[2023] Stellaris will not launch

Please try a clean reinstall of Steam and game:

- move any valued save games elsewhere, and user empire designs.txt from /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ if you have made any custom empires or races.
- "uninstall" in Steam-Stellaris
- exit the Steam app entirely
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Stellaris AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris folders
- delete everything in the STeam folder EXCEPT steam.exe and the SteamApps folder
- run steam.exe to rebuild all that
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

Good luck!  

ASL Veteran said: and Windows Defender shows Stellaris as an allowed program.

That's in the WD firewall, rather than its antivirus functions. But they have likely been disabled in favour of MWB or WebRoot anyway.

You could add the launcher .exe files in there too:
dowser.exe (in the Steam Stellaris folder)
C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2023.1.1/paradox launcher.exe
C:/users//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/bootstrapper-v2.exe

ASL Veteran said: If it is a bug of some kind

It is certainly not a game or launcher bug, or every player would get it.  

ASL Veteran said: If I talk to Paradox and they say talk to Steam

Did we ever say that? I certainly did not say that here.

ASL Veteran said: every other game I own other than Stellaris and EU4 (including CK3 for some odd reason) launches and plays normally from Steam like they always have so I'm only out Stellaris and EU4.

CK3 uses the same installation of the same launcher as EU4 and Stellaris does. So if (as you say above) this is a bug in the new launcher, it's hard to understand why it affects some games and not others.

Anyway, we could try a clean reinstall of the launcher too:


- 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.  

ASL Veteran said: I have attached a picture of the pop up that appears after I hit Play for EU4. I have attached a picture of my launcher file location. I have also attached pictures of all the different sections of the Steam Properties section for Stellaris.

I'm familiar with all those screens, they are completely normal and nothing to do with your problem. What is it you see there that concerns you?

ASL Veteran said: Looks like there are three launcher folders in there - image attached

Yes, every time there is a new launcher version, a new folder is created for it. Again this is perfectly normal and nothing to do with your problem.


Do EU4 and Stellaris run okay when you bypass the launcher and run them directly from File Explorer?  

Daisoujou said: I'm having the same problem, can't launch the game through the launcher but I can launch it normally in file explorer.

Please start your own thread, with full system details and problem history. Thanks.  

Ah, that is usually an antivirus app getting in the way. 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//AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2023.1.1/paradox launcher.exe
C:/users//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.  

ASL Veteran said: The difference though is that this time the Dowser exe popped up and I clicked Yes

What question are you answering Yes to here? Is this from an AV app, or what exactly please?

I can't unzip those logs successfully.


Could you please do the following? It will generate a debug log that the launcher team can use to "deep dive" into what actually happens with the launcher.

Right click the game in question in Steam > Properties > Launch Options

• Paste in this: --pdxlDebug
• Run the game
• Once it fails to launch, locate the logs in the following place

%LocalAppData%\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2\logs\
(example: C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Local\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2\logs\)


Please attach all logs in that folder and we will get the launcher team to check them out.  

The launch option needs to be exactly like this
--pdxlDebug

with those leading dashes, thanks.