Crash on startup fix [Windows 10]

[magi]

There are two ways to fix it.

The best way I've found is to move the install to a different drive. The game will not start at all from the default Steam library folder on C: when running with DirectX hardware acceleration in fullscreen mode. If you have no other drives, you can shrink your C: partition by 2gb and assign a drive letter to that new space, create a new SteamLibrary there and move the install to it. It works fine this way, with full hardware acceleration.

The other less ideal way is to add

d:Software

to the game's launch parameters. This also works, but it disables hardware acceleration so performance will take a hit.

With both methods, be sure to add

-CPUcount:1 -CPUPriority:high

to the launch parameters. The game is notoriously unstable with multithreading (basically every modern PC), this forces it to one core only. After adding this I haven't seen a single crash.

[NetPCDoc]

The problem with running off of Steam's default installation location (on C: drive) is an authority issue ... running under 'basic user authority' or 'administrator authority' ... the quick solution, above, is to move the 'local Steam Library' off the C: Drive (or -at least- out of the overly secure "Program Files" folders); the longer solution is to clean up the authority issue - basically changing executable-file-properties to run this game under 'administrator authority'.

[Daizha44]

find SimCity 4 in game folder, right click and go to compability... then tick 'button run this program...' and select 'Windows 8'. Apply

[StarshipWanderer]

Without changing anything I set the compatability to windows 7 on the main launcher .exe in the directory and it started up. Laptop 8 core intel with rtx now i will add a custom launcher to run it at 1080p for full screen realestate.

[Duck Twacy]

I simply bought the GOG version. It's more stable. It doesn't have all of the video options of the Steam version, but it doesn't have the installation and launch issues that Steam's version has.

[Piratemum]

I'm having the same issue here with. WIndows 11. The game starts up to the title screen and then closes with no warnings or explanations.