[2023] Starting this game up is a nightmare. Any solutions?

Right click on ck3.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.

Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.


If those don't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log  

In that dxdiag I see our game Stellaris crashing in nakama-cpp.dll , which has caused problems before. Try unloading that utility, or prevent it running at boot time then reboot.

If that doesn't help, what happens if you run ck3.exe directly from file explorer? Do you see any Windows error then?  

Sorry, my error, I was thinking of Nahimic! Nakama is the external MP service we use, so that's not the issue here. That said I've not seen any crash in it before ...

Did you see any Windows error when ck3.exe failed to start? or what happened exactly?  

What if you make a new Windows user and log into Windows with that - do you get the same problems with this game?  

I'm running out of ideas on this one, I have to admit.

What antivirus app do you use? Is ck3.exe in all its exceptions lists?

Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.  

Go into Ransomware. Enable Controlled Folder Access if disabled, and add these to its Apps Allowed Through list:

ck3.exe (in the Steam CK3-binaries folder)
dowser.exe (in the Steam CK3-launcher folder)
C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2023.4.1/paradox launcher.exe
C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe

If that doesn't help, you can disable Controlled Folder Access again.

Disable the Discord overlay.

Right click on Documents in the left column of File Explorer, just under This PC there. Go to properties, location. What does it say in there?  

I am sorry, I cannot see what is wrong on this machine or Windows installation to prevent our game starting.

I take it Stellaris and EU4 work okay for you?  

That does NOT sound good! My instinct at this point would be to recommend a Windows Reset at the least, plus a thorough check of hardware.

How do you feel about those ideas?