Many games fail to launch

[OniKenji]

I was trying the trial of this program and it makes many games fail to launch completely

[basj66]

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. What error message popup when you launch those games?

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[OniKenji]

That's the interesting part the games just don't launch at all, I try to play and the games act like they start but then the game just stops and no error is shown. Once I uninstall WindowBlinds 11 the game works fine, I even reinstalled WindowBlinds and the same game fails to launch in the same way. I even tried adding the game exe to the exclusions and it still fails to launch.

[MagnumPCI]

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Can you give us an example of what game will not launch and a few that do?

For the ones that do not, does Steam report them as 'running'?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

[OniKenji]

Battlefield 2042 tries to launch and steam says it's running, then after a bit it says it's not running and no error shows. Running 7 days to die starts like normal, a game that isn't on steam called Vintage Story ran perfectly fine.

[MagnumPCI]

Originally posted by OniKenji:

Battlefield 2042 tries to launch and steam says it's running, then after a bit it says it's not running and no error shows. Running 7 days to die starts like normal, a game that isn't on steam called Vintage Story ran perfectly fine.

I realize we are asking you to do some (much appreciated) work here but can you find more games for us in your library that do *NOT* work?

Furthermore, it's likely that 2042 did 'run' but crashed. If so, the crash would appear in the Windows Event viewer, for example:

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/mmc_2023-02-21_09-30-59sdrohan.png

This is some work but if you were willing, and if you can see that it is indeed crashing, this process would capture it:

https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1444478977/Manually+Collecting+WindowBlinds+Crash+Dumps

As noted in it, the resulting file will likely be VERY large. Zip it, upload it to a cloud drive service of your choice, and post a shared link here.

If its any consolation, that crash catcher (WinDBG) could help you henceforth diagnose other issues for you in the future.

Thanks, OniKenji.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

[OniKenji]

Another game that doesn't work is Call of Duty Black Ops 3, at this time I'm not able to perform the Crash Dump for these but I'll see if I can when I have some time

[OniKenji]

And both games that failed did in fact crash I found them in my Event Viewer

[MagnumPCI]

Originally posted by OniKenji:

Another game that doesn't work is Call of Duty Black Ops 3, at this time I'm not able to perform the Crash Dump for these but I'll see if I can when I have some time

Originally posted by OniKenji:

And both games that failed did in fact crash I found them in my Event Viewer

Thank you, OniKenji. Looking forward to what you can provide next.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

[Master Chief1991]

Thank you guys for releasing WindowBlinds 11 on Steam. I wrote this on Facebook on the startdock page on February 1 with proposals to release windowvblinds in steam. And toys from Russia outside of steam because of the sanctions are software. I'm always ready to buy any software if it's sold on steam. Piracy is bad.

[OniKenji]

I have tried to make the dump file several times and all it says is
0:000> .dump /mf C:\Users\final\Desktop\CODBlackOPS3_03012023.dmp
Creating C:\Users\final\Desktop\CODBlackOPS3_03012023.dmp - mini user dump
GetContextState failed, 0x8007001F
Unable to get event thread context, Win32 error 0n31
GenGetProcessInfo.Start(0x7cbc) failed, 0x8007012b
Dump creation failed, Win32 error 0n299
"Only part of a ReadProcessMemory or WriteProcessMemory request was completed."
GetContextState failed, 0x8007001F
Unable to get current machine context, Win32 error 0n31

[MagnumPCI]

Originally posted by OniKenji:

I have tried to make the dump file several times and all it says is
0:000> .dump /mf C:\Users\final\Desktop\CODBlackOPS3_03012023.dmp
Creating C:\Users\final\Desktop\CODBlackOPS3_03012023.dmp - mini user dump
GetContextState failed, 0x8007001F
Unable to get event thread context, Win32 error 0n31
GenGetProcessInfo.Start(0x7cbc) failed, 0x8007012b
Dump creation failed, Win32 error 0n299
"Only part of a ReadProcessMemory or WriteProcessMemory request was completed."
GetContextState failed, 0x8007001F
Unable to get current machine context, Win32 error 0n31

To be clear:

-WinDBG is installed and set to the default postmortem debugger:
https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/DbgX.Shell_2023-03-02_09-02-11sdrohan.png
-A WindowBlinds Skin is applied
-You try to run the game but it fails to load
-After the game does not load (crashes), WinDBG pops

Is that the case, those conditions result in WinDBG popping, yes?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

[OniKenji]

yes but when I try to dump the file like the instruction here https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1444478977/Manually+Collecting+WindowBlinds+Crash+Dumps it fails to save anything

[MagnumPCI]

I have a hunch now...

I suspect that any game that fails also has anti-cheat (AC) mechanisms in them - COD \ BF 2042 certainly would. It is also likely why it wont allow WinDBG to capture a dump - they don't want people being able to see how the AC is working at that level.

This may be difficult for you to determine, if a game has AC or not, but if my theory is correct, all the ones that do will fail and all the ones that do not will work. Again, that's some work but can you confirm that?

Assuming it's true, that game with AC will fail, a workaround would be to 'disable' the WB service, reboot (logging out \ in may suffice), and run the game.

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/mmc_2023-03-03_09-08-27.png

Its not ideal (at all) but its better than having to uninstall \ reinstall WB.

In the end, this would not be the 1st time AC has caused issues with 3rd party apps and services.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

[OniKenji]

I can confirm it seems like if there is anti-cheat on a game it will fail

[Commander GreyFox]

Originally posted by OniKenji:

I was trying the trial of this program and it makes many games fail to launch completely

yeah, my black ops 3 doesnt load open even when i set it to be ignored. straight up crashes or gets stuck on a black screen. i wanted windowblinds so i can theme my computer windows 95 but it looks like that still isnt happening.