How to disable the Epic overlay

[Sir Duckyweather]

I didn't see it mentioned anywhere on the forum here with a quick search, so figured I'd bring it up. I've heard that the overlay can be annoying, particularly when completing an achievement, but I just didn't want an extra, unnecessary program to be using my computer's resources. While there doesn't appear to be any actual setting that I can find, you can deny the process from starting in the first place. Credit goes to the folks who posted this info a few years ago on this page I found: https://www.reddit.com/r/EpicGamesPC/comments/robfot/disabling_epic_games_social_panel_overlay/

Originally posted by whereismydream:

If you rename or move the overlay's exe files, the overlay will not launch.

Assuming the EGS launcher is installed on your C: drive, navigate to the following folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Extras\Overlay

and rename or move the two files:

EOSOverlayRenderer-Win64-Shipping.exe

EOSOverlayRenderer-Win32-Shipping.exe

Just remember that this will affect any game you launch through the EGS launcher. To restore the overlay, just revert your changes by moving the files back or changing the names back.

However, for me it was not actually in that location, but rather, the one detailed below.

Originally posted by Historical-Brick8133:

Found another location of those files
C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Epic Online Services\managedArtifacts\98bc04bc842e4906993fd6d6644ffb8d

If you're unsure, the easiest way to find it is to open Task Manager while the game is open. Find the background process "EOSOverlayRenderer," expand it and right click any of the three entries of that same name, then select "Open file location." Not only will this take you directly to the file's location, but will also highlight which executable is currently running. After locating the file, you should first exit the game before trying to modify an active process.

You shouldn't need to mess with both files, but only the one that is actually being used. It's possible that the process used is determined by the version of your operating system. For me, it was the Win64 file, no doubt because I'm on a 64-bit OS. All I did was create a new folder and put the file in that. Afterwards, the game played fine without the Epic overlay, including connecting to friends online. Technically, you could delete the file, but it may be best to move or rename as suggested above so you still have it intact for precautionary reasons.

Hope this helps.

[Squirrel With Acorn]

Does using the command line argument -epicportal work for disabling the overlay?

[Sir Duckyweather]

Originally posted by Purple:

Does using the command line argument -epicportal work for disabling the overlay?

I just tested that, and no, it doesn't seem to work. The Epic overlay will still run with that launch parameter.