Visual Studio 2015 Redistributables Required

[morness]

Some people may be crashing on launch. If you are one of those people, it could be due to Visual Studio 2015 redistributables not having installed properly.

Most games on Steam for Windows depend on some version of "vcredist" -- which stands for Visual C Redistributables. When the game first launched, it required the 2012 version, then we upgraded to 2013, and now 2015.

Now from a developer's perspective setting up Steam games, we just tick a box to determine which versions we want installed. But it seems while Steam tries to install it, for a few people, it can fail -- but when it fails, Steam will happily assume it's installed and proceed to launch the game. Furthermore, the Steam Client due to the launcher implementation can actually eat the real errors (which is almost always a missing dll).

So with Hotfix #1, while we were fixing a launcher crash associated with custom languages, we decided to upgrade it to Visual Studio 2015 as well... so now the launcher requires it too. The hope is that if you do indeed have this problem, it'll crash at the launcher rather than failing silently inside the Steam Client during the transition from launcher to game, making it a lot more obvious this is your problem.

If this is your problem, you will need to manually reinstall your redistributables, and this can be a tricky process because the redistributables actually depend on a lot of critical Windows updates, and these updates aren't identified if the installation fails. So I'll try to walk you through it the best I can.

1. Download the 32-bit (x86) version from here[www.microsoft.com].
   
2. Download the file and run it. You should be presented a choice whether to repair, uninstall, or close. If uninstall is available, choose it.
   
3. Now perform your Windows Updates -- do it as many times as you can. It could take 2-3 times with reboots.
   
4. Also make sure you have the latest service pack.
   
5. Now run that file you downloaded again, this time install it. Pray it completes. If it doesn't and you get a generic failure error, then you'll have to uninstall it and do more windows updates.
   
6. Once it installs successfully, then you should be able to run Age of Mythology & Age of Empires without issue.
   
7. Please post your experiences or feedback on how to improve these steps. Experiences may vary based on which version of Windows you have.

July 13, 2016 Update

1. The game only uses the 32-bit redistributables. It's based on the application, not the OS. Typically the OS will eventually accumulate redistributables for different versions (2012, 2013, 2015) in both 32-bit and 64-bit variations based on which apps you install. I imagine the majority of people will install the 64-bit OS, but just remember the game only needs the 32-bit redistributables. Installing both isn't a problem though.
   
2. Windows Updates can be finicky. Buried in the Windows Update settings, you can choose to install Optional updates while checking for updates. It appears the redistributables may need some of those optional updates. I suspect this is where some of you might be failing. Depending on which flavor of Windows you have, the settings can be in different places. For example in Windows 8 -- you first check for updates and wait a long time, then it reports how big the updates are (105MB-228MB total), and right below that "View Details". In View Details, you get a giant list, and if you scroll to the bottom you will see a list of optional updates that are unselected. I don't know which of them you want to install, but it's generally easiest to install them all, then try installing the redistributables manually again after that. 2015 in particular isn't reporting all the KB dependencies that should be installed first.
   
3. Try to specifically install up KB2999226[support.microsoft.com] -- specifically the x86 (32-bit version). This is a Universal C Runtime library. If this fails, it might have better error reporting for dependencies. We've heard reports that this is solving it for people unable to install the redistributables.

Redistributables are used by most applications and are stored centrally by Windows. Functionality like memory management, data containers, file io, etc... very common things. Having them centralized is key as you can receive key updates that can solve security threats and other bugs. In addition, it saves a lot of space because every app doesn't have to maintain their own copy of all of these dlls that are referenced. When the redistributables fail to install, then the application depending on them cannot run. We've got direct contact from the Microsoft team, so if you are failing, please provide a file share link containing your dxdiag.txt as well as the log file that is generated when the redist fails to install (or the KB2999226). This info would be used to identify any other cases where people cannot install this.

[LA BOULE]

Worked for me and my friend

[sigma0842]

It did not work for my wife's computer. I ended up creating a new user profile which (somehow) fixed it.

[TeaFoxer]

Doesn't work for me. Maybe the game should have been properly optimized in the first place? Seems like they could just patch this to work correctly.

[Dovhakin]

It's anything, anything you say yesterday does not work , give us a true update to finally play correctly in Age of Mythology ...

[Adrenaliin]

Same problem here..
please fix this problem which a lot of user have with a small update!

[Junior]

Same...
Can't launch the game... Nothing happened, while i correctly installed Visual Studio 2015++ ! Windows update is ok...
I add that I could play two days ago with no problem !!

Help please ?

[DR. SATAN]

I had C++, so I uninstalled it just like OP recommends. I didn't touch Windows Updates because I'm pretty sure I'm fully updated on Windows 7, it's telling me to "Get Windows 10" which means I'm updated enough for the upgrade, so I will skip that step.
Currently reinstalling C++, right after I just deleted aomx.exe and Launcher.exe, and verified, and the verdict iiss............
It's been "Processing: Windows7_MSU_x64" for a while, at what seems to be 100%.

[Dovhakin]

I found the problem, do not forget to uninstall any previous version of visual c ++
often version (2012/2013)
Good game everyone

[DR. SATAN]

I get this. What the fuq?
http://puu.sh/mPxI3/f020012557.png

I guess this might have something to do with it...
http://puu.sh/mPxQf/4a1680a511.png

guess I'll uninstall all of those.

[DR. SATAN]

Uninstalled everything, tried installing C++ 2015, still this error http://puu.sh/mPxI3/f020012557.png
Restarted PC, reinstalled AoM, now I don't even get the launcher to pop up. Steam says the game is "Running" for abotu 5 seconds, that's it.

[morness]

Originally posted by Dovhakin:

I found the problem, do not forget to uninstall any previous version of visual c ++
often version (2012/2013)
Good game everyone

You don't need to uninstall all of them, or older ones. Many other games still require them and they are simply shared and accessible by whatever needs them. This issue is strictly 2015.

[DR. SATAN]

Originally posted by morness:

Originally posted by Dovhakin:

I found the problem, do not forget to uninstall any previous version of visual c ++
often version (2012/2013)
Good game everyone

You don't need to uninstall all of them, or older ones. Many other games still require them and they are simply shared and accessible by whatever needs them. This issue is strictly 2015.

Yeah, I did it and now launcher doesn't even start.

[Junior]

Hi everybody,
I had the launcher problem, and I fixed it. Try to unistall Steam completely. Restart the computer.Reinstall it. After that, you reinstall AOM. And then, you install vc ++ 2015.
It work for me... may be untill the next problem, but it work righ now....

I hope this could help you !
Have a nice game

[Dovhakin]

hello , then first , AOM COMPLETELY uninstall , then uninstall version 2004, 2005, 2007 .... (often there are such version hide in the PC must be found ) Visual C ++ restart the pc , install visual c ++ 2015 64-bit
install Aom
Play the game ;)

Sorry for my English , i'm french ^^ "

[76561198280266332]

Nothing. My game doesn't work. Please help me!! I instal c++ (64 bit), i tryed to lunch AOM but nothing. He doesn't work. PLEASE HELP ME.