Launcher Disappeared

christian.griffinb16_ESO

Hey all,

Quite a bizarre problem this morning.

I closed down ESO last night and went to bed. Woke up this morning, got my coffee, checked my emails, went to play and.... the icon was gone.

Ok, that's weird. Maybe I accidentally deleted the shortcut. I'll just make another o- oh what's that? There isn't any executable file named launcher, eso, elder, elder scrolls (except Skyrim), anywhere? Fine, I'll just look in the C: drive.

Long story short, the launcher is GONE from my computer. It's folder is still there in the ESO folder, but there is no executable in it. Quite simply, my launcher apparently said 'screw this' and just up and removed itself from my computer.

I CAN still access the game using the actual game executable itself, but nonetheless this is an extremely strange bug - and a little concerning that this program has apparently been given read/write privileges and can uninstall itself at will.

christian.griffinb16_ESO

Bumping because an odd bug like this needs to be addressed.

noodleconsistenciesb16_ESO

I had exactly the same thing. I went to access the shortcut and it said windows couldn't find it. So I went through my folders and it's just gone. I can load the game via the eso.exe but I have no launcher? Where did it go?

ufoldager

Exactly. I initially installed the game without adding the "shortcut to desktop", and was only able to execute (and enter) the game through the eso.exe executable file.

This, unfortunately, also means that the game wont be autoupdating (since this happens through the launcher).

So, after the update and maintenance of the EU megaserver last night, I was getting "Login timeout" errors when trying to login.

I have also been searching everywhere for the damn launcher executable, but for some incredibly strange reason, I have been unable to locate it anywhere.

So I re-downloaded and re-installed the entire game (30gb - sheesh). At least, now I got the launcher back and am able to update the game. Good.

What's not so good, however, is that I just logged into my game using my userID credentials, and lo'n'behold, my character is gone!

ZOS_TristanK

Hi there, folks. Thank you for reporting this issue. It is possible that the Launcher application has been removed by your antivirus software. Most antivirus software quarantines applications it removes in a holding list rather than actually deleting it.

The way to access this list is different depending on your antivirus software.
If the application "Bethesda.net_Launcher.exe" is listed as a quarantined item, please attempt to restore it and run it again. If it disappears again and reenters quarantine, you may have to make an exception for the application. The process for this will be different depending on the antivirus software you are using.
There are a few reasons why the file may be quarantined, but the major two are:

While there may be other reasons for the launcher missing, this is a very common one, especially if you cannot locate it with a Windows search and it isn't in the Recycle Bin.

Please let us know if this was able to resolve your issue.

ufoldager

Actually, here's what happened to me (I found the cause of the problem and the solution was then easy):

The game itself, for me at least, was installed on my H: drive. So the path would look like this:

H:\Games\The Elder Scrolls Online EU (EU installment)

H:\Games\The Elder Scrolls Online (NA installment)

The reason why I wasn't able to "find" the launcher, is because it was (apparently due to an installation error/bug, perhaps) installed not inside the H:\Games\The Elder Scrolls Online EU path, but here:

H:\Games\Launcher

In its own separate directory outside the game directory.

This is something I noticed AFTER re-installing the game client, so I am not sure if this was the issue to begin with.

And the reason behind my character being gone was simply because the server was set to NA instead of EU during installment.

Perhaps this might help someone out there, good luck!

Lord_Wrath

Mine is neither quarantined or in existence on my PC. Very strange indeed, I am reinstalling and hoping it wont happen again.

reggielee

same thing happened to me today, my launcher was gone and wasnt in my eset quarantine list or trash can. Another odd thing was that on my start menu were alot of old games that were listed as recently opened, which I know I hadn't.

its beyond odd that the only shortcut deleted was eso.

moloTov

I feel your pain. my launcher has refused to work properly for the last month at least, despite trying all fixes listed/suggested.

Muffinmurdurer

Lord_Wrath wrote: »

Mine is neither quarantined or in existence on my PC. Very strange indeed, I am reinstalling and hoping it wont happen again.

Me too, no anti-virus was running (win8). I don't want to reinstall because the installer is sooo buggy and slooooow. It took me over 8 hours to install so please excuse me for feeling upset that after the installation ordeal the game is not working. I've tried to log ion from the ESO.exe but to no avail. I get a 201 error.

This is getting old quick.

ZOS_GaryA

Hey there @Muffinmurdurer,

For this issue, you can give a try to reinstalling the launcher as opposed to the entire game.

Head to C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online. In that folder, there should be another folder titled "Launcher." Grab the Launcher folder and move it to your desktop.

Then, head to https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/ , sign in, and choose Download Game on the right. This will only download the launcher. When it asks for an installation location, make sure you put it in the exact same location as the folder you removed the launcher from. If it's in the default location, it's the same folder mentioned above (C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online).

When the installation finishes, a new Launcher folder should populate. When you run the launcher, it will recognize the previous installation of the game and will only download patch data if you've missed an update. Let us know if that allows you to run the launcher.

danielmiller01b14a_ESO

Weird. I took a break for a while and mine vanished as well. AV did not do it. I just vanished from desktop, and the entire folder vanished from the start menu. Oddly enough I even found the beta one I forgot to uninstall.

Thanks for showing the folder location. I found the launcher still there.

Dezail

Thank you ESO for not deleting old post. I had the issue of the short cut on both my start page and my desktop not working(windows8.1), kept saying that it couldn't find the directory. After readying ufoldager's post I found a folder labled Launcher that loaded everything just fine!

Milky

ZOS_GaryA wrote: »

Hey there @Muffinmurdurer,

For this issue, you can give a try to reinstalling the launcher as opposed to the entire game.

Head to C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online. In that folder, there should be another folder titled "Launcher." Grab the Launcher folder and move it to your desktop.

Then, head to https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/ , sign in, and choose Download Game on the right. This will only download the launcher. When it asks for an installation location, make sure you put it in the exact same location as the folder you removed the launcher from. If it's in the default location, it's the same folder mentioned above (C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online).

When the installation finishes, a new Launcher folder should populate. When you run the launcher, it will recognize the previous installation of the game and will only download patch data if you've missed an update. Let us know if that allows you to run the launcher.

Thank you. I had recently uninstalled my beta remnants, and I didn't know it, but I had still been using the beta launcher. This put a new launcher folder in my zenimax folder and there it is.

Kitsusan

Thank you for this post. Saved my day.

Aria_GuildDestroyer

Today's patch (2 years later) -- having the same issues. /Zenimax Online/Launcher does not exist anywhere in my files, after trying to download the patch. My anti-virus software has not identified anything as threats. Please help!

kadar

This just happened to me but with eso64.exe. Avast suddenly put it in a virus chest for no reason LOL

ZOS_Bill

As this thread is over five years old we are going to close the discussion. If no recent threads are available, you can start a new thread. You can use the link here to download the ESO launcher for reinstallation.