Invisible launcher...

Khatou · March 2020

Hey,

after the problem happened recently my launcher is displayed in the taskbar, but the launcher does not appear on the screen, why and what to do???

alterfenixeb17_ESO · March 2020

There may be a number of reasons for that behavior really.

Does launcher menu show when you try to open launcher?
Are you or were you by any chance using a multi display configuration?
Are you using external GPU?
What is the status of the launcher in Activity Monitor? Is it responding?

coletas · March 2020

Press alt+space then fron the menú choose move and move It with Arrow keys

WackyOldMan · May 2021

The problem is, that the launcher doesn´t respond anymore to any action, looks like the task is frozen in the background...

You have to kill the task via Windows-Taskmanager. Another workaround:

The command
"C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe /f /IM Bethesda.net_Launcher.exe"
in a cmd-window kills the task too, imho faster than opening the taskmanager, finding the task etc...

Alternatively, you can also put a shortcut with the command on the desktop, which makes things even more convenient.

Nestor · May 2021

@WackyOldMan

Make a shortcut to the ESO64.EXE and place that on the desktop. Use that to launch the game.

In a few days, the launcher may sort itself. However, i never use it unless it is patch day.

WackyOldMan · May 2021

@Nestor

That´s another workaround, thanks. I personally prefer the launcher, because of it´s news and other informations.

ZOS_Bill · May 2021

@WackyOldMan

Removing the launcher folder may help in resolving the invisible launcher issue. Please follow the troubleshooting steps below.

Navigate to the Patcher's install folder (by default located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online \Launcher).
Locate and delete the ProgramData folder.
Restart the launcher.
The launcher should now display "Creating Download." This is normal as the launcher begins the regeneration process. It can take anywhere between 21-30% before the launcher switches to "Downloading game files".

WackyOldMan · May 2021

ZOS_BillE wrote: »

@WackyOldMan

Removing the launcher folder may help in resolving the invisible launcher issue. Please follow the troubleshooting steps below.
...

Thanks @ZOS_BillE. I found this solution myself somewhere in the forum some time ago, but in my case it doesn´t help.

ZOS_Bill · May 2021

@WackyOldMan

One more troubleshooting step you can try is rebooting the PC into a selective startup. This will disable third party software running on the PC. Open the ESO Launcher while under the selective startup and test if the issue persists.

WackyOldMan · May 2021

ZOS_BillE wrote: »

@WackyOldMan

One more troubleshooting step you can try is rebooting the PC into a selective startup. This will disable third party software running on the PC. Open the ESO Launcher while under the selective startup and test if the issue persists.

Thanks again, but way too much effort just because a crappy program doesn't run clean

. Honestly, I don't give a *** if I have to throw the launcher out of memory once or twice a day when I can do it with the simplest of means. I actually also just wanted to point out a simple workaround for all the other players who have the same problem.

btw...
For many gamers, the PC is first and foremost a work device that is also used to play games. And even if it serves as a pure game console, not every game manufacturer can want to fix his own programming issues by suggesting to adapt the configuration of the computer to his product, no matter if other programs get problems with the procedure afterwards...
I don't think it's a good approach to give such tips to your customers, not everyone is an IT specialist who is aware of the consequences of his actions, if, in the next step, he has to remove supposedly guilty programs of other manufacturers from the autostart, so that your own product supposedly runs cleanly.

Please don't get me wrong, I don't want to criticize your personal support efforts, I just find the approach suggested by some developers quite borderline, because it can cause quite some problems for the customer afterwards.

deyjasagus · May 2021

ZOS_BillE wrote: »

@WackyOldMan

One more troubleshooting step you can try is rebooting the PC into a selective startup. This will disable third party software running on the PC. Open the ESO Launcher while under the selective startup and test if the issue persists.

The issue with the Bethesda.net_Launcher.exe appearing in the task bar after manually closing it has been reported multiple times in several posts. This is not a problem that can be resolved using the aforementioned steps.

I have ESO installed on two computers, one of which was a fresh install so there are no third party applications present at the moment. Each of the computers has an install from Steam as well as one from Zenimax, both of which are in their own distinct directories so the only shared files they have are the addon files.

If I don't close either version of the launcher manually after entering the game it will, after an undetermined period of time, show as a running task after I exit ESO and then close it. You can see this on the task bar and in the Task Manager. The only way to kill the process, short of logging out or rebooting the computer, is to take one of the two steps WackyOldMan mentions.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of different computer configurations that are being used to play ESO and I know you are trying to assist with giving basic troubleshooting but this is an issue with how the executable interacts with those computers. Perhaps coming up with a base set of questions you can ask for anyone reporting this issue will help you determine what may be the common denominator .

Roach2010 · May 2021

Instead of having to kill the Launcher manually I have configured a Scheduled Task to do it automatically when the Game is launched.

To achieve this I first had to enable "Audit Process Tracking" using the Local Security Policy App (secpol.msc).

Then in Task Scheduler I made a task that kills the launcher after the eso64.exe process has been created. Props to WackyOldMan for the taskkill command.

Here is the Task xml code that you could put into a file to quickly import into Task Scheduler (you might need to modify the location to your eso64.exe file).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<Task version="1.2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2004/02/mit/task">
  <RegistrationInfo>
    <URI>\Kill ESO Launcher</URI>
  </RegistrationInfo>
  <Triggers>
    <EventTrigger>
      <Enabled>true</Enabled>
      <Subscription>&lt;QueryList&gt;&lt;Query Id="0" Path="Security"&gt;&lt;Select Path="Security"&gt;
     *[System[Provider[@Name='Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing'] and (band(Keywords,9007199254740992)) and (EventID=4688)]]
   and 
     *[EventData[(Data='D:\Games\ESO\The Elder Scrolls Online\game\client\eso64.exe')]]
    &lt;/Select&gt;&lt;/Query&gt;&lt;/QueryList&gt;</Subscription>
    </EventTrigger>
  </Triggers>
  <Principals>
    <Principal id="Author">
      <LogonType>InteractiveToken</LogonType>
      <RunLevel>HighestAvailable</RunLevel>
    </Principal>
  </Principals>
  <Settings>
    <MultipleInstancesPolicy>IgnoreNew</MultipleInstancesPolicy>
    <DisallowStartIfOnBatteries>true</DisallowStartIfOnBatteries>
    <StopIfGoingOnBatteries>true</StopIfGoingOnBatteries>
    <AllowHardTerminate>true</AllowHardTerminate>
    <StartWhenAvailable>false</StartWhenAvailable>
    <RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable>false</RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable>
    <IdleSettings>
      <StopOnIdleEnd>true</StopOnIdleEnd>
      <RestartOnIdle>false</RestartOnIdle>
    </IdleSettings>
    <AllowStartOnDemand>true</AllowStartOnDemand>
    <Enabled>true</Enabled>
    <Hidden>false</Hidden>
    <RunOnlyIfIdle>false</RunOnlyIfIdle>
    <WakeToRun>false</WakeToRun>
    <ExecutionTimeLimit>PT72H</ExecutionTimeLimit>
    <Priority>7</Priority>
  </Settings>
  <Actions Context="Author">
    <Exec>
      <Command>taskkill.exe</Command>
      <Arguments>/IM Bethesda.net_Launcher.exe /f</Arguments>
    </Exec>
  </Actions>
</Task>

Try this at your own risk, it has saved me the hassle of closing the Launcher every time it breaks but of course I hope this gets an official fix. It's not great having to kill the process like this but what other option is there for now?