play through the ZOS ESO Launcher and NOT through Steam, I am on Windows 11 Pro and come to think of it, this started with Windows 11 Pro as I recently went to 11 from 10 and only yesterday installed ESO onto Windows 11 so I wonder if this is strictly a Windows 11 related issue?

the launcher prob affects all windows installations both 10 and 11 (tested in my old win 10 rig and new one with 11)
BUT windows 11 and ESO have lots of other probs since June 2 update -see other threads - so if any, check
some solutions ppl suggested

Ya probably, but must have been coincidental timing for me then. Never had this issue on Windows 10 but I finally made the switch last week to Windows 11 (on Friday) and the day after (Saturday) I did is when I installed ESO and noticed this. So just wanted to share my experience, but maybe there was a launcher update in my downtime before reinstalling ESO or something.

SilverBride · July 16

Tandor wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

The launcher is freezing for me, too. Sometimes it eventually closes on its own but other times I have to force close it. So I started shutting it down after launch instead of leaving it running in the background like I used to.

Another thing I've noticed, though is that the game itself isn't completely shutting down for several seconds. During that time I see a blue spinning circle by my mouse symbol and am unable to use Chrome to open web pages until that resolves. It does this regardless of whether I've left the launcher open in the background or not.

That sounds similar to my issue with the launcher. When I quit the game the launcher says "running" for a few seconds and I can't close the launcher until that has cleared, whereas it used to be able to close the launcher immediately on exiting to it. I think this has just been over the last week or two, possibly a bit longer.

Mine started a few weeks ago. It never did this before and always shut down immediately. I'm not sure if it happened with a patch or not, but something triggered this change.

AzuraFan · July 18

Same here. I just posted about it in the bug reports forum.

ETA: It started after the last launcher update that happened recently. Before then, the launcher worked fine for me. I'm on Windows 11, PC/NA. I didn't know I could shut the launcher down once I'm in the game. I'll do that from now on.

The other symptom of this, which I posted in the bug report, is that while the launcher is sort of hung up, it sometimes bungs up my Internet connection so Chrome freezes, etc. Not sure what they included in that patch, but it was a stinker.

SilverBride · July 18

AzuraFan wrote: »

...while the launcher is sort of hung up, it sometimes bungs up my Internet connection so Chrome freezes, etc.

It does that to me, too. But it also does it just shutting down the game even if I had already shut down the launcher right after the game loaded.

Also, when I quit the game the screen goes black with just the menus on the left visible.

AzuraFan · July 18

SilverBride wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

...while the launcher is sort of hung up, it sometimes bungs up my Internet connection so Chrome freezes, etc.

It does that to me, too. But it also does it just shutting down the game even if I had already shut down the launcher right after the game loaded.

Also, when I quit the game the screen goes black with just the menus on the left visible.

I don't have that problem. For me, the game is behaving exactly as it did before. The issue is with the launcher only.

SilverBride · July 18

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

Is this a known issue? Is there a fix coming?

P0PuPnP0P0uT · July 18

we common folk have had stability issues and launcher issues on EU server for the last week looks like NA server is starting to experience some issues now frequent drops, long load times or you can login after a queue time then get no further than character select launcher crashes etc. i think i did see somewhere where win 10 and win 11 have different launchers available and was something to do with running in compatibility mode for earlier versions of windows.

if i find the info i will edit and post here unless i was just going mad and imagined it all

SteviM · July 28

I simply do not use the launcher anymore. Start ESO using the "\The Elder Scrolls Online\game\client\eso64.exe".

If someday the game tells you that it can not run due to a version mismatch update it with the launcher once.

BloodWolfe · August 4

Come on ZOS (@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin ), it's August 3 and this is still an issue and it seems even more frequent than before. What gives?

SilverBride · August 4

It's still happening to me, too.

Freezbeez · August 4

SilverBride wrote: »

It's still happening to me, too.

have you tried this?

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-gb/discussion/680787/launcher-issues-click-here-for-zip-files#latest

I also set my cores and threads to half their number in UserSettings; everything was at -1. Since then, I haven't had any problems.
Check your processor to find out the number of cores if you don't know.

UserSettings is located in the Live folder in c:/../../Documents/eso/live

For me, it now looks like this:

SET MaxCoresToUse.4 "2"
SET RequestedNumJobThreads "4"
SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "4"

Since then, my CPU no longer goes up to 100% when I change characters, zones, or login pages, and it no longer freezes or crashes.

This works for many of my friends; I hope it helps you.

SilverBride · August 4

Freezbeez wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

It's still happening to me, too.

have you tried this?

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-gb/discussion/680787/launcher-issues-click-here-for-zip-files#latest

I haven't because it says this:

"Some of you have been running into an issue recently where the Launcher is closing or crashing when trying to load, particularly if you are using an older version of Windows. We've created a custom launcher build that should help anyone affected."

My launcher isn't closing or crashing and I'm using Windows 11 on a new computer. My problem is that the launcher won't shut down and I often have to use task manager to close it.

Freezbeez · August 5

SilverBride wrote: »

My launcher isn't closing or crashing and I'm using Windows 11 on a new computer. My problem is that the launcher won't shut down and I often have to use task manager to close it.

Okay, try the part in User Settings; it's independent of the Launcher issue.
It doesn't hurt to try.

SilverBride · August 5

Freezbeez wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

My launcher isn't closing or crashing and I'm using Windows 11 on a new computer. My problem is that the launcher won't shut down and I often have to use task manager to close it.

Okay, try the part in User Settings; it's independent of the Launcher issue.
It doesn't hurt to try.

I hesitate to change settings for other issues that I'm not experiencing. The launcher not shutting down is the only issue I'm having.

SilverBride · August 11

I just noticed something when shutting down the game this evening. When I go to the Task Manager to shut down the freezing launcher it shows 2 active launchers... the Zenimax Online Studios Launcher and the Bethesda.net Launcher. Why would there be 2 launchers?

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

I also noticed that there is a zosSteamStarter dated 2016 and ZosSteamStarter.version dated 2018 in my program files, but I have never played ESO through Steam nor do I intend to. Is it safe to remove these?

BloodWolfe · August 13

Wow ZOS, seriously, no comment? No aknowledgement? FIX YOUR LAUNCHER!

Imperial_Archmage · August 23

This is still going on…

SilverBride · August 23

This issue is very frustrating and we need it fixed, please.