Oblivion Launcher greyed out

[Ritouf™]

Hi everyone,


I'm contacting you because I recently bought "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition Deluxe" on Steam after finishing Skyrim, looking for another Bethesda experience.

Unfortunately, I'm facing an issue with Oblivion and I'm unable to run the game.


Indeed, when I try to launch Oblivion on steam (Steam is launched as an administrator), it brings up the "launcher" screen, and everything is greyed out except the website link, and "Exit" so I can't start the game.

After some research on internet, I found that maybe it could be a registry issue, so I checked my BOSS and everything seems fine, with the good path into "installed path".

I tried to completely reinstall the game too, but the result was still the same.

So right now, I can't understand what is the issue and why the launcher options are almost all greyed out...


I hope you could help me solving this problem if anyone knows what I am talking about.

(My pc is a 6 months old laptop (MSI) and runs perfectly (Windows 10), I also tried compatibility with Windows 98 service pack 3 but didn't change anything).

Many thanks. ;)

[meheezen]

how about not running Steam as administrator so it properly recognizes the game is installed?

in fact, you should never run applications as administrator outside testing purposes.
for what reason are you even doing that?

[Ritouf™]

Already tried but it didn't work.

For this reason :

https://steamcommunity.com/app/22330/discussions/0/617335934131460955/

[meheezen]

bad practice, but then again windows users are windows users...

1- make sure Steam.exe and the game folder are added to your anti-virus white-list (if using Windows defender, make sure you dont have "Controlled folder access" active)
2- open Steam as a normal user, Steam menu -> settings -> downloads -> library folders -> right click your libraries and choose repair
3- open "my documents" -> my games -> rename or delete the Oblivion folder
4- go to Steam library -> right click game -> properties -> local files -> verify integrity

once all is done, launch the game again

as a side note, if you install the game while running Steam as a administrator, the registry keys will be created on the wrong place, you might have to reinstall the game with a user account for them to be created where they belong

[Ritouf™]

I did 1+2+3+4 but didn't solve this issue, Oblivion's launcher remain grey and I can't click "Play", "Data files", 'Options", "Uninstall" or "Techinical Support".

The game has been install as a normal user. I just used administrator status 1 time in order to try to solve this issue. (cause it seems sometimes it can solve it)

[meheezen]

thats weird, you have anything else to share about your setup?

i am running win10 1909 and have no issues with it:
https://i.imgur.com/T9jpCzj.png

did you try reinstalling the game while running Steam as a normal user?
you could rename the game folder, delete from Steam lib, rename the folder back to original name then install the game again. Steam should recognize the files and just re-do the registry bit

something is blocking the game executable from properly recognizing the registry keys that say it is installed, and i have to say it is not an Oblivion issue.

you could “workaround” this by running the game executable directly, instead of through the launcher, but its not the type of “solution” i recommend

[Ritouf™]

No unfortunately I just installed the game few hours ago...

Yes I tried 3 times to reinstall the game (as a normal user of course) but it didn’t solve this.

What’s strange is that I’m not the first having this issue, but what might have worked for others don’t work with me.

(https://steamcommunity.com/app/22330/discussions/0/1353742967812433789/

https://amp.reddit.com/r/oblivion/comments/9a8a12/every_option_on_my_oblivion_launcher_is_grayed/

https://www.gog.com/forum/elder_scrolls_series/oblivion_launcher_options_greyed_out)

[Ritouf™]

I finally found the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ answer :

My launch options... I was using -high and -novid maybe one of them broke the launcher.

Now it works properly, without any launch options

[meheezen]

Originally posted by Ritouf™:

I finally found the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ answer :

My launch options... I was using -high and -novid maybe one of them broke the launcher.

Now it works properly, without any launch options

can confirm, adding either of those options greys out the launcher for me

im curious tho, where did you get those from? i can seem to find them

[Met A Demon Once]

What file has the Oblivion launcher options. I cannot find anything with -high or -novid.

[-=Ðﮐ=- Arctic Howler]

Originally posted by Met A Demon Once:

What file has the Oblivion launcher options. I cannot find anything with -high or -novid.

I think they mean steam launch options under properties