Epic Games Launcher is a PC game launcher that is required for all the games you have purchased from Epic Games Store. What if you can’t play your favorite game because the Epic Games Launcher is not opening up? If you are facing this issue on your system, there is an issue with the Epic Games Launcher that you have to solve yourself.
Workarounds –
1. If this is the first time you are facing this kind of issue, restart your system once and check.
2. Disable any third-party antivirus you are using.
Fix 1 – End the Epic Game from the Task Manager
You can end the Epic Games Launcher task from the Task Manager and relaunch it further.
1. At first, launch the Epic Games Launcher on your system.
2. It won’t open but the launcher process will be launched in the background.
3. So, right-click on the Windows icon and tap on the “Task Manager“.
4. When the Task Manager opens up, look for the “EpicGamesLauncher” task.
5. Then, right-click on the particular task and tap on “End task” to kill it.
After that, close the Task Manager. Then, relaunch the Epic Game Launcher.
If this doesn’t work out, go for the next solution.
Fix 2 – Run Epic games launcher as admin
Just right click on Epic games launcher and click on run as administrator to run it with admin priviledge.
Fix 3 – Alter the app properties
The problem may solve with a simple tweak of the app properties.
1. At first, right-click on the “Epic Games Launcher” icon on the desktop and tap on “Properties“.
3. When the Properties window appears, go to the “Shortcut” pane.
4. Then, add the “-OpenGL” at the end of the Target address.
[
Example – Suppose the ‘Target’ of the Launcher is –
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Binaries\Win32\EpicGamesLauncher.exe"
Now, you have to add the “-OpenGL” at the end of that. It will look like this –
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Binaries\Win32\EpicGamesLauncher.exe" -OpenGL
]
5. After doing this change, tap on “Apply” and “OK” to save the change.
Finally, launch the Epic Games Launcher and see if it is opening up normally or not.
Fix 4 – Remove the web cache folder
Emptying out the web cache folder often works out.
1. At first, make sure that you have closed any opened instances of Epic Games Launcher.
2. Then, tap on the system tray icon in the bottom right corner and right-click on the “Epic Games Launcher” app, and tap on “Exit“.
3. Now, press the Windows key+R keys together.
4. After that, type this code and click on “OK“.
%localappdata%
5. Now, double-click on the “EpicGamesLauncher” folder to access it.
6. After that, double click on the “Saved” folder to access it.
7. Here, look for the “webcache” and the “webcache_4147” folders.
8. Select both the folders and tap on the Delete icon to remove both the folders from your system.
Finally, close the File Explorer. Then, reboot your system.
Upon rebooting the system, open the Epic Games Launcher and check whether this works.
Fix 5 – Disable the full-screen optimizations
Try disabling the full-screen optimizations and launching the app as an administrator.
1. At first, right-click on the Epic Games Launcher and tap on “Properties“.
2. When the Properties opens up, go to the “Compatibility” tab.
3. Here, make sure that the “Disable fullscreen optimizations” option is checked.
4. Additionally, tick the “Run as administrator” box.
5. After that, tap on “Apply” and “OK” to save the changes.
Once you have done these, try to launch the Epic Games Launcher again.
Fix 6 – Repair the Epic Games Launcher
If nothing is working, try repairing the Epic Games Launcher on your system.
1. At first, right-click on the Windows icon and tap on “Run“.
2. Then, type “appwiz.cpl” and hit Enter.
3. Now, right-click on the “Epic Games Launcher” and tap on “Repair” to repair the app.
Just allow Windows a little time to repair the Epic Games Launcher. After you have done this, open the Epic Games Launcher and check.
Fix 7 – Reinstall the Epic Games Launcher
Uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version of Epic Games Launcher will fix this issue for sure.
NOTE –
Uninstalling the Epic Games Launcher will uninstall all of your games that you have downloaded from the Epic Store.
1. Close the Epic Games Launcher, if it is already opened.
2. Next, tap on the system tray icon in the bottom right corner and right-click on the “Epic Games Launcher” app, and tap on “Exit“.
3. Now, type “cmd” in the search box.
4. After that, right-click on the “Command Prompt” and tap on “Run as administrator“.
5. When you see the terminal has opened up, type this code and hit Enter.
sfc /scannow
Once the scanning process is complete, close the Command Prompt. After that, restart your system once.
6. After restarting the system, press the Windows key+R keys together.
7. Then, type “appwiz.cpl” and click on “OK“.
8. In the list of apps, look for the “Epic Games Launcher“.
9. Then, right-click on the app and tap on “Uninstall“.
10. Again, tap on “Yes” to proceed with the uninstallation.
After that, close the Programs & Features window. Then, restart the system.
11. Next, go to the Epic Games Store.
12. Then, tap on “DOWNLOAD EPIC GAMES LAUNCHER” to download the setup file.
After downloading the setup file, run it on your system to install the latest version of the Epic Games Launcher.
After installing the launcher, open it and sign in with your credentials. Epic Games Launcher will open just normally.
Fix 8 – Turn off Windows Security features
Sometimes Windows Security may block a particular Epic Games component. So, try disabling it briefly and check.
1. Type “Windows Security” in the search box.
2. Then, tap on “Windows Security” to access it.
3. Now, in the Windows Security window, click on the “Virus & Threat protection“.
4. Now, scroll down and tap on the “Manage settings“.
5. Now, on the next screen, turn the “Real-time protection” option to “Off“.
6. Same way, toggle the “Cloud-delivered protection” to
“Off“.
Now, close the Windows Security window. After disabling the Windows Security, try to launch the Epic Games Launcher and check again.
NOTE –
Once Epic Games Launcher starts to work perfectly, don’t forget to re-enable the Real-time protection and Cloud-delivered protection in Windows Security.
If you don’t do that, foreign viruses and PUPs can infect your system anytime. You may follow these steps to re-enable the disabled protection settings.
This way, Epic Games Launcher will work just normally.