Multiple games failing to launch

[zippity]

I recently reinstalled steam on a new PC and a huge number of my games fail to load.

In general I will launch a game on steam, the game launcher will open and then when I click play the launcher closes but the game doesn't start (that or instantly crashes) and steam acts as if I never started a game in the first place. Sometimes I will get a nonspecific error message but not always and these vary from game to game.

The games affected are numerous and with many different developers, so I am 100% convinced it is steam and not the games causing the issue.

I have been through multiple "solutions" to no avail, including everything on the steam advice thread below. I admit I'm not the most skilled at this sort of thing but I've already tried every solution to the best of my ability and nothing works.

This has been ongoing for several days and I'm really losing patience with steam, any help would be greatly appreciated.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6218-USFX-5568&l=

Edit: Spellings

[Chesmu]

Are you using Windows 8.1?

[Chesmu]

That also happens to me; The reason is you don't have the required C++ redistributables installed.

Also install the correct version of your graphics card driver.

[zippity]

Originally posted by 🐉 Chesmu ☠:

Are you using Windows 8.1?

Windows 10

Originally posted by 🐉 Chesmu ☠:

That also happens to me; The reason is you don't have the required C++ redistributables installed.

Also install the correct version of your graphics card driver.

Graphics driver is fully updated, I'm not sure what you mean by C++

[Chesmu]

They are runtimes to let your PC know the language of the game you are running; Otherwise they will not launch.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads

[wuddih]

fresh reinstall nvidia drivers. the driver install has a function for that.

[zippity]

Originally posted by 🐉 Chesmu ☠:

They are runtimes to let your PC know the language of the game you are running; Otherwise they will not launch.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads

I've downloaded that and will give it a try, though it seems a little beyond my capabilities tbh

Originally posted by wuddih:

fresh reinstall nvidia drivers. the driver install has a function for that.

I have already done that, not the issue

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by zippity:

In general I will launch a game on steam, the game launcher will open and then when I click play the launcher closes but the game doesn't start (that or instantly crashes) and steam acts as if I never started a game in the first place. Sometimes I will get a nonspecific error message but not always and these vary from game to game.

The new PC might have conflicting software causing the games to launch, or even the C++ packages to be installed properly. This list is from the page you linked about failed after preparing to launch, but it is not all inclusive :

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

Make exceptions in security software, verify the game files and try again. Sometimes, the C++ package installers have to be found in that game's folder, and ran manually, if they were blocked say by overprotective antivirus, for example.

Originally posted by zippity:

The games affected are numerous and with many different developers, so I am 100% convinced it is steam and not the games causing the issue.

That is actually the opposite of what makes sense here. Steam only launches your games, pretty much. If they won't run, and you have multiple instances of this happening, then the issue is local, on your end.

Also, what are the specs of this new PC ? Can it even run the games in question ?

Post the names of some of the games with this issue. Then go to "help" in the top of Steam, then "system information". Right click in the new window, "select all", then copy and paste all that here.