Hey, that did it! It turns out that running "DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth" BEFORE running "sfc /scannow" allows the system to automatically repair the corrupted files. Not sure if this is helpful or not, but looking at the logs here's the files that needed fixin...

Running the scannow noted that "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them." I've attached the CBS log for details. Trying out the launcher showed that whatever the scan fixed, it wasn't what was necessary to solve the issue. Really hope this leads t...

Looks like different games have different results. Field of Glory 2 ends up in two separate instances of the launcher running and hanging. Field of Glory: Empires' EXE has always started the game fine without issues. DC: Barbarossa runs the game but then pops up an error message saying that the game...

Yeah, in that case that didn't work - like I said earlier, I tried blocking the autorun to no effect.

Hmm. Not sure what the launcher is listed as on the firewall, but I will say that blocking the games themselves (Field of Glory 2's autorun, for instance) doesn't seem to have an effect. Is that blocking the launcher themselves, or does it have a different name there?

Afraid it's still a no-go. Background programs would not appear to be the issue.

Well, reinstalling IE did in fact resolve whatever issue was causing the slowdown while browsing, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to have done anything for the launcher. I've tried running the launcher for a space of up to five minutes before to see if it'd resolve itself with no effects, which I ...

Well, that was an adventure. Had to run a search to find the actual IE app since it wasn't listed anywhere on program files, and on firing it up it proved painfully slow, like opening a long-forgotten tomb filled with the dust of centuries. Took five to ten minutes for it to load enough to actually ...

No AV or firewall beyond standard Windows Security, no. I tried turning off my firewalls to see if that helped, but I'm afraid not. As for Internet Explorer...do you mean Edge? I AM running Windows 10 and I don't think IE has been a thing for a while. Just fired up Edge to see if there's any issues ...

Yeah, that had no effect. Not entirely certain why it would, given that the issue seems to center around Slitherine's proprietary launcher and not Steam, nor as far as I can determine the games themselves.

That doesn't seem to be the case for me. I'm looking into the Field of Glory 2 folder in Steamapps now and there's two applications in there, "autorun" and "FIELDOFGLORY2". Autorun brings up the launcher and hangs, as expected - FIELDOFGLORY2, on the other hand, fires up the Stea...

Hi Pip, Unfortunately, unplugging from the Internet doesn't seem to change anything. Was rather hopeful about that one. You are correct that running directly from the EXE and bypassing the launcher seems to work, but of the games I tried only Field of Glory: Empires allows you to do that - the EXEs ...

Tried that out, still no dice. Dunno if a reinstall would be the issue when almost all games have the same symptoms - seems like there's something about the launcher itself choking. Only one game out of those I tested out avoids the issue, Carrier Deck.

Well, the space was cleared out and the computer was rebooted, but again no dice. Nothing much I can do about the driver, though - it may be old, but that's the latest driver that's available for a card that stopped being supported a while back. I know, I know, it's a potato (literally brought the c...

I've set up Steam to run as admin by default for a while now, and running the programs themselves as administrator was one of the first things I tried. The only difference it made, if it made any difference at all, was to make the buttons on the launcher responsive for the space of about a second be...

Wasn't quite sure where to put this topic, so I plopped it down here. Hopefully a mod can move it somewhere more appropriate if required. So at some point in the past few months, not sure when, almost all of my Slitherine games has become unplayable as the launcher freezes on start-up without giving...